Hello M-0s!

I’m writing this for anyone who goes through what I experienced with the 2026 Match, and to show a real example of that everything will be okay :)

I applied general surgery and didn’t Match, I was absolutely devastated and went through probably the worst month of my entire life until I got a post-match offer for emergency medicine from a program I rotated at during 4th year.

Fast forward to now, almost a month into intern year and I’m the happiest I have ever been. I absolutely love my job, my class is amazing and we’re all friends and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

We can’t see the future and when we’re going through hell that’s all we can focus on. But for anyone who doesn’t match their dream specialty this year just know that the biggest blessing of your life might just be waiting around the corner for you.

Best of luck to everyone :)

This is getting out of control

Maybe throw in ophtho

Just got a 300 on step, top 10 US MD. 7/7 Honors and AOA. Am I cooked? I was thinking about applying anesthesia as a back up if I didn’t get a score good enough for anesthesia. Plz let me know what u think. Thanks.

Rebooting this post from 2 years ago, now that everyone and their mothers on Reddit are recently writing up posts on how to score 270s

Emphasis should be on someone you personally know or a friend's friend.

For me, recently went to my friend's wedding, and her hubby's best man apparently scored a 281. He's in fellowship now, so obvi this was several years back. Groom just slipped it out when drunk and hyping him up on the dance floor, but most of the audience were med people so our jaws dropped lol

Yup, my job was taken by AI

Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbEbMefBcw-/

Quick Video Summary (Non-biased):

• Nick Baumel posts a response video in which he states he attempted suicide and was hospitalized requiring ICU-level for "cardiogenic shock."
• He states his followers and primary demographic that views his videos are overwhelmingly female (approx. 80%) with a smaller subsection of gay and bisexual males.
  • He states he is an LGBTQ student as well.
• He responds that the physicians that criticized him did not know who he is, who his demographic, nor is identity.
• He says he is heartbroken and this incident "shattered" his identity.
• He actually shows screenshots and an email picture.
  • The screenshot text messages are anonymous but the person texting him claims to be a Mayo physician and the texts appear to have some vague threats of violence but are mostly scribbled out:
    • "Little twink b*tch"
    • "You'd need a doctor you little p*ssy" (after the guy said he would slap Nick B)
• Baumel asks "Did they want me to harm myself. . . what's the point of this?"

There are some specialties that everyone knows are high paying like spine surgery, CT surgery, derm, cardiac EP and others that are relatively lower. However the one specialty I can't really wrap my head around is ophtho where people keep making wild claims one way or the other. Online on SDN/reddit etc early career ophthalmologists say the sky is falling, field has been taken over by PE, private practice groups are demanding massive buy ins with starting salaries in the low 200s, production pressure has never been higher, reimbursement has been slashed to the bone. But IRL, the ophthalmologists at my school seem to be some of the most financially successful academic attendings, on par with the other subspecialty surgeons. I know two kids in my med school class who have ophthalmologist parents and both grew up fabulously wealthy. In theory this tracks because if you can take home the technical fees from owning an ambulatory surgery center you should be able to pull > $1M a year easily. There are online reports of everything from struggling solo PP owners who folded shop after taking home less than $150k profits per year all the way to high volume cataract grinders making 2-3 million. MGMA type data isn't super helpful since it only includes employed physicians and the PP owners don't really report their figures.

What is the reality of ophthalmology? I feel like there is something I'm missing because there is no way this specialty would be so mega competitive if it was actually true that salaries have crashed to $220k and PE has completely taken over.

Figured this would be a good time for everyone to start sharing their best tips and tricks for the application process. What do you wish you knew before submitting? Any advice on applications or just surviving the whole thing? 🙏🙏🙏

i know this is the med school subreddit but genuinely feel like i bombed comlex.... i counted around 80 questions right and maybe around 30 wrong so its not looking good considering i cant remember the rest of the exam. i go to a school w a low pass rate, had a low mcat, and was avg in med school... wanted to take step but idk what to do. literally want to sleep for 3 weeks

not sure if i should even attempt step 1 at this point if im not smart enough to pass comlex. this whole thing is just a mind fuck and i start rotations in a couple days and will get pulled off if i dont pass. want to cry lol

I’ve vaped all day every day, every second basically, for 6 years. Now that I started medical school, I know it’s not sustainable, bc it affects appetite and diet, so not eating and sleeping in med school will be brutal. However, medical school is fast paced. I’ve dealt with withdrawal symptoms before, and I know I cannot function while studying and doing medical school things with withdrawals. What should I do? Should I wait till after my exam In a couple weeks, then go cold turkey ? What if my next exam’s grade gets affected bc of withdrawals. This may sound silly to a lot of people, but it’s a very serious problem in my life rn. Idk what to do, and I’m at a crossroads

If you are a young medical student, do you ever think about your peers who are making $200k or those who are traveling every so often? What about those who are getting married and having children? All while we are constantly struggling, being sleep deprived, studying all the time, and in major debt? How does anyone justify this reality. 3rd year sucks.

Edit: I have friends in their mid-20s in the AI/CS/Engineering space making $200k

serious q from burnt out M4 studying for step 2 on away rotations and feel like studying for step is actually more enjoyable than faking smiles to faculty/ residents and talking to patients. edit - for people saying radiology -- i can bust my butt to find a rotation and get a letter before eras, but assuming i like it, would radiology residencies even take me seriously with one prob mid radiology letter and a 250 ish step 2? i wont ask ab anesthesia as i have plenty of posts to refer to for that lol

For anesthesia specifically
If so, how many points below?

My legs genuinely hurt so bad on my surgery rotation. I’m having a lot of fun, but the second I’m not focused on the operation, my legs kill me. I bought the danskos and compression socks, and I do calf raises when I notice the pain. And yet, I feel like an old person at 23.

I'm not a fan of Dr. Roviso's Bootcamp Neuro series. The Bootcamp Neuroanatomy lectures are OK. Should I be checking out Boards & Beyond for this stuff? I just need a second pass on the neuroanatomy for my upcoming block - I watched Ninja Nerd the first time around but his videos are incredibly detailed.

wasnt sure if i should do all of them or only a few like I would for other shelves

Hi all I need book recommendations for pediatrics for a third year medical student, thank you in advance ❤️

Does anyone know if there is already a discord group for clinical students with different channels for each rotations like IM, surgery, etc. I was thinking it would be nice to create one and people can join/unjoin as they move through different rotations.

Hi everyone! I am a USMD, I failed step 1 on my first attempt but passed on second. I got a 237 on step 2. I have 3 publications, 3 oral presentations and 9 poster presentation. I am doing two away rotations during my fourth year. I plan on applying IM.

I would really like some advice as to how I should go about making my residency list and how to filter out programs that automatically screen out step 1 failures. I am having trouble figuring out how to strategically signal programs because I do not want to waste the signals. Does any one have a list of programs that are step 1 failures friendly? If anyone has any advice, please let me know!

For anyone out there that uses your middle name in day to day life how do you address authorship in research?

Wondering if I should buy a walking pad or if I won’t use it

Did you guys add that to your residency app? I’ve always been told its a good thing to have on resumes or applications for a million different reasons, but would it hold any weight? Are you even allowed to put things from that far back in your life? And if you did, how did you talk about it?