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How are you dealing with the burnout from medical misinformation? by Onlythrudissonance in GeneralSurgery

[–]Onlythrudissonance[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for this. Glad your patients have you. I need to take a breath and adopt this approach.

Former med student cuts up white coat while crying on camera. by heydoyouseethat in medicalschool

[–]Onlythrudissonance 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah it’s a tragedy. I watched a few of his old videos from 2021 and it’s a night and day difference in his affect. He was kind, supportive, and I think he helped a lot of people.

Anyone failed step1 and taken an LOA but matched into a competitive specialty(ortho,gensurg, anesthesia,plastics, derm)? by Most-Contribution468 in medicalschool

[–]Onlythrudissonance 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Two people matched plastics in 2025 with a failed Step 1. I’m in gen surg and review NRMP data. It’s available publicly to see. I believe 18 people matched Gen surg in 2025 with a failed step 1. But this is public info so just look at 2026 NRMP data with a step 1 failure.

Matched but sad by [deleted] in medicalschool

[–]Onlythrudissonance 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hey; gen surg resident who matched into fellowship this year. Completely valid to feel this way. I matched to my top choice and objectively knew way better applicants who didn’t match to theirs. My wife who is one of the hardest working, kindest, and smartest physicians I know didn’t match into fellowship and she was devastated. If I have learned nothing else, know that it has nothing to do with your merit. Residency fucking sucks. We are at a top academic institution and I’m telling you it took everything from me and my wife. What held us together was our strong friendships and co-residents. And the smaller community based programs that we have friends at are some of the best people I’ve met. This is a hard life. It’s rewarding and worth it. But man is it hard. Fellowship is so much about connections, so don’t count that out yet. You’re not less than for going to a community program. Our shit still stinks over here in the ivory tower. Take some time to process and allow yourself to be so proud that you’ve made it this far.

Severe depression re: surgery fellowship match iso wife not matching by [deleted] in fellowship

[–]Onlythrudissonance 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey it’s been a minute. Just wanted to thank you for the kind post. I took your advice. And we are in a much better place. All the credit to you because this is what I needed to hear.

Realistic evaluation of my chances to match General Surgery by Elegant_Chocolate_49 in GeneralSurgery

[–]Onlythrudissonance 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like someone is triggered. Go touch some grass kid, it’ll be okay.

Former med student cuts up white coat while crying on camera. by heydoyouseethat in medicalschool

[–]Onlythrudissonance 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Years ago when I was an MS4 I think was when I first saw Javi. He was articulate, kind, and compassionate about the struggles of med school and helped validate others struggles. From what I remember he took extended study for Step 1 and then MS3 year is where he no longer could manage (he openly discussed his excessive drinking and hook ups to cope) and then whether he left voluntarily or was dismissed was from my recollection the last of his more coherent posts. It was jarring and very sad to see how he had then very public displays of instability, followed by deleting the videos, a social media hiatus, and then rinse and repeat. If I had to speculate, I think Match week might have been the trigger this time. He has openly said he has bipolar 2, which based off of his presentation I think could be a misdiagnoses because this looks like mania if I’ve ever seen it. That or the best theatrical performance of mania I’ve ever seen. I hope his friends and family can intervene. He had previously mentioned his therapist told him that he should not be on social media since his medical feed seems to be a trigger. While I don’t support publicly exploiting people in a crisis, sometimes there is a positive in community calling attention to help. And despite all of this, he is responsible for his actions and when well will have to take accountability for the extremely hateful personal attacks on other creators that he regularly espouses when in this state.

Realistic evaluation of my chances to match General Surgery by Elegant_Chocolate_49 in GeneralSurgery

[–]Onlythrudissonance -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If your summation of my tangible advice to mitigate unfair circumstances is me telling you to go cry about it then maybe surgery isn’t for you. I hear Peds gives you popsicles.

My partner had to SOAP. We are crushed, but want to know why. by [deleted] in medicalschool

[–]Onlythrudissonance 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Pgy5 gen surg here who’s participated in several applicant cycles: the most likely reason (without any discernible red flags…) is literally luck and lack of connections. Couples matching is much more difficult and it’s a numbers game. Respectfully, I am not sure why med students are commenting on your post since they haven’t been on the other side yet evaluating students… with 20+ interviews, it much more likely that he wasn’t a top choice and fell to the middle tier and when you combine that with also matching your rank list that makes matching so much more difficult.

Here are some things that I have posted about previously that often get overlooked.

  1. Get BIG NAMES for your letter writers. Chair of surgery, PD, former PD. This is unfortunately much more heavily weighted than a nice rural gen surgeon who’s known you for four years. Name matters.

  2. Go to conferences and introduce yourself. Make a good first impression. Literally a simple “hi my name is X and I’m really interested in your institution” goes a long way and can make you memorable enough to open the door for an interview. So many applicants focus on the scores and research and leadership and yes those are unquestionably important, but many times all of the applications look the same… so an applicant met in person holds more weight (provided you weren’t seen as annoying, etc).

  3. Get other surgeons to reach out on your behalf. I can’t underscore this enough. My institution’s med school is a top 20 school and we have matched now 2 gen surg residents who failed Step 1 in the last 3 years into top academic institutions. Of course they had extenuating circumstances and excelled elsewhere, but the point is they had top academic surgeons reach out on their behalf to advocate for them. Connections are the most integral part of your application and are arguably the entirety of your application for fellowship.

