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- May 12, 2009
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Hello everyone,
I would greatly appreciate your opinion on the current scenario I'm in. I'm deciding between ENT, Gen Surg, and Emergency Medicine (aack! I know!) and am a bit stuck with regard to LORs should I decide to go for GS. I have one very strong LOR lined up from my third-year rotation, which I did at a community site. I was hoping to schedule a GS Sub-I for the summer both for the exposure and to get additional LORs, but I basically had to choose between an ENT rotation or a GS Sub-I and I went for the former feeling that I *had* to get exposure to ENT. My school has an unfortunate policy whereby we must complete Step 2 early on in 4th year, even if we did well on Step 1, so I cannot schedule any Sub-Is during that time.
If I were to choose Gen Surg, I would primarily be interested in community-based programs. Would it be acceptable to include 1 or 2 LORs from ENT surgeons? Or would that be a big red flag or weakness to my application? An alternative is to try simply "shadowing" a general surgeon for a week in September before I begin studying for Step 2 without signing up for an official rotation and hoping for a letter this way, but that of course is no guarantee. There is also an internal medicine doc who knows me extremely well and would write me a very strong LOR. Although his specialty background may not be not ideal for a surgery applicant, he is very well-known and holds an important leadership position in a national organization.
Otherwise, my application is hopefully strong with a Step 1 of 257, junior AOA, and mostly Honors in core rotations (including in Medicine and General Surgery), and lots of research (though I know I'd have to explain why I'm interested in community programs).
Any input is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Kalyx
I would greatly appreciate your opinion on the current scenario I'm in. I'm deciding between ENT, Gen Surg, and Emergency Medicine (aack! I know!) and am a bit stuck with regard to LORs should I decide to go for GS. I have one very strong LOR lined up from my third-year rotation, which I did at a community site. I was hoping to schedule a GS Sub-I for the summer both for the exposure and to get additional LORs, but I basically had to choose between an ENT rotation or a GS Sub-I and I went for the former feeling that I *had* to get exposure to ENT. My school has an unfortunate policy whereby we must complete Step 2 early on in 4th year, even if we did well on Step 1, so I cannot schedule any Sub-Is during that time.
If I were to choose Gen Surg, I would primarily be interested in community-based programs. Would it be acceptable to include 1 or 2 LORs from ENT surgeons? Or would that be a big red flag or weakness to my application? An alternative is to try simply "shadowing" a general surgeon for a week in September before I begin studying for Step 2 without signing up for an official rotation and hoping for a letter this way, but that of course is no guarantee. There is also an internal medicine doc who knows me extremely well and would write me a very strong LOR. Although his specialty background may not be not ideal for a surgery applicant, he is very well-known and holds an important leadership position in a national organization.
Otherwise, my application is hopefully strong with a Step 1 of 257, junior AOA, and mostly Honors in core rotations (including in Medicine and General Surgery), and lots of research (though I know I'd have to explain why I'm interested in community programs).
Any input is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Kalyx