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Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Torr said:
Lol. This would be my favorite avatar if you could use it!
Click to expand...

I'm definitely gonna try it sometime soon and see what happens 😉 There are 300 threads in pre-allo alone containing that word, so I feel it would hardly be fair if I weren't allowed to use that avatar...
 
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Slowly realizing I'm going to have to work my butt off to get my preferred match.

Feels like it's going to just be a sprint. Reading stories of M4s who didn't play the cards right doesn't help. 2011 Match Data please!?

Life would be much simpler if I chose an easier path. 🙂

It appears that you can't just figure it out 3rd year in some of these specialties (Ortho/ENT), you need to know as M1.
 
MCAT guy said:
Slowly realizing I'm going to have to work my butt off to get my preferred match.

Feels like it's going to just be a sprint. Reading stories of M4s who didn't play the cards right doesn't help. 2011 Match Data please!?

Life would be much simpler if I chose an easier path. 🙂

It appears that you can't just figure it out 3rd year in some of these specialties (Ortho/ENT), you need to know as M1.
Click to expand...
Would life really be simpler if it were simpler?
 
MCAT guy said:
Slowly realizing I'm going to have to work my butt off to get my preferred match.

Feels like it's going to just be a sprint. Reading stories of M4s who didn't play the cards right doesn't help. 2011 Match Data please!?

Life would be much simpler if I chose an easier path. 🙂

It appears that you can't just figure it out 3rd year in some of these specialties (Ortho/ENT), you need to know as M1.
Click to expand...
Yeah. I'm under the same impression that this is going to be a lot like running a 400 meter race in order to match successfully.
 
CougarMD said:
Would life really be simpler if it were simpler?
Click to expand...

A philosopher you are. 🙂

cliffhuxtableDO said:
Yeah. I'm under the same impression that this is going to be a lot like running a 400 meter race in order to match successfully.
Click to expand...

Sometimes I think I could chose something easy, but then I think, well that would be a waste.

So I've come to the conclusion, pick something hard that allows flexibility after residency.
 
Pons Asinorum said:
Been away from the intertubez the last few days. Deal. I will stick with plead the fif until New Year's, just for you. No $20 needed.
Click to expand...

Two tops in a row for Mr. ChaPons.

I'll be changing my avatar once I become a donor and can increase the size. I'm going to keep the tribute to the 80's going for a while.
 
So bored. It's standardized test week at my school. I feel my brain slowly fading... 4 days of just staring at children while they take 3-4 hours worth of tests. Not like I can teach anything after that. Their brains are shot worse than mine. 🙁
 
MCAT guy said:
Life would be much simpler if I chose an easier path. 🙂

It appears that you can't just figure it out 3rd year in some of these specialties (Ortho/ENT), you need to know as M1.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. In most ares of life I am a huge advocate of simplicity, but when it comes to choosing a specialty I just can't reconcile. I have the sneaking suspicion that choosing a less competitive specialty may simplify med school and the match at the expense of complicating the rest of my career--probably by making me neurotic with the "what ifs" or "if onlys."


Also, MCAT guy, you are right on with the bolded portion. The frequently propagated advice "Wait until your clinical rotations to decide on a specialty" is total BS if you end up wanting to match into Ortho, ENT, Plastics, RadOnc, or Derm. It can be done but it's just not a great idea.

People interested in those specialties should start investigating them first year to decide if they want to jump through all of the hoops. When has it ever been a bad idea to start a project early? Obviously you want to "keep an open mind," whatever that means :laugh: but it's not like building an application for Ortho will hurt your chances of matching into family med if you decide to do so after 3rd year rotations.

However, if you think you want to do FM, and after third year you decide you want to do Ortho, you may have already effed yourself with a mediocre board score. If not you've got less than 1 year to network with attendings and try to work on some specialty-specific research. Talk about stress and a lack of simplicity.
 
There's a thread about how med student pick their specialties on the Allo board right now. Worth a read, IMO.

And MCAT Guy, I'm right there with you in the sense that ENT and Ortho are really the only two surgical specialties that appeal to me. I've been so interested in ENT after how quickly Chicklet improved after her tubes. Talk about immediate gratification for your work, even in your bread and butter procedures.
 
I love it when L2D says his opinion is "humble" :meanie:

Edit: He did give some very grounded advice in that thread though. Overall a very good read.
 
I debated pointing out that L2D managed to not sound as pretentious as usual but I knew people would notice it when they read it anyway. 🙂

We started packing this weekend!!!
 
