Hi All,
Just wanted to ask around on the board to see what others had to say about my predicament. I am a third year medical student who is trying to decide what I want to do for the rest of my life, what a quandry.... I honestly feel somewhat overwhelmed at the moment, as I've never really worried about residency and suddenly finalizing my schedule for fourth year is staring me in the face and I'm scared of commitment. To make a long story short, I graduated from undergrad with a degree in Cellular & Molecular Biology, took time off and worked as a research tech in a cancer institute, all the while planning to apply to graduate school to study cancer biology. had a high profile contributing author publication and some poster presentations, at AACR and Digestive Disease Week (pancreatic cyst/cancer risk study). Decided to go to med school and finished up the project I was working on (published during my second year of medical school), which led to a first author publication in a proteomics journal (lab was cancer immunodiagnostics). During medical school I fell in love with EM for some reason, but that didn't last long once clinical rotations hit. I then wanted ENT for a couple months, then radiology, specifically IR, with the most recent bent being pursuing a career in Interventional Oncology. I was somewhat frustrated with how indirect a path it was, without significant oncology training. At this point (about a month ago), I "re-remembered" the field of radiation oncology, having briefly interfaced with it during tumor boards on general surgery (where I fell in love with taking care of cancer patients, and decided I wanted to do oncology work, but IM does not interest me). So, at this point, I am weeks away from applying to away rotations/finalizing my fourth year schedule, and I dont know what to do.... I've done extensive research on RadOnc and it seems like everything I want, but I havent actually done a rotation, let alone shadowed (which I'm trying to set up ASAP). I've done some IR and think I would enjoy it, but I really want oncology... Has anyone else made the decision to "pursue" RadOnc (scheduling fourth year that way) without actually shadowing the field? It seems unwise to do so, I just dont know if I'll get a shadowing time set up (and whether it will be representative) in time before I set up aways (i'm assuming these visiting rotations in RadOnc fill fast). As far as my profile goes, it's as follows: midwest medical school (middle of the pack, mainly primary care), no class ranking, "outstanding" pre-clinical performance, 262 step 1, honors on 3/4 clinical rotations thus far (including medicine and surgery), 2 publications, one first author, 2 major conference presentations, cancer research award/scholarship from school, but no home program... has anyone else walked the same path i'm looking at, or similar? I appreciate any input I might receive, sorry for the longwindedness, just trying to talk things out to alleviate some of the uncertainty/concern... thanks!
Just wanted to ask around on the board to see what others had to say about my predicament. I am a third year medical student who is trying to decide what I want to do for the rest of my life, what a quandry.... I honestly feel somewhat overwhelmed at the moment, as I've never really worried about residency and suddenly finalizing my schedule for fourth year is staring me in the face and I'm scared of commitment. To make a long story short, I graduated from undergrad with a degree in Cellular & Molecular Biology, took time off and worked as a research tech in a cancer institute, all the while planning to apply to graduate school to study cancer biology. had a high profile contributing author publication and some poster presentations, at AACR and Digestive Disease Week (pancreatic cyst/cancer risk study). Decided to go to med school and finished up the project I was working on (published during my second year of medical school), which led to a first author publication in a proteomics journal (lab was cancer immunodiagnostics). During medical school I fell in love with EM for some reason, but that didn't last long once clinical rotations hit. I then wanted ENT for a couple months, then radiology, specifically IR, with the most recent bent being pursuing a career in Interventional Oncology. I was somewhat frustrated with how indirect a path it was, without significant oncology training. At this point (about a month ago), I "re-remembered" the field of radiation oncology, having briefly interfaced with it during tumor boards on general surgery (where I fell in love with taking care of cancer patients, and decided I wanted to do oncology work, but IM does not interest me). So, at this point, I am weeks away from applying to away rotations/finalizing my fourth year schedule, and I dont know what to do.... I've done extensive research on RadOnc and it seems like everything I want, but I havent actually done a rotation, let alone shadowed (which I'm trying to set up ASAP). I've done some IR and think I would enjoy it, but I really want oncology... Has anyone else made the decision to "pursue" RadOnc (scheduling fourth year that way) without actually shadowing the field? It seems unwise to do so, I just dont know if I'll get a shadowing time set up (and whether it will be representative) in time before I set up aways (i'm assuming these visiting rotations in RadOnc fill fast). As far as my profile goes, it's as follows: midwest medical school (middle of the pack, mainly primary care), no class ranking, "outstanding" pre-clinical performance, 262 step 1, honors on 3/4 clinical rotations thus far (including medicine and surgery), 2 publications, one first author, 2 major conference presentations, cancer research award/scholarship from school, but no home program... has anyone else walked the same path i'm looking at, or similar? I appreciate any input I might receive, sorry for the longwindedness, just trying to talk things out to alleviate some of the uncertainty/concern... thanks!
