Delay Graduation?

[956386]

Hey everyone,

Made a new profile to remain anonymous. My story is that I was doing surgery rotations summer of my fourth year then switched into a less competitive more lifestyle friendly field and have interviewed at a few programs in this field and have realized it's not for me. I am debating going back to surgery and applying to any remaining programs that are still accepting applications or surgery prelim years.

The fact that I couldn't decide on a specialty has been driving me crazy for the past few weeks and I still think about doing EM, IM, or maybe something else. I met with a representative from my school and he said I could delay graduation for a half year or year and do more rotations and see what I like and get letters and apply again a year from now. If I simply state that I was undecided then it shouldn't be a problem for programs. He told me a few students each year from my school have done this and were very happy they did.

Just wondering what you all think. It seems like a lot better option than scrambling for prelim or transitional years and not knowing what I'll be doing after.

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[W19]

I agree that it's a better option than scrambling or taking a preliminary spot...

 

[LBJLA23]

Hey everyone,

Made a new profile to remain anonymous. My story is that I was doing surgery rotations summer of my fourth year then switched into a less competitive more lifestyle friendly field and have interviewed at a few programs in this field and have realized it's not for me. I am debating going back to surgery and applying to any remaining programs that are still accepting applications or surgery prelim years.

The fact that I couldn't decide on a specialty has been driving me crazy for the past few weeks and I still think about doing EM, IM, or maybe something else. I met with a representative from my school and he said I could delay graduation for a half year or year and do more rotations and see what I like and get letters and apply again a year from now. If I simply state that I was undecided then it shouldn't be a problem for programs. He told me a few students each year from my school have done this and were very happy they did.

Just wondering what you all think. It seems like a lot better option than scrambling for prelim or transitional years and not knowing what I'll be doing after.

I'm in the same position as you. Can't decide on specialty and its killing me. Plan is to extend and explore, apply next year.

 

[operaman]

100% delay and apply next year. You don’t want to be stuck in a prelim year if you can help it and the SOAP can be very hit or miss. Take the time and get your things in order and take a run at whatever you end up deciding on.

I don’t think most programs will care that you took some additional time to decide. If you decide on surgery, you’d be coming into a field where 20-25% of entering residents don’t finish the program, so every PD has had residents who waited til intern year or later to decide gen surg wasn’t for them. You’d get questions probing about how sure you were that you’d found your true calling, but those are fairly easy to answer.