All in or all out?

Dear Dr Levine / Other moderators of this forum,

I am a 3rd year DO student looking to match in a MD orthopedic program. I find that they'd be a better fit for me. However, coming from a relatively new program that predominantly schedules rotations in community/outpatient settings, I have had 0 opportunities to establish meaningful relationships with ortho docs in academia. Additionally, the experimentation with shelf exams has left my 3rd year grades a mix of Honors and HP despite glowing clinical evals.

Step I: 258
Step II: scheduled
Preclinical grades - at the top of the class
Clinical grades - so far a mix of Honors/HP - HP in surgery, Honors in orthopedic surgery
Publications/Research: a couple of ortho/surgery related projects pending. contributed a huge compendium of 300+ pages of clinical questions to a well-known pathology board review course. (basically, I've just tried to get my hands on anything I could given the scarcity of opportunities through my program)
Presentations: lots.
ECs: lots. TA / tutor / club officers, volunteer, etc.

My questions are the following:
1) Will my clinical grades be less relevant given the "caliber" of my program and rotation sites? i.e. would I be able to make up the difference with a solid step II score and verbal clarification of my clinical grades during the few interviews I'll be blessed to receive? ha ha
2) With 4 months available for aways, should I go all in on MD, or would you recommend that I rotate at a DO program, just in case? I would like to be a part of academia in the future and I feel that the MD side would have more opportunities for this.

It took some years of undergrad to get my act together, but I am a real soldier when it comes to getting things done now. Just need some honest direction. Please advise whenever you have a minute. I really appreciate your time.

Thanks for your query - I would recommend that you do at least 1 sub-I at a DO program to cover that side and then choose other MD programs to rotate (if you can identify programs that have been "DO-friendly" that's icing on the cake). If you come from a relatively new program then it will be more challenging since programs may be unfamiliar so your sub-I's become even that much more important to knock it out of the park.

Good luck
wnl

Dr Levine,

Thank you so much for the prompt response and the solid advice. That is what I will do.

Have a great weekend!

Andrew

you come from a relatively new program then it will be more challenging since programs may be unfamiliar so your sub-I's become even that much more important to knock it out of the park.