Completing your sub-i before interviews - how important is it?

[marele86]

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Hey everyone,

I'm set on pediatrics and planning out my 4th year schedule. My problem is, I'm in a program where my third year electives are all at a satellite campus, so I have no prior experience with the main campus's EMR, pediatrcs program, or layout.

My dean says I should do at least 1 easy elective (radiology, derm, some sort of consult service I don't expect a letter of rec from) right away to get used to the main campus's system. I can choose 3 electives total before my dean's letter is finalized and my application is sent out. Maybe I'm being super Type A about it, but I just look at the huge list of pediatric sub-specialty electives and I can't imagine doing my sub-I before doing at least 2 of those, plus whatever my easy intro elective is gonna be.

How important is it that one of those 3 pre-interview electives is my pediatric sub-I? For the sake of argument, let's say the rest of my application is great. Will it really be a negative on my application if I complete the sub-I later?

 

[Valentine Mott]

I think an honors in your pediatrics clerkship will be sufficient such that your peds sub-I will not be absolutely necessary.

The ideal situation would be to do an inpatient heavy elective at the main campus (eg, ID) then do your sub-I at the main campus. I think 4 weeks with the computer system would be more than sufficient to prepare you. Plus you can try to sneak in a letter from one of your sub-I attendings for your ERAS.

 

[TigerSoup]

I don't know about whether not having done a sub-i will necessarily disadvantage you, but there are pluses to getting your sub-i done early. I think you can get a more meaningful letter from a sub-i than from a subspecialty rotation since you have more responsibility. It sounds like you don't want to do your sub-i until you've had 2 peds elective rotations under your belt because you want that extra knowledge base, but no one really expects you to be an expert when you're starting a peds sub-i rotation, especially in the beginning of your fourth year. Be a proactive learner, be a good team player, and work hard, and your sub-i will go fine. I also think that the experience of being an acting intern will help you figure out what properties are important to you in your future peds program, which you can then look for on the interview trail. Also, unless you're not planning on going on a lot of interviews, don't do your sub-i during November, December, or January!

 

[justdoit31]

I don't know an exact answer but know I got a bunch of interviews and my sub-I isn't til late spring of 4th year (did aways, family wedding, and interviews in fall)

 

[Anne2009]

I've done 11 of my interviews already and no one has talked about a sub-i yet. I have done inpatient rotations and will do some more before 4th year but no official sub-i rotation (was undecided exactly what I was going to do for 4th year/residency so some were adult rotations). No one has even asked why, and I have gotten the impression that interviews are going well. Everyone's situation is different, but I think as long as you have something in general (research, volunteer work, travel, etc.) to talk about, they will do that rather than dwell on something you haven't done yet! I remember being stressed trying to plan 4th year and looking back it was unnecessary stress. I know easier said than done, but relax and plan things when you want to do them 🙂