Dazed & Confused

[tripped]

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My Stats: Step1=228, GPA=3.6 (likely top 1/3 or mid 1/3 of my class), awards for leadership in med school and lot of community work but no research. 3rd yr, I have high honors in Psych and FP, honors in Peds, OB, Pass in Surg and IM.

I would appreciate any input on what I should do.

 

[stephew]

Please help me. I finished 3rd yr, not knowing what I wanted to do my residency in. My uncle (medical physicist) introduced me to Rad Onc MDs that he works with and I worked with them for 2 weeks in July and loved it. While there were no spots open in Aug at my own shool, dept. was nice enough to accomodate me for 4 weeks. My chief res doesn't like me much cuz I think he thinks I am dumb. But I know I am not. Its just I haven't done an official rotation in the field till this past month so I have had to get adjusted to how they do things. (I have excellent evals from 3rd yr). The chair left on vacation and the PD is nice but he hasn't been around much. He just told me to try to do externships.

My Stats: Step1=228, GPA=3.6 (likely top 1/3 or mid 1/3 of my class), awards for leadership in med school and lot of community work but no research. 3rd yr, I have high honors in Psych and FP, honors in Peds, OB, Pass in Surg and IM.

I have been emailing schools to get externships and it looks like I can go to Utah in Sep. However, I want to go to places where I have somewhat of a chance.

My question : What should I do?

I would appreciate any input.

its hard to get into radonc anywhere; do an externship and do well. A good letter of rec form a good name will help. Good luck.

 

[tripped]

its hard to get into radonc anywhere; do an externship and do well. A good letter of rec form a good name will help. Good luck.

do u think its even worth applying this year? Do you think its better to take a year to do research and even finish a prelim/transitional year?

 

[stephew]

why wait? if you dont get in you work more and try again.

 

[Thaiger75]

why wait? if you dont get in you work more and try again.

I do generally agree with this. However, just an anectodal caveat of something that I noticed when I reapplied. Although I did apply to more programs the 2nd time around, I noticed that the majority of interviews I received the 2nd time were from programs that 1) Didn't offer a spot the previous year (and so I didn't apply there) or 2) I didn't apply to last time. Alot of places that I received interviews flat-out during the 1st time didn't offer me one a 2nd time...ditto goes for the places that didn't offer me an interview the 1st time. What does this mean? I have no idea, and I thought that this trend was a bit odd, but it was not an isolated thing...other people in my position noticed the same thing. Perhaps they did remember my application previously and thought that they would give fresh applicants an interview over me...who knows. But it was hard to ignore the trend. Just something to keep in mind...but I wouldn't let it deter you too much in going ahead and applying the 1st time...you never know what could happen! 🙂 "Weaker" applicants than you have applied and matched.