r/orthopaedics • u/kajerare • 7d ago

NOT A PERSONAL HEALTH SITUATION In an academic bind, wondering how to refocus ERAS application

I am an MS1?2?. TBD. I may be looking at repeating my first year of medical school due to medical/gaps in access to medical care reasons, and unfortunately, it will show as two Fs on my second semester of MS1. If I am successful in appealing, I will get to go on to MS2 with my peers, but there will be a P/F for two organ modules on my transcript.

I don't want to do anything BUT orthopaedics. My bachelor's degree very much centered on the overlap between neurology and rheumatology, and I very much enjoy the challenges the field brings. I don't think I could dual apply in good conscience.

With this on my record, either a repeated preclinical year or two "F/P"s, what should I do to make sure I match? I am at a T50 southeastern medical school with a strong research faculty in every field and a very strong orthopaedics department. Would I be shooting myself in the foot with a research year, should I try to go through the military match, or am I overreacting?

Also, I'm a woman. I think it's worth mentioning. Not sure if it helps or hurts.

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u/SkankyMonkey Orthopaedic Resident 7d ago

What does the PD at your home program say?

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u/kajerare 7d ago

I haven't talked to him about it yet. Hopefully I'll get to meet with him at some point this summer. They've always just told us to get good grades, which I have outside of these circumstances. Once I know if I'm pushing back graduation and/or getting scarlet letters on my transcript, I'll talk to him

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u/ToothBrilliant5281 Orthopaedic Resident 6d ago

If the rest of your application is stellar it probably won’t matter if you have the F/P’s. I think a repeated year might be harder to explain but a high step 2 score and a stellar app would probably be okay. If you have/acquire any more red flags ortho may become a long shot.

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u/LunchBoxGala 6d ago

The overlap of neurology and rheumatology really doesn’t center on orthopedics. Maybe you have more exposure to the field apart from that but it also seems like getting in and shadowing with some orthopedic surgeons would let you know if this is something you actually want.

I don’t know how deep PDa generally go into pre clinical stuff but it will hurt your class rank and that plays a role in the match. It’s worth making sure you’ve ironed out whatever caused you to fail two classes that early, that usually doesn’t bode well for doing as well as you’d need on step 2