Away rotation/selectives

[WaxEarplugsFTW]

I'm entering clinicals (DO student) and selecting courses for selectives and away rotations.
I didn't set up any away rotations so I'm limited to the selectives and I'm still studying for boards so I haven't got much time to think about this.

My plan is to either go into heme/onc or general surgery.
How could I maximize my changes for that? Should I focus on one specialty over the other?

Should I make all my selective General Surgery? or IM?
Currently, I have 2 General Surgery rotations.

I'm overall, completely clueless on how to be competitive for IM (heme/onc fellow) and general surgery.

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[DO2015CA]

If it were me I’d go all in on surgery and then apply to IM as back up. IM doesn’t necessarily need away rotations but they will see your transcript of all the surgery rotations depending on when those rotations are and when you send your transcripts to ERAS. Apply to university IM and community programs with in house fellowships.

 

[WaxEarplugsFTW]

If it were me I’d go all in on surgery and then apply to IM as back up. IM doesn’t necessarily need away rotations but they will see your transcript of all the surgery rotations depending on when those rotations are and when you send your transcripts to ERAS. Apply to university IM and community programs with in house fellowships.

My main worry is that if I do bad on Step 2 which ruins my chances at surgery, then having all those surgery rotations seems like a waste?

And would I have time to study for Step 2 if I only do surgery rotations?
Could you estimate about how many surgery rotation is good enough? Right now, I have 2 signed up, but I could add another and do 3 in 3rd year. Seems like it'll blow away all time to study step 2?

Do having a lot of surgery rotations benefit my application for other specialties like IM? (because everyone knows surgery rotations are the most difficult?)

 

[DO2015CA]

My main worry is that if I do bad on Step 2 which ruins my chances at surgery, then having all those surgery rotations seems like a waste?

And would I have time to study for Step 2 if I only do surgery rotations?
Could you estimate about how many surgery rotation is good enough? Right now, I have 2 signed up, but I could add another and do 3 in 3rd year. Seems like it'll blow away all time to study step 2?

Do having a lot of surgery rotations benefit my application for other specialties like IM? (because everyone knows surgery rotations are the most difficult?)

Absolutely not a waste. A good gen surg rotation is extremely complimentary to internal medicine. They do a ton of medical management in their admitted patients as well.

Be strategic and give yourself good time to study for step 2 and take it but the more away rotations the better for a specialty

Having gen surgery rotations will benefit no other specialties.

 

[DO2015CA]

And then commenting to your surgery rotations difficulty, no one gives a crap. Lol. Surgery rotations are the hardest med student rotation hours wise but regardless of your speciality, residency rotations are always more rigorous than the most rigorous med student rotation so I couldn’t care less if a student did a million surgery sub-I rotations. Still wouldn’t put you at an advantage starting a non-surgery specialty.

 

[Surgeon D.O.]

You can read through some of my thread.

I matched surgery with low STEP scores and no pubs.

I did 4+ auditions and one of them in particular everything clicked on - which is where I matched.

Matched General Surgery / Below Average - AMA

Enough reached out to me about this so here it goes: For anonymity I will keep my stats private and this will be more of AMA opposed to a write up. Available to answer any questions as time permits!

forums.studentdoctor.net

 

[DOVinciRobot]

First I suggest you figure out what you want to do. Heme\Onc and GS are very different. Focusing on a fellowship isn’t a smart move IMO, you should be asking yourself if you would rather be a hospitalist or a bread and butter general surgeon. HO is a relatively competitive fellowship and by no means a sure thing.

It would be easier to pivot to IM/HO than it would be to go the other direction, so I would set things up in that fashion.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

If you couldn’t get gen surg, then it seems unlikely that you would be able to match at an IM program that sets you up for heme onc

 

[WaxEarplugsFTW]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll try to get 4 surgery rotations (thanks SurgeonD.O).

Good point. I didn't consider that- Heme/onc fellowship (based on the level of IM residency to get the fellowship) is as competitive as general surgery....craaaaap (Thx, voxveritatisetluc)

(DOVinciRobot), I don't ever want to be a Primary Care IM Hospitalist if I don't get the Heme/Onc Fellowship and I DREAD not getting the fellowship and being stuck there. I think i'd much rather do neurology or path in that case.

Ok. So Then I'm decided on going 100% with General Surgery.

For backup, I'm not interested in being Primary care IM.
I'm more interested in Neurology or Pathology in that case. Are both of these fields, less competitive enough that I don't need to so any selective or rotations to get (and safely use as backup)? ----between Neurology/pathology, I don't know enough to decide which I want to use as backup though... they just seem "cool" (BUT, I figure, IF I don't need to do rotations in those, I have the next 2 years to decide on the backup).

Thank you!

 

[DO2015CA]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll try to get 4 surgery rotations (thanks SurgeonD.O).

Good point. I didn't consider that- Heme/onc fellowship (based on the level of IM residency to get the fellowship) is as competitive as general surgery....craaaaap (Thx, voxveritatisetluc)

(DOVinciRobot), I don't ever want to be a Primary Care IM Hospitalist if I don't get the Heme/Onc Fellowship and I DREAD not getting the fellowship and being stuck there. I think i'd much rather do neurology or path in that case.

Ok. So Then I'm decided on going 100% with General Surgery.

For backup, I'm not interested in being Primary care IM.
I'm more interested in Neurology or Pathology in that case. Are both of these fields, less competitive enough that I don't need to so any selective or rotations to get (and safely use as backup)? ----between Neurology/pathology, I don't know enough to decide which I want to use as backup though... they just seem "cool" (BUT, I figure, IF I don't need to do rotations in those, I have the next 2 years to decide on the backup).

Thank you!

Highly recommend doing a rotation in both even if not away rotations. Wouldn’t choose either without having done one

 

[Sidus1011]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll try to get 4 surgery rotations (thanks SurgeonD.O).

Good point. I didn't consider that- Heme/onc fellowship (based on the level of IM residency to get the fellowship) is as competitive as general surgery....craaaaap (Thx, voxveritatisetluc)

(DOVinciRobot), I don't ever want to be a Primary Care IM Hospitalist if I don't get the Heme/Onc Fellowship and I DREAD not getting the fellowship and being stuck there. I think i'd much rather do neurology or path in that case.

Ok. So Then I'm decided on going 100% with General Surgery.

For backup, I'm not interested in being Primary care IM.
I'm more interested in Neurology or Pathology in that case. Are both of these fields, less competitive enough that I don't need to so any selective or rotations to get (and safely use as backup)? ----between Neurology/pathology, I don't know enough to decide which I want to use as backup though... they just seem "cool" (BUT, I figure, IF I don't need to do rotations in those, I have the next 2 years to decide on the backup).

Thank you!

Neurology and Pathology are vastly different - both increased a bit in competition this year for DOs. I wouldn't consider these fields good back up specialties.

 

[WhereMyLiberalsAt]

Neurology and Pathology are vastly different - both increased a bit in competition this year for DOs. I wouldn't consider these fields good back up specialties.

Neurology and path are still perfectly ok backup specialities for someone even remotely competitive for GS… Have a pivot plan in place and they’d be fine.