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deleted685788
Hey all,
I'm a second year medical student at a top 5 med school who has started clinical rotations and I am interested in dermatology.
However I have some concerns regarding my performance on clinical rotations as I recently Passed surgery. I am currently on Psych and, while still unsure, I don't think honors is in my future.
I got great comments from supervisors and my surgery site director wrote a strong summary evaluation for me - I think the weakness was my shelf exam score. Additionally, maybe I could have taken on more work re: offering to take sign out instead of the resident?
I would really appreciate some advice regarding how to move forward with my derm interest. I will provide some information about what I have done so far.
-summer research grant about melanoma genetics (have not continued this project as it was very labor intensive and difficult to manage on top of rotations)
-poster for that grant
-I left that project leaving a not-amazing impression on the pretty acclaimed faculty mentor I was working with as I was going through some personal stuff. Overall I don't think he has any issues with me but I wouldn't ask him for a recommendation letter because I left the project.
additional:
oral presentations: 1 dermatology case report, 1 quality improvement project for outpatient clinics
posters: a different dermatology case report, presenting that outpatient clinic project at 2 different conferences (one at my institution, one national conference), an old poster published at Nature US & Canadian Academy of Pathology about cancer genetics
publications: the dermatology oral presentation case report will be published this fall, 2 dermatology business policy publications, 1 lay press article about a clinical pearl, 1 cancer review (from 2016), one first author cancer genetics project (from 2015), a second author cancer genetics project (2015), a second author book chapter about breast cancer (2015)
pending - have applied for another dermatology conference poster presentation; this would be for a systematic review. Hopefully will publish that review as well. Working on initial stages of another dermatology case report.
My concerns:
-I have yet to take USMLE Step 1. Will be taking next year. Any advice from people who also took step 1 after clinical rotations re: when to start studying, etc? My last rotation is medicine. before medicine I am taking my vacation (4 weeks). 1 week I will be at a friend's wedding & I have kept the other 3 weeks to study.
-is getting Honors in remaining rotations important if my comments are strong? If so, do you have any tips? I am relatively shy but could work through it. I get embarrassed re: asking for feedback or talking about feedback/grades with superiors
-my primary mentor is not academic faculty at my home institution - she kind of is but it's like 'associate professor' etc...not too plugged in to the department. I'm unable to find an academic mentor who matches my interests. I really like one of the other academic faculty but she's a confidential derm advisor. Could she still write a letter? Would it even be appropriate to ask her? I've worked with her multiple x in clinic and we are publishing together
-Any other advice? This whole process is making me really nervous and stressing me out a lot. Thank you so much
@gyngyn would love if you could take a look
I'm a second year medical student at a top 5 med school who has started clinical rotations and I am interested in dermatology.
However I have some concerns regarding my performance on clinical rotations as I recently Passed surgery. I am currently on Psych and, while still unsure, I don't think honors is in my future.
I got great comments from supervisors and my surgery site director wrote a strong summary evaluation for me - I think the weakness was my shelf exam score. Additionally, maybe I could have taken on more work re: offering to take sign out instead of the resident?
I would really appreciate some advice regarding how to move forward with my derm interest. I will provide some information about what I have done so far.
-summer research grant about melanoma genetics (have not continued this project as it was very labor intensive and difficult to manage on top of rotations)
-poster for that grant
-I left that project leaving a not-amazing impression on the pretty acclaimed faculty mentor I was working with as I was going through some personal stuff. Overall I don't think he has any issues with me but I wouldn't ask him for a recommendation letter because I left the project.
additional:
oral presentations: 1 dermatology case report, 1 quality improvement project for outpatient clinics
posters: a different dermatology case report, presenting that outpatient clinic project at 2 different conferences (one at my institution, one national conference), an old poster published at Nature US & Canadian Academy of Pathology about cancer genetics
publications: the dermatology oral presentation case report will be published this fall, 2 dermatology business policy publications, 1 lay press article about a clinical pearl, 1 cancer review (from 2016), one first author cancer genetics project (from 2015), a second author cancer genetics project (2015), a second author book chapter about breast cancer (2015)
pending - have applied for another dermatology conference poster presentation; this would be for a systematic review. Hopefully will publish that review as well. Working on initial stages of another dermatology case report.
My concerns:
-I have yet to take USMLE Step 1. Will be taking next year. Any advice from people who also took step 1 after clinical rotations re: when to start studying, etc? My last rotation is medicine. before medicine I am taking my vacation (4 weeks). 1 week I will be at a friend's wedding & I have kept the other 3 weeks to study.
-is getting Honors in remaining rotations important if my comments are strong? If so, do you have any tips? I am relatively shy but could work through it. I get embarrassed re: asking for feedback or talking about feedback/grades with superiors
-my primary mentor is not academic faculty at my home institution - she kind of is but it's like 'associate professor' etc...not too plugged in to the department. I'm unable to find an academic mentor who matches my interests. I really like one of the other academic faculty but she's a confidential derm advisor. Could she still write a letter? Would it even be appropriate to ask her? I've worked with her multiple x in clinic and we are publishing together
-Any other advice? This whole process is making me really nervous and stressing me out a lot. Thank you so much
@gyngyn would love if you could take a look