Don't worry, Mr. Geek won't let me do anything of the sort. He'll probably won't let me carry anything close to 30 pounds... until I point out that's how much Chicklet weighs and I pick her up all the time. :laugh:

Ooh, that reminds me, I get my big ultrasound in about a month.
 
medzealot said:
I love it when L2D says his opinion is "humble" :meanie:
Click to expand...

This made me think "well, his SN makes him obviously more humble than MDMDJDJD." 😉

ETA: Just read the allo thread about picking specialties; good read. I'm both excited for the future and in disbelief that this is actually happening.
 
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too bad they closed the primary care thread, i was going to drop an uncharacteristically long and srs post
 
Medz, did that feel as good for you as it did for me? (That sounds kind of wrong.)

I have been wanting to say that to him for AGES.
 
nay, it would have been like 500 words. too much effort.. i'll withdraw and await a new opportunity :ninja:
 
MCAT guy said:
Slowly realizing I'm going to have to work my butt off to get my preferred match.

Feels like it's going to just be a sprint. Reading stories of M4s who didn't play the cards right doesn't help. 2011 Match Data please!?

Life would be much simpler if I chose an easier path. 🙂

It appears that you can't just figure it out 3rd year in some of these specialties (Ortho/ENT), you need to know as M1.
Click to expand...
I feel ya. I'm thankful that I'll be entering med school with one or two pubs in my field of choice. There was a guy that started a thread in Pre-Allo that was an ENT resident(?) and was fielding questions from kids. I think he talked about needing research to match into ENT, but I can't for the life of me remember the thread name.
eablackwell said:
So bored. It's standardized test week at my school. I feel my brain slowly fading... 4 days of just staring at children while they take 3-4 hours worth of tests. Not like I can teach anything after that. Their brains are shot worse than mine. 🙁
Click to expand...
I used to love standardized test days in high school. Those were the kinds of days where my AP Chem teacher would have us make ice cream in lab and every other class had a movie day. I'm sure the boredom is unbearable on your end though 🙁
 
Daisy, was it O2Doc? I think that was his name. He's an ENT.

There is a thread about matching in the ENT sub-board down near the bottom of the forum list and some of what's in there is frightening.
 
Geekchick921 said:
Daisy, was it O2Doc? I think that was his name. He's an ENT.

There is a thread about matching in the ENT sub-board down near the bottom of the forum list and some of what's in there is frightening.
Click to expand...
No, the guy had "ENT" somewhere in his username. Yeah, I'm trying not to get scared about matching before my first day of med school so I'm not looking into those subforums yet.
 
Geekchick921 said:
There's a thread about how med student pick their specialties on the Allo board right now. Worth a read, IMO.

And MCAT Guy, I'm right there with you in the sense that ENT and Ortho are really the only two surgical specialties that appeal to me. I've been so interested in ENT after how quickly Chicklet improved after her tubes. Talk about immediate gratification for your work, even in your bread and butter procedures.
Click to expand...

I like everything so far about ENT.🙂 Add one more with the Chicklet procedure.

medzealot said:
I know what you mean. In most ares of life I am a huge advocate of simplicity, but when it comes to choosing a specialty I just can't reconcile. I have the sneaking suspicion that choosing a less competitive specialty may simplify med school and the match at the expense of complicating the rest of my career--probably by making me neurotic with the "what ifs" or "if onlys."


Also, MCAT guy, you are right on with the bolded portion. The frequently propagated advice "Wait until your clinical rotations to decide on a specialty" is total BS if you end up wanting to match into Ortho, ENT, Plastics, RadOnc, or Derm. It can be done but it's just not a great idea.

People interested in those specialties should start investigating them first year to decide if they want to jump through all of the hoops. When has it ever been a bad idea to start a project early? Obviously you want to "keep an open mind," whatever that means :laugh: but it's not like building an application for Ortho will hurt your chances of matching into family med if you decide to do so after 3rd year rotations.

However, if you think you want to do FM, and after third year you decide you want to do Ortho, you may have already effed yourself with a mediocre board score. If not you've got less than 1 year to network with attendings and try to work on some specialty-specific research. Talk about stress and a lack of simplicity.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the expectations of the PDs and the quality of applicant demands foresight and planning.

DaisyBuchanan said:
I feel ya. I'm thankful that I'll be entering med school with one or two pubs in my field of choice. There was a guy that started a thread in Pre-Allo that was an ENT resident(?) and was fielding questions from kids. I think he talked about needing research to match into ENT, but I can't for the life of me remember the thread name.
Click to expand...

