Stating a specialty preference too early?

[ahd929]

i've noticed that some apps ask if any particular fields of medicine interest us. i worry that this is a trap designed to expose our inexperience and to make us feel foolish for stating a preference so early (i would imagine being challenged on my answer at the interview). i tried to answer this question on one app with something like: "i have experience in fields x y and z, and i would say that those fields interest me, but i plan to go to medical school and get more experience in different fields before picking one." (this is not verbatim - i have written it better and i think it would be unwise to post verbatim answers on such a big open forum.)

how are others approaching this?

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[anystream]

i've noticed that some apps ask if any particular fields of medicine interest us. i worry that this is a trap designed to expose our inexperience and to make us feel foolish for stating a preference so early (i would imagine being challenged on my answer at the interview). i tried to answer this question on one app with something like: "i have experience in fields x y and z, and i would say that those fields interest me, but i plan to go to medical school and get more experience in different fields before picking one." (this is not verbatim - i have written it better and i think it would be unwise to post verbatim answers on such a big open forum.)

how are others approaching this?

My honest answer: "I don't know yet!"
My cousin's response (she is just starting her residency): "Don't tell that to the admissions committee!"

I think its good to pick one, or at least give a vague idea of what you are hoping to get out of a career in medicine. I think they know we don't have experience, but they want to see that we've given it some thought.

 

[DrBowtie]

Pick one or two and say why you find those interesting/think you are a good fit. It is ideal to have atleast shadowed a person in the specialty. Then near the end talk about how you have not experienced every specialty and you are looking forward to gaining exposure to others and possibly changing your mind.

 

[njbmd]

i've noticed that some apps ask if any particular fields of medicine interest us. i worry that this is a trap designed to expose our inexperience and to make us feel foolish for stating a preference so early (i would imagine being challenged on my answer at the interview). i tried to answer this question on one app with something like: "i have experience in fields x y and z, and i would say that those fields interest me, but i plan to go to medical school and get more experience in different fields before picking one." (this is not verbatim - i have written it better and i think it would be unwise to post verbatim answers on such a big open forum.)

how are others approaching this?

Hi there,
It is perfectly acceptable to state an interest in a specialty especially if you have some solid experience with that specialty. If your mother was a general surgeon, you know what the life of a general surgeon is like and you can speak from experience that general surgery interests or does not interest you. What you want to avoid is lying about anything or trying to anticipate what you think the admissions committee members might want to hear and putting something down on paper that you believe sounds good. Answer the questions as truthfully and as honestly as you can. Other than that, there are no trick questions out there.
njbmd

 

[Law2Doc]

Hi there,
It is perfectly acceptable to state an interest in a specialty especially if you have some solid experience with that specialty. If your mother was a general surgeon, you know what the life of a general surgeon is like and you can speak from experience that general surgery interests or does not interest you. What you want to avoid is lying about anything or trying to anticipate what you think the admissions committee members might want to hear and putting something down on paper that you believe sounds good. Answer the questions as truthfully and as honestly as you can. Other than that, there are no trick questions out there.
njbmd

Just be absolutely sure you have the experience as njbmd suggested. If you say you want to be a surgeon, an interviewer's question is going to be "how do you know" - and a fuzzy notion of what that specialty does on a daily basis, or limited exposure from, eg., TV isn't going to cut it. It's far better to say that you think a particular specialty sounds appealing to you (and why) but that you want to increase your exposure to more fields before you decide. (Although I have heard it said that older nontraditionals are expected to have a better idea of exactly what they want to do than the folks out of college, if that applies to you.)

 

[myodana]

and in contrast to what some are saying, i pretty much have a good idea of what field i want to go into (PM&R), and i wrote about it in detail and talked about it in interviews. however, i was also told by friends early on to make sure i also left it somewhat open ended, letting them know that things may change later on while i'm in school learning about all of the other fields.

 

[gujuDoc]

Well a little background on me first,

I am interested in Infectious diseases, internal med, and neurology.....

If I were to respond to this question, I would say "Although I am always open to change, a few of the things that currently interest me are neurology, infectious diseases, and internal medicine".

Then I would talk about my shadowing experiences that I held in neurology and in the brain trauma unit of physical med and rehab, as well as volunteering experiences at different hospitals, to back up what I've done to know what the field is about. I'd also talk about previous research I've done in neuro and my fascination with learning about neurological disorders.

For infectious diseases, I'd talk about experiences I'd held in different micro classes and the fascination and interest to which it helped me to develop an interest in that field.

 

[ahd929]

(Although I have heard it said that older nontraditionals are expected to have a better idea of exactly what they want to do than the folks out of college, if that applies to you.)

that does apply to me, and the truth is that i do have a preference (which of course could change). i've rewritten my answer based on the advice i've gotten here. thanks!

