Advice for incoming OMS1 interested in ortho/anesthesia/IM

[BioPsychotic]

Hello!

Last month I was accepted into a medical school for fall matriculation, and I am beyond excited. As I prepare for my first year, I have begun to think about what specialties I would like to pursue.

Here is a list of the specialties I am interested in, with ortho at the top of my list:

• Orthopedic surgery
• Anesthesia
• Internal medicine --> cardiology/oncology

I wanted to ask 2 questions to the SDN community.

1. Any tips for how to narrow down what specialty I am interested in? Should I shadow physicians in these fields?

2. What are some actionable items that I can take in my first year to ensure that I am setting myself up to match into these specialties?

I would greatly appreciate any advice as I begin this amazing journey into the world of medicine!

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[calivianya]

First off - congratulations!!!

You've got a really wide net there. I have no advice on choosing between them - I found third year most valuable for making my final decisions. I actually changed what specialty I decided to apply to during third year, so I'm not sure first and second year shadowing is going to do much for you (and really, it's just going to eat up your valuable time that you could use for something else).

Actionable item regardless of specialty: look for ortho research. Figure out who the ortho faculty are and which ones are doing research, and get in touch with them early.

If you get research in ortho early, and then decide you don't want ortho and want anesthesia or IM, you can always pick up case reports on your IM or anesthesia rotations to make your app well-rounded. It's easy to explain early ortho research when you also have more recent anesthesia or IM case studies, anesthesia or IM conference presentations, etc. People change their minds all the time, and anesthesia and IM are not as hard to match as ortho.

So, start out chasing ortho. It's not going to hurt you to switch away later, but it's going to hurt you if you do nothing in ortho and then decide at the end of third year that ortho is what you really want.

 

[chemistry hahgdgjjhdf]

Hello!

Last month I was accepted into a medical school for fall matriculation, and I am beyond excited. As I prepare for my first year, I have begun to think about what specialties I would like to pursue.

Here is a list of the specialties I am interested in, with ortho at the top of my list:

• Orthopedic surgery
• Anesthesia
• Internal medicine --> cardiology/oncology

I wanted to ask 2 questions to the SDN community.

1. Any tips for how to narrow down what specialty I am interested in? Should I shadow physicians in these fields?

2. What are some actionable items that I can take in my first year to ensure that I am setting myself up to match into these specialties?

I would greatly appreciate any advice as I begin this amazing journey into the world of medicine!

First year med student here!

1) You will have plenty of opportunities in med school to shadow these specialties. Most likely you will have physicians from these specialties lecture you depending on the block.

2) The biggest thing imo is to learn how to study and do well. I’m also interested in ortho and have joined a lab for research but I would say from my perspective that passing your classes and blocks is the top priority and you should wait to join stuff till you feel like you have a good grasp on school

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

Do you live close to a medical school (any)? My best advice would be to do some shadowing/research the summer prior to starting. Almost all of my research came from the summer prior to matriculating and my summer between MS1-MS2. There are people who can manage to do research during the school year, but I don't know how to be honest. There are only so many hours in the day and research is very time consuming and demanding. This research is only important if you want ortho. If you want anesthesia or IM you don't need any research. It will also be a good time for you to shadow the different specialties as you will never have more free time again (except MS1-MS2 summer). Just reach out to various faculty and say you are an incoming medical student hoping to either do research or shadow. 9/10 will reject you or ignore your email, but you only need to get 1 response and you are golden. Best of luck.

 

[BioPsychotic]

First off - congratulations!!!

You've got a really wide net there. I have no advice on choosing between them - I found third year most valuable for making my final decisions. I actually changed what specialty I decided to apply to during third year, so I'm not sure first and second year shadowing is going to do much for you (and really, it's just going to eat up your valuable time that you could use for something else).

Actionable item regardless of specialty: look for ortho research. Figure out who the ortho faculty are and which ones are doing research, and get in touch with them early.

If you get research in ortho early, and then decide you don't want ortho and want anesthesia or IM, you can always pick up case reports on your IM or anesthesia rotations to make your app well-rounded. It's easy to explain early ortho research when you also have more recent anesthesia or IM case studies, anesthesia or IM conference presentations, etc. People change their minds all the time, and anesthesia and IM are not as hard to match as ortho.

So, start out chasing ortho. It's not going to hurt you to switch away later, but it's going to hurt you if you do nothing in ortho and then decide at the end of third year that ortho is what you really want.

Thank you so much for the advice! I will start out chasing ortho in order to set myself up for success in case I decide on a less-competitive specialty.

First year med student here!

1) You will have plenty of opportunities in med school to shadow these specialties. Most likely you will have physicians from these specialties lecture you depending on the block.

