Medical Schools Areas of Concentration

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Hi every one, I apologize if this is the wrong subforum of SDN - but I was wondering about the areas of concentration different medical schools allow you to focus in. How significant are they? If you're aspiring to be an emergency medicine physician, for instance, is it a poor choice to attend a medical school that doesn't have an EM area of concentration? Or are they not that important, as you really pick your specialty in your PGYs?

Thank You -

What's an area of concentration?

Signed,

current medical student

That's all I needed, thank you haha.

On this website you're able to differentiate medical schools between what areas of concentration they offer.

I've never heard of an area of concentration in terms of medical school. And that website doesnt seem like its the most reliable source. That said, most schools give you leeway to do electives in whatever field you want, so I suppose you can call that a concentration. More and more schools are changing their curricula to involve their students in research and make them write a thesis, so I suppose that can be considered a concentration too. But there is no formal "major" or something like what you do in college in any med school as far as I know.

Originally Posted by dmbxvii

Hi every one, I apologize if this is the wrong subforum of SDN - but I was wondering about the areas of concentration different medical schools allow you to focus in. How significant are they? If you're aspiring to be an emergency medicine physician, for instance, is it a poor choice to attend a medical school that doesn't have an EM area of concentration? Or are they not that important, as you really pick your specialty in your PGYs?

Thank You -

I don't think there is such a thing as area of concentration for a med school. However, if you are interested in a particular field, it would help out to go to a med school that has a very strong department in that field. Also, not every school has an affiliated residency program in a particular field (ie EM or Urology), so its obviously a lot easier to talk to a program director, get an advisor and letters when your school is affiliated with a program. But in the long run it really doesn't matter where you go, if you work hard enough and do well in med school you'll be able to get into any specialty of your choice.

Since when do med schools have areas of concentration?

I think the OP might mean on-site rotations like not all schools have rotations with ophthalmology.

Some med schools have tracks or areas of concentration, analogous to getting a minor in college. I think that doing one of these can only help you, even if it isn't directly related to the specialty you want.

Originally Posted by dmbxvii

Hi every one, I apologize if this is the wrong subforum of SDN - but I was wondering about the areas of concentration different medical schools allow you to focus in. How significant are they? If you're aspiring to be an emergency medicine physician, for instance, is it a poor choice to attend a medical school that doesn't have an EM area of concentration? Or are they not that important, as you really pick your specialty in your PGYs?

Thank You -

medical schools dont have "areas of concentration" only nurse practitioners do that where you can go to a specialty program on day #1, for example Masters in EM, FM, IM, Peds, OB/Gyn, Psych, ICU, NICU, Geriatrics, or Anesthesia.

what i think you are asking though is, does it matter if you go to a medical school that does not have its own emergency medicine residency program if you're planning to do emergency medicine. my answer is: probably not.

if you decide to go into EM, you can always do an EM elective in your school or another school during your 4th year. EM residencies are weird. The allopathic ones require "SLORs" from emergency physicians and many osteopathic ones require that you rotate in them to be considered for their program.

i realize you probably dont understand how med school and graduate medical education works, so this is all for nothing

Thank you for your quick responses every one - all of your responses answered my question and explained the confusion I had about an area of concentration (as that website was my first time hearing about that term, and the medical school I'm applying to as my top choice soon "doesn't have the area concentration" I'm most interested in according to that website).

Good luck in your studies