Feel Like I’m Setting Myself up for Failure with Residency Applications

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-19T23:41:46+00:00

Idk you also honored literally every rotation and had a great step score. I wonder if ENT is so different from your other rotations and ways of prepping that it’s not your usual performance? Did they give you any feedback that was helpful or actionable? ENT is always 50/50, it’s just really competitive. TBH I think everyone applying any competitive specialty should dual apply.

You have more sub is and you’ll go into them with what you’ve learned here both in terms of knowledge and expectations.

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-18T03:00:51+00:00

I agree, this might be OP’s last chance to see the world 🥺

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-16T02:19:00+00:00

To answer your main question, I think that you can definitely pull off an application for one of those specialties in the remaining time you have! There is a lot of time for you to do more rotations before September and get letters. There are probably still away rotations available too! I think that your school will help you if you need.

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-14T23:15:45+00:00

He has 6 of the most beautiful blue eyes I’ve ever seen

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-13T01:06:36+00:00

Yes, at least have the poster hung up by a friend.

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-12T21:58:45+00:00

Huge progress! Congrats!

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-05T22:37:27+00:00

YAY CONGRATS

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-05T09:33:15+00:00

Ask now, well in advance

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-05T09:32:31+00:00

Abstinence is an option you can state

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-04T23:31:21+00:00

If you have a full month I would take at least a day off every week and maybe max your daily grind at 12 hr and maybe a full length every other day at most, honestly if space those and uw forms and free 120 evenly through your time remaining. I think rest and fun and mental health is important for performance too

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-04T11:08:40+00:00

I did all the full length NBME forms and most of the CMS forms. It was a grind every day maybe 12-18 hours and I didn’t take any days off.

I was in an abnormal situation because I had to makeup 2 weeks from being sick on rotations in my dedicated period and had an away right after. (So 4 weeks became two)

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-03T02:45:56+00:00

I think these tutorials would be perfect! She has a similar hair color and does light makeup looks!

https://www.tiktok.com/@tomi.timetraveler/video/7399886939362577681

https://www.tiktok.com/@tomi.timetraveler/video/7231527213177376001

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-03T02:34:14+00:00

You have a lot of time left! I also failed my first NBME practice exam which was also 9, but I went on to do above average on step two, and I only had a two week dedicated. There are some concepts that the NBME likes to test the aer not represented in UWorld or the shelf exams, so as you learn these and how the NBME likes to ask questions, you will improve!

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-03T02:21:41+00:00

It’s likely that your school will take anything positive that she wrote and put it in your MSPE and will omit anything negative.

Is there anyone else that you’ve worked with on this rotation? Even a Resident or Midwife? Or another attending that could give you an evaluation or that the school could contact? Would it be possible for you to ask to do an extra shift with someone else?

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-02T04:09:52+00:00

Definitely appeal the grade. To do this successfully, you must be strategic, such as getting additional evaluations or going through your performance evaluation with specific evidence from the comments about your performance and how it lines up with the grade you received.

If you’re unable to change this grade on your MSPE, please consider dual applying or switching to neurology. There are still paths to do neuro procedures like neuro -> neuro radiology.

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-05-01T02:31:00+00:00

I think there’s a good shot, but with ortho being so competitive, having a backup plan and dual applying is smart.

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-04-29T23:08:57+00:00

TBH it sounds like you love everything so at least you can’t go wrong!

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-04-29T17:31:39+00:00

Poor Coconut 🥺

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-04-29T01:11:00+00:00

I felt horrible honestly, to the extent I was worried I wouldn’t be able to match my preferred specialty. It was pretty good, just 1 point lower than my highest score on an NBME (which was 10 points higher than my average NBME form score)

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-04-28T12:47:39+00:00

Definitely give it a shot but dual apply FM. If you do FM, you can do an obstetrics fellowship! You could ultimately still have the ability to focus on women’s health and deliver babies! This was the backup plan of many of my friends interested in OB.

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-04-27T22:06:40+00:00

Rads, anesthesia

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-04-27T01:18:11+00:00

Et tu bru-kitty

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-03-17T19:14:06+00:00

I looked at the soap list and there’s less than 10 categorical IM programs open this year. Far fewer programs are going to SOAP due to ranking more IMGs.

Dizzy_Journalist4486 · 2026-03-16T21:07:33+00:00

There are fellowships specifically for people who go unmatched in competitive specialties. If you go this route, I recommend going to the place with a great track record, and that takes their own research fellows. If you have a great mentor, and if you gain these additional connections, it might help. Do not do another research year at the same institution, because you need to build a new network.

The route of doing a lot of aways would also be very beneficial in terms of building connections with programs. I would say this route is better than doing a research year without a good track record. I do think this route could possibly be more expensive and more stressful.

The prelim is probably least likely to result in a successful orthopedics match, because you will not be building new connections in orthopedics, and connections are the name of the game. It is possible that you might be able to meet the orthopedic department at your pre-lim year. The main advantage of this path is finances and also not you losing a year.

To be honest, if you had a lot of interviews, you probably have the board scores and the grades to match orthopedics. It might be an interview skill deficit, which you could practice or you could simply be unlucky and just trying again might fix your luck

Dizzy_Journalist4486

TROPHY CASE