4th Year Electives

[Cliff Huxtable]

Hi, I am a 3rd year student currently interested in Radiology.

I was wondering what electives I should take next year to:

1) prepare me for radiology
2) show PD's I am serious about rads

I get to take 3 electives since we don't get any this year.

(P.S. they can't be radiology electives)

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[Pontifex Maximus]

There are none but rads that will do either. Largely no one cares about your 4th year rotations and they won't do anything for radiology c

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

There are none but rads that will do either. Largely no one cares about your 4th year rotations and they won't do anything for radiology c

But I've heard that if a PD asks you on an interview what rotations you are doing this year, it doesn't look good if you are doing all "easy" rotations.

 

[fun8stuff]

But I've heard that if a PD asks you on an interview what rotations you are doing this year, it doesn't look good if you are doing all "easy" rotations.

i must have done like 25-30 interviews total (including TYs). I don't think I was ever asked what rotations I was doing 4th year. Given, I did a month of research (that actually lasted longer than a month) and went on an interesting international elective (nothing to do with rads)... and had quite a few other things to talk about.

My advice: choose the easiest schedule possible. You will not have a better year in terms of workload until you retire. There is little you can do fourth year to prepare for radiology. It would be kind of like studying anatomy before medical school starts. It is a wasted year.

So my 4th year was: 4 months of vacation, 1 month sub-i, 1 month ER, 1 month research, 1 month rads, 1 month international rotation, 1 month pathology, 1 month ambulatory (that included one 1/2 day of work). Translation: 2.5 months of real work with 8.5 months of vacation.

 

[Amxcvbcv]

There's not really anything you can do 4th year to particularly prepare you for radiology. Even an elective isn't that helpful, to be honest. What is helpful, however, is to do away rotations at programs in which you are interested. It helps both you and the program figure out if you're good social fits. If a program offers you an interview they're acknowledging that your resume indicates sufficient academic prowess. What they need to figure out is if you're a good fit with their program.

Having said that, though, doing a 4th year rotation in a radiology subspecialty might give you an indication that you'd either like or dislike it - IR or mammography, for instance.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

There's not really anything you can do 4th year to particularly prepare you for radiology. Even an elective isn't that helpful, to be honest. What is helpful, however, is to do away rotations at programs in which you are interested. It helps both you and the program figure out if you're good social fits. If a program offers you an interview they're acknowledging that your resume indicates sufficient academic prowess. What they need to figure out is if you're a good fit with their program.

Having said that, though, doing a 4th year rotation in a radiology subspecialty might give you an indication that you'd either like or dislike it - IR or mammography, for instance.

Thanks for the tips.