 

[g3pro]

Not giving a preference shows naivety. It shows that you "want to go into medicine" but you don't know how or why. Or it will show the cliched "I want to help people, and medicine is the way to do it." I have no qualms saying precisely what I want to do. If I change later, what's it to the ADCOMs?

But do NOT say you'd love to do gyn or FP or ped or whatever because they are low in supply at the moment. It shows that you're trying to cash in on market trends.

 

[Law2Doc]

I have no qualms saying precisely what I want to do. If I change later, what's it to the ADCOMs?

Well, I was told by a surgeon adcom member I interviewed with that he would NEVER want anyone on his surgical team who "knew" absolutely for sure that they wanted to be a surgeon BEFORE they got to med school, because that was not a specialty you could get a feel for before rotations, and so such a statement (in his mind) was suggestive of being ill-conceived (or worse, perhaps influenced by TV portrayals of the specialty). He made clear that in his view the right answer to this question was one where you indicated that had some specialties that interested you for articulable reasons and wanted to see more, but were also looking for additional exposure to other specialties.

 

[ahd929]

Not giving a preference shows naivety. It shows that you "want to go into medicine" but you don't know how or why. Or it will show the cliched "I want to help people, and medicine is the way to do it." I have no qualms saying precisely what I want to do. If I change later, what's it to the ADCOMs?

well, like i said earlier, i have amended my answer to include a field i do have some interest in, but i disagree with you g3pro that not having a preference now indicates a lack of seriousness or preparation (despite the fact that you're always right ) isn't it more naive to categorically state what field you want to be in before you've even started medical school? our experience, such as it is, is limited now to shadowing, research, and unskilled patient care, if you will (except in rare circumstances of medical professionals, like nurses, pursuing an MD). it seems to me that an adcom will look very critically at some hot-**** undergrad who presumes to know where his career is ultimately headed. in my answer on the app, i approached it with some delicacy, writing that i certainly am interested in the field but that i still have much to learn.

 

[bigdan]

I filled them all in with whatever specialty I was into at the time.

There's no commitment to anything...and you never know!

dc

 

[AnotherDork]

I filled them all in with whatever specialty I was into at the time.

There's no commitment to anything...and you never know!

dc

I agree completely... I think I literally said to an interviewer, "It changes every week," and added a little laugh. Then we got to talking about how that's what medical school is for- finding out which specialty fits you the best, which you like and which plays to your strengths. It seems to have worked out pretty well.

Of course, you have to read your interviewer correctly and make sure it would be ok to make a nervous little joke like that, or it could backfire completely.

 

[g3pro]

well, like i said earlier, i have amended my answer to include a field i do have some interest in, but i disagree with you g3pro that not having a preference now indicates a lack of seriousness or preparation (despite the fact that you're always right ) isn't it more naive to categorically state what field you want to be in before you've even started medical school? our experience, such as it is, is limited now to shadowing, research, and unskilled patient care, if you will (except in rare circumstances of medical professionals, like nurses, pursuing an MD). it seems to me that an adcom will look very critically at some hot-**** undergrad who presumes to know where his career is ultimately headed. in my answer on the app, i approached it with some delicacy, writing that i certainly am interested in the field but that i still have much to learn.

I don't know precisely what I want to do, but my experiences shadowing pointed me in a very good direction, and I'll make that known to the ADCOMs. I agree that if you haven't had experience in a particular specialty, you shouldn't say that that is what you want to do post-MD.

 

[Emergency!]

But do NOT say you'd love to do gyn or FP or ped or whatever because they are low in supply at the moment. It shows that you're trying to cash in on market trends.

I may be misunderstanding what you are saying here, but for certain schools it is a VERY good idea to indicate that you are interested in primary care. Two of the schools I interviewed at are well known for primary care and the med students that we met before our interviewers told us in no uncertain terms "No matter what you are really interested in, during the interview you need to tell them you are interested in primary care". Personally, I refused to do that when my personal statement and background very clearly indicate that I have a strong interest in another specialty and I didn't think I could convincingly tell them I was truly interested in primary care when I'm not.

That said, if you are going to say you are interested in the above because you know that is a school's main focus, put some time into coming up with sincere reasons why you might be interested in the above. I'm sure interviewers and adcoms know their schools have the rep for wanting to graduate PCP's and can see through a lot of the bullsh#t answers that candidates give.

Definitely state that you realize there are a lot of different areas of medicine that you know nothing about now but might fall in love with during rotations. I had one interviewer get a little antagonistic with me at my first interview because I stated a strong interest in one specialty. After that, I always added that I was very interested in that specialty, but I realized I might discover something else I would rather do during med school.