I think I'm shooting for ENT, want to freak out? Read this thread. This was one of the threads that got me thinking before that post.

A friendly warning to future applicants...
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=507833

I hope we can match ENT together. I'm pretty much decided in the first 9 months what I will specialize in. I'll get some specialty specific shadowing in, take the specialty compatibility tests in career planning department/AAMC site, read as much as I can and then just push all the chips in on ___(TBD)___.

One thing is for sure, you need the total package. Research, check. Step 1 230s+, check. AOA preferable, check. LORs from influential players, check.

And well, if that doesn't work out there is always Emergency Medicine! lol. Not meant to be a sleight to EM in anyway, really.🙂

EDIT: Sorry to add neurotic notions to the neurotic!

Thx for link also GC!
 
bleargh said:
: plug ears : I CAN'T HEAR YOU

/standard response to specialty talk
Click to expand...

I think I understand where you are coming from.

At the same time, I left a pretty good job/lifestyle to do this thing (although didn't enjoy the work). So my over-eager attitude results from wanting to make the most of the opportunity. But who knows where the road will end.

I love specialty talk though, not going to lie.
 
As much as ENT does appeal to me right now, I'd be SO surprised if I didn't wind up in REI, MFM or Neo.
 
Eh, I'm going to study my ass off and focus on getting a great step score, do awesome during my rotations, and count on my charm to get me the rest of the way.
 
I have now had at least two prophetic dreams about the medical school application process. One about my MCAT and the other day I had one about one of our 2015'ers getting mad cash to a certain school.

😎
 
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MCAT guy said:
I think I understand where you are coming from.

At the same time, I left a pretty good job/lifestyle to do this thing (although didn't enjoy the work). So my over-eager attitude results from wanting to make the most of the opportunity. But who knows where the road will end.

I love specialty talk though, not going to lie.
Click to expand...
i would love it if i had some time to figure ish out.. urgh.. i should get on that. too much on my plate atm though..

Geekchick921 said:
As much as ENT does appeal to me right now, I'd be SO surprised if I didn't wind up in REI, MFM or Neo.
Click to expand...
i think we all would be surprised if that happened 😉
 
Geekchick921 said:
I have now had at least two prophetic dreams about the medical school application process. One about my MCAT and the other day I had one about one of our 2015'ers getting mad cash to a certain school.

😎
Click to expand...
can you dream of me getting off the columbia waitlist? mad cash is good too. do it by next week plz!
 
Geekchick921 said:
This guy?
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=757388
Click to expand...
Haha that's the one! My bad on saying he had ENT in his name... but you figured it out 🙂
MCAT guy said:
I think I'm shooting for ENT, want to freak out? Read this thread. This was one of the threads that got me thinking before that post.

A friendly warning to future applicants...
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=507833

I hope we can match ENT together. I'm pretty much decided in the first 9 months what I will specialize in. I'll get some specialty specific shadowing in, take the specialty compatibility tests in career planning department/AAMC site, read as much as I can and then just push all the chips in on ___(TBD)___.

One thing is for sure, you need the total package. Research, check. Step 1 230s+, check. AOA preferable, check. LORs from influential players, check.

And well, if that doesn't work out there is always Emergency Medicine! lol. Not meant to be a sleight to EM in anyway, really.🙂

EDIT: Sorry to add neurotic notions to the neurotic!

Thx for link also GC!
Click to expand...
I lol'ed at the "want to freak out? Read this thread" comment. 🙂 I'm still leaning towards ophtho, which sounds a little more of a self-selecting group (not everyone wants to cut eyeballs). They have their whole separate residency matching deal to learn about though. I'll be reading that thread (and probably freaking out) later today, thanks for posting it.
 
Suncrusher said:
I'm really disappointed in you all regarding the direction this thread has taken
Click to expand...

It's my fault.

Subject change.

Who is thinking of starting up a blog?

I am. Just for fun to chronicle the upcoming years of training, capture a few good stories, and I've heard it's healthy. Catharsis.
 
DaisyBuchanan said:
Haha that's the one! My bad on saying he had ENT in his name... but you figured it out 🙂

I lol'ed at the "want to freak out? Read this thread" comment. 🙂 I'm still leaning towards ophtho, which sounds a little more of a self-selecting group (not everyone wants to cut eyeballs). They have their whole separate residency matching deal to learn about though. I'll be reading that thread (and probably freaking out) later today, thanks for posting it.
Click to expand...

Sorry to do that to you! 🙂 It's because I want you to do well.

Edit: Well, off to work. Laterzzz.
 
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