 Becoming a doctor is competitive as it is, with only 5% of applicants getting into an MD school every single year. But if this wasn't enough, there are a few fields that are super competitive to get into, let's break down the top five. And to grade the competitiveness of these specialties, we're gonna use four categories. The first one is going to be the average USMLE step one score. Now this is a licensing exam that you take early on in medical school that recently actually went past fail, but before all of this, it was actually the most important exam you took in that school. So we'll use this as a context to talk about how competitive they are with the understanding that more scores are gonna matter. The second factor is going to be the USMLE step two CK score. Now this is an exam that you take towards the end of med school before you start residency, and it's probably going to be the test that's going to matter more, and now that step one is past fail. The third category is going to be the number of research activities. Now most of these specialties that are competitive also tend to have a very research heavy driven field, or research is something that you use to kind of drive your competitiveness. So we'll talk about the average amount of activities that are research related that an applicant who gets into one of these fields ends up doing. And then finally, number four and most important is the average match rate. So we'll talk about the percentage of medical students who are applying to these specialties and how many of them get in versus don't. And then finally, while we won't use this to grade the competitiveness, we'll actually break down the average salaries for each of these specialties. So you can see, is all that work, is all those high scores actually worth it for the salaries and the answer pretty much across the board is absolutely yes. So let's get to number five. So number five is the field of neurosurgery. Now this is your typical brain surgeon who goes through tons of years of training with four years of medical school, seven years of residency, some even do other fellowships and some specialties beyond that. So you're in training for quite some time. But if we talk about the actual competitiveness of neurosurgery, we see that the average step one score was a 248, which is amazing. I would step two scores a little bit higher at 252. Average publications or activities related to research is 25.5 and I'll break that down in a second. But the average match rate, get this. For MD students, it's about a 74% match rate, which means 25% of students who are trying to go ahead and get into neurosurgery don't and for DO students who are applying to neurosurgery, the average match rate's about 42 to 43%. So with anywhere from 25 to 50% of applicants not getting into neurosurgery, whether it's MD versus DO and also having the longest amount of training. But on the flip side, they're one of the most highly compensated physicians out there with an average salary according to Oximity reports of $700,000. Number four is the field of orthopedic surgery. Now this is something that I thought I was gonna go into. Like any dude, you love sports, you think that being a doctor with sports related injuries is going to be the thing and then I realized I just hated the OR. But let's actually break down the competitiveness of orthopedic surgery. So with an average step one score similar to our neurosurgery colleagues of 248, an average step two score of 256, a little bit higher but about the same. Average amount of research activities is about 16.5. And then finally an average match rate for MD students is about 65.8% and for DO students about 37.3%. So we can see where the board scores are very similar. Now we're starting to see a big discrepancy amount of students who are not getting in. From anywhere about 40 plus students within an MD program not getting into orthopedic surgery, it's very competitive. It also pays very well with an average salary about 550,000 again according to proximity. Now before we get into the final three, I think this is a good stopping point to mention a few disclaimers. There probably there's somebody out there listening or watching to this saying, man, I'm in med school, my board scores don't look that good or I'm out of DO school, what I do or I'm just not smart enough and we're confident that I can get those board scores or train as long as these individuals do. Keep in mind that all of these numbers that we're giving to you are based off of averages from people who are reporting their data. So often the step one scores are given by people who are actually reporting their step one scores. This are people who have gotten significantly lower scores who are getting into neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery in the fields that we'll talk about. And in addition, keep in mind that when we're talking about the average amount of research activities, that is also a reported average. So there are students who are doing significantly less, students who are doing significantly more. In addition, the average amount of research activities doesn't mean somebody is publishing 15 to 26 papers like they may be doing in the field of neurosurgery. It may just be doing as simple things like having an abstract or working on a case report or doing a presentation on the same thing that you wrote an abstract on. Most students will find themselves stuffing their CV with related activities that are slightly different of your presentation here, an abstract here, a poster presentation here. Again, all in the same project that starts to add three to four different activities. Because every student does this, that's why the number of activities will actually be a little bit inflated. And so the biggest takeaway is by no means should you use these averages to make a determination on how determined you will be to pursue one of these fields. If it's something that you really wanna do, any of these five fields that we talk about, make sure you just work your butt off and see where that gets you. Number three is the field of dermatology. Now as I decide, I'm pretty sure that if my wife was a doctor, this is the field that she would pick. She just loves the scan. I absolutely have no interest in it. But if we break down our competitive factors, we start with our step one score, which is still the same at 248 as it was for the last two fields. A little bit higher at step two, that's 257, with an average amount of research activities going at 