Choosing neurology while still a pre-med?

[Desired Member Name]

Hi all,

I'm contemplating entering a pre-med postbacc program. I'm fairly sure that I would want to specialize in neurology. In fact, if, via a crystal ball, I found out now that med school would lead me to a career in a specialty other than neurology or psychiatry, I probably would not even want to pursue medicine. With that said, I have a few questions...

(1) Is it wise to enter med school already dead set on a particular specialty? If not, why not?

(2) Does the particular specialty that you intend to pursue have any bearing on what med school you should attend?

(3) Any other general advice?

Thanks!

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[SheepNeurology]

1) Depends. If you're set on something like neurosurgery, it certainly would not hurt your cause if you got involved in neurosurgery research early on and started pumping out publications, all the while making connections in your neurosurgery department to find more opportunities and to learn more about the field. Certainly you can do this for any specialty but it's a lot of work and since neurosurgery is one of the most competitive specialties to get into, having that early start in terms of CV building on top of your genuine interest will make you more competitive. What you would lose out are gems in medicine that you may not have expected to enjoy and consider applying to. I'm a rising 4th year and I too was similarly set on neurology, but over 3rd year rotations I ended up really enjoying anesthesia and psychiatry (which tends to be common among many other neurology enthusiasts I've met at our training level).

2) The strength of training associated with certain medical schools may factor into residency applications but really any opportunity to become a medical student in an allopathic American school should be good enough for any opportunity. Doing well on your board exams and clinical rotations are far more important and deserving of your attention than then name of your medical school.

3) Shadow a lot and learn what it means to be a neurologist (or any other field you might find yourself interested in down the road). For example, outpatient experience may be very different than inpatient experience for certain fields (certainly the case for neuro), and it would be only to your benefit to understand what those differences are.

 

[Desired Member Name]

Thanks. I still invite answers to the original questions...but I thought of some follow-up questions, relating to clinical and research experience I should get while pre-med.

(1) When interviewing/applying to med schools, how much emphasis should a person place on their eventual desired specialty? If it is a major part of your "story" about how you became interested in medicine, then you should talk about it, right?

(2) I already do some neuroscience research, really enjoy it a lot, and have presented at a national conference. But I have zero clinical experience as of yet. Roughly how many hours of clinical experience is usually considered sufficient to demonstrate that an applicant knows what he is getting himself into? And does preclinical, basic neuroscience research really count for much in med school admissions?

P.S. - I am not at all picturing myself as any type of surgeon. I picture life as a neurologist as basically a 45-55 hour/week job meeting patients in an office (consisting of detailed diagnostic work, treating lots of sleep/headache/neuropathy patients, helping other patients to manage degenerative disorders like PD/MS, etc.) plus being on-call at a hospital for some emergency interventions, especially for strokes. This picture is admittedly based on little more than online reading.

 

[warchild]

I went to med school with the intention of going into neurology. I knew many that did but I was one of the few that stuck with it. Realize there is a very long gap between when you start med school and when you finally get to focus on neurology (5 years) and there are a lot of other important aspects of medicine you get to learn/have to put up with during that time. And you'll have way more than 55 hrs/week for the next 8+ years.
1) Its not unwise, although you're passion for neuroscience must also be balanced with a desire for a lot of clinical work. You may be surprised and like something else a lot better, or you may hate med school altogether, in which case you can apply for radiology or pathology or take a research position somewhere. When you tell people early on that you plan to go into neurology, you may get a lot of "well that will change", or "we'll see in a few years".
2) Yes, try to go to a med school with a strong neurology department. The best schools will generally have good neuro departments, but other midrange schools may have small, weak departments with few research opportunities and abbreviated neuro clerkships, or clerkships at community hospitals, or neuro is just part of your IM rotation. For example I get the impression that Miami, Jefferson, and Rochester have relatively better neuro reputations than many other specialties at their institutions. You can also look at match lists, as a school that matches many people into neuro may teach it better and get more people interested in it. There are a lot of schools that don't match anybody into neurology because they don't incorporate enough exposure into their curriculum. Also a school with a lot of elective time (and less required clerkships) would enable you to pursue your own neuro interests more.
1) focus more on your interest in clinical medicine and patient exposure than your research experiences. Its ok to say you're interested in neurology.
2) try to get published. It may only help a little getting into med school but it will look good when you apply for residency. Put it on your CV, when you are looking for research opportunities during med school send your CV, faculty will be more willing to work with you if you bring something to the table (ie research experience). Make sure you know your research of course, otherwise it won't help at all.