2) The biggest thing imo is to learn how to study and do well. I’m also interested in ortho and have joined a lab for research but I would say from my perspective that passing your classes and blocks is the top priority and you should wait to join stuff till you feel like you have a good grasp on school

Good to know that I will have opportunities to shadow in medical school. Thank you for the advice! I will focus on developing strong study habits and achieving high grades during my first semester of medical school.

Do you live close to a medical school (any)? My best advice would be to do some shadowing/research the summer prior to starting. Almost all of my research came from the summer prior to matriculating and my summer between MS1-MS2. There are people who can manage to do research during the school year, but I don't know how to be honest. There are only so many hours in the day and research is very time consuming and demanding. This research is only important if you want ortho. If you want anesthesia or IM you don't need any research. It will also be a good time for you to shadow the different specialties as you will never have more free time again (except MS1-MS2 summer). Just reach out to various faculty and say you are an incoming medical student hoping to either do research or shadow. 9/10 will reject you or ignore your email, but you only need to get 1 response and you are golden. Best of luck.

I live close to a large, prestigious medical school. I should note that I am currently working full-time to support myself and do not anticipate being able to quit and conduct unpaid research without experiencing severe financial consequences. Also, my grandfather who lives back in Asia is quite ill, and I wanted to visit him during the month before school starts. Shadowing may be more doable.

—

General questions:

1. Is research prior to M1 important to be able to match into ortho? Or will summer/school year research be sufficient?

2. Are research opportunities generally paid or unpaid? How do medical students support themselves while conducting summer research?

 

[Coltuna]

1. Is research prior to M1 important to be able to match into ortho? Or will summer/school year research be sufficient?

This is the one piece of advice I'm not totally on board with. You should really enjoy the summer before M1. If you do decide to gun for ortho, it'll likely be the last normal summer you'll have for many years.

 

[KirksvilleKrunk]

Thank you so much for the advice! I will start out chasing ortho in order to set myself up for success in case I decide on a less-competitive specialty.


Good to know that I will have opportunities to shadow in medical school. Thank you for the advice! I will focus on developing strong study habits and achieving high grades during my first semester of medical school.


I live close to a large, prestigious medical school. I should note that I am currently working full-time to support myself and do not anticipate being able to quit and conduct unpaid research without experiencing severe financial consequences. Also, my grandfather who lives back in Asia is quite ill, and I wanted to visit him during the month before school starts. Shadowing may be more doable.

—

General questions:

1. Is research prior to M1 important to be able to match into ortho? Or will summer/school year research be sufficient?

2. Are research opportunities generally paid or unpaid? How do medical students support themselves while conducting summer research?

With step 1 being PF it would be good to start research M1 summer/M2 year. I anticipate 3rd year being very hard since everything is riding on Step 2, and you will really need to honor your surgery rotation. Definitely do not do anything the summer before med school. You will regret it and wish you had that time back. I got into a productive research position by learning stats on my own. Just mentioning that in emails to PIs gave me lots of opportunities. You have to sell yourself somehow to them, otherwise you become another annoying student trying to gun for a hyper competitive specialty IMO

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

1. Is research prior to M1 important to be able to match into ortho? Or will summer/school year research be sufficient?

Everyone is going to have differing opinions on this as is evident from the posts above. I am personally happy I pursued research before starting because I was able to get a few publications out of it. I only did about 15-20 hours of research a week so it definitely did not take away from my "last summer before medical school" experience. I still had a blast that summer, but at the same time I did way more research during that time than my entire 1st year of medical school. It's all subjective though. If you can be efficient you may be able to do meaningful research throughout the school year, but many struggle and for good reason. Medical school is time consuming and that's where your focus should be during the year. My last piece of advice is that when you are talking about matching into one of the most competitive specialties in medicine you have to be a gunner despite what others say, it's just part of what it takes.

 

[deleted1129181]

Do research in ortho (preferable MS1 because you'll be super busy MS2)
Ace step 2
Do audition rotations specifically at programs which have recruited students from your school in the past

 

[Darrow O'Lykos]

Do research in ortho (preferable MS1 because you'll be super busy MS2)
Ace step 2
Do audition rotations specifically at programs which have recruited students from your school in the past

Everything I've heard suggests MS1 is busier than MS2, especially considering how much time anatomy can eat up for those 6 months of MS1. Being a MS1 myself I can't attest to MS2, but I do have way more time than I did when we were still going through anatomy.

I've started on 1 project and am hoping to start 2 more this summer. Hoping to squeeze as much juice as I can out of these 3 between now and the start of rotations. I imagine regardless of MS1 or MS2 being easier than the other, both will be easier than doing longitudinal research during rotations.

 

[deleted1129181]

Everything I've heard suggests MS1 is busier than MS2, especially considering how much time anatomy can eat up for those 6 months of MS1. Being a MS1 myself I can't attest to MS2, but I do have way more time than I did when we were still going through anatomy.

