Why otolaryngology competitive

She liked how it was meticulous and detail-oriented, as well as the camaraderie of working with the team to get a patient outcome. When she got to medical school, she considered Surgery, but she fell in love with her Pediatrics rotation. She loved the continuity of care and working with the kids. She then did an Otolaryngology Pediatrics elective and that was when she knew it was what she really wanted.

It had the best of both worlds. She could see both adults and kids. She could do surgery. She could treat her patients medically. The surgical electives were urology, orthopedics, ENT, anesthesia and most of them were at the main hospital. The medical school she went to had one at the pediatrics hospital for ENT specifically. Cristina thought it was providence that led her to ENT. Since then, things have changed for medical student electives. At the University of Colorado, they recently lost the ability for medical students to do an Otolaryngology elective at all.

Cristina says you have to be able to relate to people. Otolaryngologists see patients in clinics. So you have the ability to establish great rapport to patients. Most people can be surgically trained. In their field, they see people with communication problems — people with impaired hearing or those who have lost their ability to speak. Otolaryngology is a very anatomically specific field but wide-ranging otherwise.

As a generalist, Cristina sees more patients in the clinic than some of her other subspecialist colleagues. For instance, a head and neck surgeon who sees cancer patients is going to spend a lot more time in the operating room as they have to dohour procedures. Her typical week is days of clinic and days of operating room time. She does bread and butter ENT like tonsils, ear tubes, sinus surgery, septum surgery, and excisional biopsies.

Basically, it really depends on what want to do, whether you want to do ear surgery or laryngology surgery. She wanted to be able to do all of it. As she continued to practice, she had narrowed down her focus so she no longer does some of the more gigantic procedures. When she does clinic at the main campus, all of her partners are subspecialists. So when a patient comes who, for instance, complain about all three issues of the ear, nose, and tongue.

Cristina can actually treat all at once without having to see three different people. She has the luxury of being a generalist in a university practice. She chose general because she really likes general cases and not just one thing. But also, she was getting to the time of her life when she wanted to start having a family. Instead of going to fellowship, she followed her husband who is a surgeon to his fellowship. Then she got an academic job at the same hospital where he did his fellowship.

This opened her eyes to academic practice. She fell in love with it. But she found it to be very satisfying. She ended up being an associate program director while they were there. Moreover, Cristina wants to leave this legacy of being able to train multiple people who would go on to treat more patients than she could ever treat in a lifetime.

Being a very competitive field, Cristina stresses the importance of having great clinical rotation grades or the Step 1 score or research opportunities to be able to attain a position. Over the last 20 years, ENT has always been known as very competitive and the Step 1 scores have gone up every year. Three years ago, they had 14 unmatched positions in and 12 unmatched positions in This was on a national level. The reason for the opening in those two years is that fewer people applied.

Abaza said. She added that this has been a factor in anxiety among medical school applicants to the match, fueling the high number of applications per applicant. Chang noted that many students who did not match previously have been entering the match again. Taking steps to enhance a CV, like adding a year of research, may not help in a competitive match year, however. This year, even the best applicants may slip through the cracks.

There are so many variables, including how well they interview and whether they applied to the right programs.

Personal statement paragraph. In , the program-specific personal statement paragraph became a mandatory requirement for each otolaryngology application, and many feared that it would be an obstacle. By the match, the paragraph was no longer considered mandatory.

While Dr. In , when the paragraph stopped being mandatory, the number was I think the real issue was that, for most programs, the paragraph provided little insight, and there was little in-depth information available for applicants to really differentiate the programs.

Completion of the ORTA, a phone-based pre-interview survey to assess personality traits, was required before the match when it was first introduced. Last year, students were invited to take the ORTA after matching. They had 6. That makes this specialty on where the number of publications needed is High. The mean U. Step 1 score for matched medical students in otolaryngology was The overall competitiveness level of otolaryngology is High for a U.

Compared to other residencies, otolaryngology has a Long training length. As far as lifestyle, otolaryngologists generally have a Medium stress lifestyle. Of course, lifestyle is very subjective and if you love what you do, it does not matter! And if you hate what you do, it can still be rough no matter what.

In medicine, you should find the specialty that makes you enjoy your everyday interactions with patients, staff and colleagues. Academic versus private practice as well as location also play a large role in physician compensation. Following the successful completion of general otolaryngology residency, some physicians may choose to continue their graduate medical education with subspecialty training.

Board-certified subspecialists complete additional training and qualifying examinations beyond those required for board certification in otolaryngology.

Currently, the American Board of Otolaryngology certifies the following fellowships:. The best residency for otolaryngology, or any specialty, is very driven by personal preference and situation. How close you are to family, loved ones, the type of training environment, the opportunities available are all things to take into consideration above and beyond name recognition of a program. However, there are some highly regarded names in the world of otolaryngology including:. Statistics on the Otolaryngology Match In , otolaryngology had a total of applicants and spots.