any MS IV help in scheduling 4th yr?

[j_sde]

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just a quick question if you can give me your advice, esp from those 4th years who've gone thru interviews and from whoever else in the know....


Should I take Block one of my 4th year in 1.) subI Medicine, honor it, try to get a good letter, and use the rotation to prep for Step II which I will take shorty after the end of the block?

or

2.) take a research elective for block 1 in my anesthesia department, or another surgical dept (thrombosis?) and try to get a good letter out of it.... have something to write about and talk abotu in terms of research for my apps... and have more free time to study for steop II? The negative of this is that I highpassed my Medicine rotation, but wasnt able to get a Medicine letter... and I really dont have many options of gettin a third year core letter besides maybe from a Fam Med.

background: I did pretty average on Step 1, so thus would like to do better for Step II . My overall app is mediocre... US allopathic school, not US news ranked, no reserach, mostly highpasses clinicals......

I'm most likely spending blocks 2 at home dept, and then 3 maybe 4 away. thanks.

 

[powermd]

Here is what I did, and I was very successful getting the interviews I wanted:

Rotations
1 - Bioethics; LOR
2 - SubI; LOR
3 - Anesthesia (away), submitted case report for publication; LOR
4 - Anesthesia (away, top choice)
5 - Cardiology (away, easy)
6 - Anatomy (Dec, easy for interviews)
Step II - passed, scores NOT released
7 - ICM preceptorship (Jan, easy for interviews)

I had prior research in Parkinson's from when I was interested in neurology as a second-year.

 

[2ndyear]

I didn't get a medicine letter and got all the interviews I wanted minus one. I have sub-avg. Step I scores. I got letters from:
Anesthesia (away)
OB, Peds, Surg all home. (Family med too but I only submitted it to TY programs)
I'd say that the anesthesia letter counts for the most as far as letters go. But it is by no means too late for you to get a medicine letter or any other third year letter. Go to the clerkship director or head of the dept. of medicine. They get paid to do this kind of stuff. I didn't ask anyone until August. The earlier the better though once you know what you are going into. My senior schedule first half of the year went:
Anesthesia (away)
Critical care, with anesthesia-critical care docs (away)
MICU (home)
Interview month.

As far as Step 2 goes I called the one program that I wanted an interview at but didn't get and was told that if I had an improvement on Step 2 then they would have interviewed me. Take that for what you will. I didn't feel that I had time to study with away rotations that I wanted to look good on and busy ICU months.

For research, I didn't do any. I'm sure some anesthesia research will help you at some of the big university programs, but not as much as a good anesthesia letter. Ok, let me rephrase that, get the letter first then research is like icing on the cake. Someone else can comment as to how helpful research is. Even at my big university interviews I didn't feel as though my lack of research put me out of place, but I didn't interview at the 'big 3' in Boston or Hopkins. Hopefully other people that did research can comment for you.

A couple of more things I learned from applying and interviewing this year...
Get your ERAS in early! You will be granted interviews right away and they are first come, first serve.

Take an interview month, I did December and was able to get most of them done with, but I had interviews from Nov. - Feb. 7.
(I did go on 19 interviews though)

Consider an ICU month before you interview, even if it's too late to get a letter. I ended up talking a lot about ICU in my interviews and it seemed to go over well.

I wish it were a month from now and I could tell you that I, with my mediocre Step I scores and lack of a big name med school, matched at my top choice! But I'll be happy even at number 15.

 

[Chillio]

A-Men to that 2ndyear.....I'd really like to in the top half of my list, but going anywhere sure beats nowhere!

 

[j_sde]

2nd year and Powermd,

great responses, thanks and good luck in the match.

... please check your PM...

 

[sifonian]

Does anyone think it's too late to take an anesthesiology elective for the first time in September? I would like to get a Letter of recommendation from the chair. I have already done research in anesthesia and plan on getting a letter from my research coordinator. Any thoughts?

 

[2ndyear]

No, September is not too late. Many away electives only allow home students in July and August, at least ones that I found. I did my first and only anesthesia elective in September. It is important to have already shadowed people in the field and/or had significant experience in anesthesia before September, however. Remember, ERAS submit dates are Sept. 15 or so. You don't need all of your letters of rec by this time, but you do need a personal statement. That would be really hard to write based on a week of anesthesia. You've got a lot of time between now and September to shadow people on nights and weekends. That's the nice thing about anesthesia, show up at the hospital at any time of the day or night and someone is there. Of course you've probably already done this if your research was clinical?