I've started on 1 project and am hoping to start 2 more this summer. Hoping to squeeze as much juice as I can out of these 3 between now and the start of rotations. I imagine regardless of MS1 or MS2 being easier than the other, both will be easier than doing longitudinal research during rotations.

It depends on the curriculum of the school. Some schools do a concentrated anatomy block in first year, other schools do it spread out throughout the year. Some schools do double helix. Some only run through each system one at a time. Depends on the school. At my school, everyone is much more busy OMS2.

 

[ReaDoc]

It depends on the curriculum of the school. Some schools do a concentrated anatomy block in first year, other schools do it spread out throughout the year. Some schools do double helix. Some only run through each system one at a time. Depends on the school. At my school, everyone is much more busy OMS2.

To add to this as a second year, I feel like we're covering a lot more ground as well as me personally reviewing the physiology and anatomy topics from last year for boards. This combined makes me feel like second year adds way more pressure than from what I could say about first year. You'll also constantly have the boards lurking in your head too, the only caveat is that I go to a school with a two-pass system so YMMV.

Also to @BioPsychotic, I was in your exact shoes as an incoming OMS1. Albeit I was deciding on Anesthesiology or IM -> Heme/onc but I quickly realized after getting into heme/onc research and going through our Heme/onc course I was more drawn to heme/onc than I was to Anesthesiology. I think you have to really think about what each specialty entails, length of residency/fellowship, how you want your career and lifestyle to balance out, etc.

Take first year as a learning experience in how to optimize your studying and understand that it will hit like a truck but that will pass once you start learning how to be an info sponge so to speak.

 

[hellosnd]

1. Any tips for how to narrow down what specialty I am interested in? Should I shadow physicians in these fields?
Shadowing is virtually useless in terms of the residency app. Do an early elective in these specialties in your third year. Join the respective clubs at your school. Attend national confrences. Keep an open mind your third year to other fields.


2. What are some actionable items that I can take in my first year to ensure that I am setting myself up to match into these specialties?
The one and only thing you really should focus on your first year/second year is study hard and do well on step 1, even though it's pass/fail, it will translate to step 2 and third year. Based on your list, you will need to have pretty high step scores, especially as a DO.


edit: also do research in those fields if you are able to find it

 

[Ho0v-man]

Everything I've heard suggests MS1 is busier than MS2, especially considering how much time anatomy can eat up for those 6 months of MS1. Being a MS1 myself I can't attest to MS2, but I do have way more time than I did when we were still going through anatomy.

I've started on 1 project and am hoping to start 2 more this summer. Hoping to squeeze as much juice as I can out of these 3 between now and the start of rotations. I imagine regardless of MS1 or MS2 being easier than the other, both will be easier than doing longitudinal research during rotations.

You’re in the first year of being told it gets easier next year. If you’re being told MS2 is easier/less intense then you’re talking to people who are going to get blindsided by step 1.

Source: current PGY-1 who is in his 5th consecutive year of being told it gets easier. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t lol)

 

[calivianya]

You’re in the first year of being told it gets easier next year. If you’re being told MS2 is easier/less intense then you’re talking to people who are going to get blindsided by step 1.

Source: current PGY-1 who is in his 5th consecutive year of being told it gets easier. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t lol)

Seconding this.

MS2 was much more difficult than MS1 because it built on things from MS1 + introduced new material. When you have all your basic sciences (anatomy, histo, physio, etc.) in first year and still have detailed basic science questions mixed in with your new organ-system based material during M2, it's much more difficult. You're going to be reviewing the microscopic anatomy details you forgot during M2 while you are also learning new info, so unless you have a perfect memory, M2 is going to be more difficult by default if your school is structured this way.

Tl;dr start research your first year. Other than fourth year, it's the year with the most free time, even considering extra time in anatomy/histo labs, etc.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Seconding this.

MS2 was much more difficult than MS1 because it built on things from MS1 + introduced new material. When you have all your basic sciences (anatomy, histo, physio, etc.) in first year and still have detailed basic science questions mixed in with your new organ-system based material during M2, it's much more difficult. You're going to be reviewing the microscopic anatomy details you forgot during M2 while you are also learning new info, so unless you have a perfect memory, M2 is going to be more difficult by default if your school is structured this way.

Tl;dr start research your first year. Other than fourth year, it's the year with the most free time, even considering extra time in anatomy/histo labs, etc.

MS1:

Prof: “Here’s a lot of information. We’re just going to blow through this because you’ll see it again next year.”

Test:*crushes you on that info*

MS2:

Prof: “Well you all saw this last year so just look at those notes if you need to review it. We have other stuff to cover and can’t spend any time on this.”

Test: *crushes you harder than last year*