20.9. So a little bit less in neurosurgery, a little bit more than orthopedic surgery, but an average match rate of about 71.6%. So about 30% of MD students aren't getting into dermatology and DO students is about a 50-50 shot. Now in terms of just pure numbers, you could argue that dermatology could move up or down this list based off of their categories that we're using. One of the most attractive parts about the field of dermatology is simply the lifestyle that comes with it. Most physicians will be working anywhere from a Monday to Friday kind of gig, weekends usually off. I can't say the same definitely for my neurosurgery colleagues as well as my orthopedic colleagues. And so we definitely have to consider both lifestyle and salary to be a little bit of tiebreaker between these competitive fields and for the field of dermatology that comes out to about a salary of average $438,000, again, according to Doximity. So when you compare that to our surgery colleagues, which definitely have to be called in for emergencies, that is a pretty nice salary for a Monday to Friday gig. Now our second most competitive field is the field of ENT surgery or otolaryngology. Try to say that a few times, otolaryngologist, you just say ENT. These are the surgeons that deal with pretty much anything revolving around the ear and nose and throat, hence the name. Now compared to the first two surgical specialties that we talked about in both neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery, ENT tends to have a reputation of being slightly more of a lifestyle surgery brand where you still get to do a lot of cool procedures, make a good salary, use your hands, but it tends to be a little bit nicer on the schedule. Now this is definitely on a case-by-case basis. They're still on call, so maybe a worse lifestyle compared to our dermatologist. But I definitely find that the surgeons that I work with in the field of ENT are very happy with the career that they've chosen. Now if we transition to the competitiveness, we see the step one score is finally a little bit higher at 250. Step two score is about 257, the same as our dermatology colleagues. The average amount of research activities comes out to about 17.2, the average match rate for MD students is 69.2%, the average for DO students about 60%. And if we tie that all in with the information regarding salary, the average ENT salary according to 70 is about $469,000. So again, competitiveness, you have a nice lifestyle surgery brand where if you really wanna be in the OR, work with your hands, but not have to work like a neurosurgeon, then ENT is a great field to consider and again, you get compensated very well to do it. And then finally, number one, the field of plastic surgery. Now by no means is this surprising at number one, we definitely hear enough about plastic surgeons glorified in social media and on TV and entertainment, but from a medical perspective, I definitely get to see the great work that a plastic surgeon does when, for example, a patient has an insane procedure done, maybe a jaw's removed for cancer or they have a huge infection and then they're able to take essentially skin flaps and remarkable procedures that they do and make that patient look like nothing really happened to them, which is awesome. So we talk about the competitiveness about plastic surgery, the step one score is a little bit higher than our ENT colleagues at 251, step two score is 257, it's the same as our ENT colleagues. The average amount of research activities is crazy and this number I believe, it's about 28.4. I know the colleagues that I worked with in medical school that are pursuing plastic surgery were always doing research, whether it's publishing, abstracts, et cetera, you name it. There's a lot of research you have to do to get into plastic surgery because there's very few spots per programs and residency that you have to apply to, so lots of people are interested, there's very few spots to actually get them into. A lot of people will do research very early on to make themselves look competitive. And then finally to transition to the average match rate for MDs, it comes out to right about 62.7. Now for DO students, the resources that we were using to come up with the numbers for today's episode really were all overplayed, something said as low as 0% and really that's not consistent. I would say it's very close to anywhere from 40 to 60% just like it is for the other competitive specialties. But if you combine the four years of medical school, five years of residency, plus or minus some specialties and then the insane amount of research you have to do to get a very nice average salary of $576,000 that puts plastic surgery at the top of our list of most competitive specialties in medicine. And now if you enjoy this breakdown and you wanna see us break down a very specific specialty or other groups and categories within medicine, let me know in the comment section down below if you're watching on YouTube. If you are early on your medical journey and you wanna succeed to get into any of these competitive specialties is that truly your dream. A free resource that we have for you down below is called the Med School Success Handbook. This is literally weekly tips that I'm adding of something that I just wish somebody had given to me on my first day on the medical journey, includes tips on how to study better, be productive, kind of get the motivation game and momentum that you'll need to succeed on the medical journey. All of that is linked down below. Again, it's a free document, so go ahead and check it out if you haven't. If you're looking for more step-by-step strategies on how to study better and pretty much everything that you need at every phase of the medical journey, definitely check out our Domination and Ultimate Med School Bundle, which is linked down below. Hundreds of students have tried that out. You can just go ahead and check out the reviews that will speak for themselves. But I know for a fact that if you made it to the very end of that episode and you enjoyed it, first of all, you hit that like button and subscribe if you haven't. But you'll also enjoy this episode right here on my full day in life as an internal medicine hospitalist, as well as this one right here on how much doctors make in the United States. Go ahead and enjoy these guys. As always, thanks so much for being a part of our journey. Hopefully we were a little helped to you guys on yours. And I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.