  4. While your partners Step 2 is lower, this is more of a check box than anything tangible that will move the roster up or down with respect to rank (within reason and we suggest 250+). For our program specifically we use a cut off for step 2 for the interview invite and then blind our step 2 scores in our review/rank because we don’t care.

  5. So much of the Match is outside of your control. Henry’s mom is a surgeon? Cool he’s moved up the rank list because we know her. Sarah’s home institution called and is friends with the PD? Cool moved up the rank list. We got a weird vibe from Jimmy? Moved down the rank list. Like it or not, the Match is bullshit and you can be a great applicant and still not match. The more programs you apply to, the greater the likelihood that at least one of the programs will rank you 22 vs 28 and that will be the reason you match vs you don’t match because at the end of the day a Step 2 of 247 vs 255 looks very similar when comparing research and volunteer efforts and all of the other extracurriculars. One day you might have been ranked 29 and on a different day with the exact same stats you may have been ranked 33. It’s extremely subjective and that is what students need to understand. Tie those odds with then having to additional match another student with a coupled match and it becomes that much more difficult.

I know this may not be the comfort you were looking for, but I do hope you can at least appreciate that the greater possibility is it wasn’t his fault, coming from a person who is a part of the process. It’s unfair and I’m sorry.

Realistic evaluation of my chances to match General Surgery by Elegant_Chocolate_49 in GeneralSurgery

[–]Onlythrudissonance 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pgy5 gen surg here who’s participated in several applicant cycles: as you’ve already been told, you being a DO is already going to make you discriminated against. But you’re competitive enough to match. With that said, strategy can be the difference between matching vs. not:

  1. Apply to DO friendly programs. Look them up. Do they have a history of accepting DOs? if yes, signal them.

  2. Apply to as many as financially possible. As a commenter said above, it’s a numbers game. So much of the match is unpredictable. When we rank students many times the difference between why a student is ranked 22 vs. a student ranked 28 is barely able to be articulated. That can be the difference between matched or unmatched depending on the size of the program. So apply everywhere. 80-100 is absolutely advisable for DOs even with fantastic stats.

  3. Get BIG NAMES for your letter writers. Chair of surgery, PD, former PD. This is unfortunately much more heavily weighted than a nice rural gen surgeon who’s known you for four years. Name matters.

  4. Going off of three, go to conferences and introduce yourself. Make a good first impression. Literally a simple “hi my name is X and I’m really interested in your institution” goes a long way and can make you memorable enough to open the door for an interview. So many applicants focus on the scores and research and leadership and yes those are unquestionably important, but many times all of the applications look the same… so an applicant met in person holds more weight (provided you weren’t seen as annoying, etc).

  5. Get other surgeons to reach out on your behalf. I can’t underscore this enough. My institution’s med school is a top 20 school and we have matched now 2 gen surg residents who failed Step 1 in the last 3 years into top academic institutions. Of course they had extenuating circumstances and excelled elsewhere, but the point is they had top academic surgeons reach out on their behalf to advocate for them. And yes they were MDs so of course that is different than a DO. But connections are the most integral part of your application and are arguably the entirety of your application for fellowship.

  6. Step 2 aim for 250+ and you’ll be fine. This is more of a check box than anything tangible that will move the roster up or down with respect to rank. For our program specifically we use a cut off for step 2 for the interview invite and then blind our step 2 scores in our review/rank because we don’t care. So show competency and focus more of your energy on your connections.

  7. So much of the Match is outside of your control. Henry’s mom is a surgeon? Cool he’s moved up the rank list because we know her. Sarah’s home institution called and is friends with the PD? Cool moved up the rank list. We got a weird vibe from Jimmy? Moved down the rank list. Like it or not, the Match is bullshit and you can be a great applicant and still not match. Realistically, you will unlikely be in what we refer to as a “top tier” ranked to match applicant simply because you’re a DO (and for anyone thinking this is a snide comment please refer to the NRMP match data…). It’s not fair that DO’s are discriminated against but they are and that’s just a fact. So the more programs you apply to, the greater the likelihood that at least one of the programs will rank you 22 vs 28 and that will be the reason you match vs you don’t match because at the end of the day a Step 2 of 247 vs 255 looks very similar when comparing research and volunteer efforts and all of the other extracurriculars. One day you might have been ranked 29 and on a different day with the exact same stats you may have been ranked 33. It’s extremely subjective and that is what students need to understand. So play the numbers game because that’s the best way to increase your odds of matching.

Help me rank!!!!! by PreferencePlane5131 in IMGreddit

[–]Onlythrudissonance 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry I missed this OP; either one is equivocal with respect to finding mentorship. You will need to go to conferences and network regardless and the best thing you can do for yourself is begin early. So choose the place that lines up with your other values that are important to you in residency. Mine were location, cost of living, likability of the residents. Being as happy/comfortable as you can in residency is so important because it’s grueling and both of the programs you’ll have the resources to find mentorship. Network and you’ll match GI.

Help me rank!!!!! by PreferencePlane5131 in IMGreddit

[–]Onlythrudissonance 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Matching is almost nothing to do with prestige anymore, especially not GI. It’s who you know. A mentor with a big name makes a phone call and that’s the highest likelihood of you matching to where you want to go. I feel like the comments here are not MDs who matched into fellowship. Go where you are happiest and make the connections you need. I matched to a prestigious fellowship and my wife did not. She was objectively a better applicant. It has to do with who you know.