Do medical schools expect applicants to have a specialty in mind?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Q

Quaestor

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
May 16, 2014
Messages
33
Reaction score
0
Members don't see this ad.
This question is actually two-fold.

I'm thinking of psychiatry as a potential specialty. If I told medical schools this, though, I'd imagine they'd want interest, such as shadowing a psychiatrist or psychology/neuro classes.

Only thing is, I'd rather take a microbiology course than a neuro course, simply because the professor is much better and the class is smaller and encourages discussion, whereas neuro would be yet another large lecture and treated as a weed-out, and quite frankly, I'd like to avoid any more weed-outs because I'm taking biochemistry next year.

I'm just afraid that my lack of neuro and psych courses won't speak very well if I wanted to display interest in psychiatry.

1. Do medical schools want you to have a path in mind?

2. If they do, would they look at my courses as a form of proof?
 
The last thing you should do is take courses to prove your interest in a certain specialty. Experiences outside of academia are really the ones that should speak for your interest in medicine.
 
I would say that the majority of applicants do not apply with a particular specialty in mind, and ultimately many people change their minds over the course of medical school. So a set path would not necessarily mean anything to adcoms.

And to second allantois, meaningful experiences in patient care and/or volunteering is much more substantial - if you're interested in peds, volunteer with summer camps, if you're interested in geri, volunteer in care homes, etc. I would recommend shadowing in the specialty, but with psychiatry you run into the problem with patient confidentiality.
 
Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to pick your undergrad courses based on what specialty you want to go into. While most of my med school interviews did ask the “what specialty are you interested in?” question it’s pretty easy to get around not having shadowing experience in that field. For example say something like “I’m really interested in psychiatry”, then explain what traits you have that would make you a good psychiatrist, then finish with “but I’ll have to wait until 3rd year rotations to really experience the field and make a decision” or something along those lines.

In short, if you have the opportunity to shadow a psychiatrist and do some mental health EC’s do them and don’t worry about the classes (other than getting A’s and keeping that GPA up).
 
Most pre-meds have superficial or idealistic reasons for picking specialties. This usually changes by the time you get to third/fourth year.

I'd say being dead-set on a specialty while applying is more of a negative, if anything.
 
Quaestor said:
Do medical schools want you to have a path in mind?
Click to expand...
The AAMC surveys students about their preferred specialty in the summer before med school matriculation, and then asks them again when they graduate. They recently linked these surveys for the class of 2014, and only 25% of graduates reported the same preference they had expressed before matriculation.

They also break it down by specialty. For those graduates going into psychiatry, 15% had indicated a desire to do so prior to matriculation, and 65% had said they were interested in a different specialty.

It's normal to have a specialty in mind. But everyone knows that it doesn't really matter.
 
Last edited:
No you should not have a specialty in mind because it makes you look narrow-minded. However, you can be interested in something and the only way you can talk about it is if you have had experience with it through coursework, shadowing, volunteering, etc. You cannot tell someone during your interview thaty enjoy psychiatry if your application doesn't show it.
 
They don't expect it-no. But common interview questions are fields you're interested in. I was realistic and indicated I like X field but that that may be likely to change with more clinical experience in other fields
 
No, they won't expect it, and no, even if they did your courses would hardly be persuading. I've come across a few applicants that have extensive experience in a particular field, be it research, volunteering, etc.. In their cases I put a little more stock in what they say they're interested in. In general, though, I believe the person that says they know what field they're going into just about as much as I believe the high school student who knows what they're going to do in their career.
 
Slack3r said:
Most pre-meds have superficial or idealistic reasons for picking specialties. This usually changes by the time you get to third/fourth year.

I'd say being dead-set on a specialty while applying is more of a negative, if anything.
Click to expand...

I'm one of the few person I know that knew which specialty going in and am still going for it although a lot of the ortho bros were obvious from the beginning
 
Psai said:
I'm one of the few person I know that knew which specialty going in and am still going for it although a lot of the ortho bros were obvious from the beginning
Click to expand...
The AAMC data bear this out. Ortho has the highest proportion of graduates who stated the same specialty interest from the beginning: 46.8%.

Second is peds (40.4%), though I imagine that is a very different population.
 
razzmatazz87 said:
They don't expect it-no. But common interview questions are fields you're interested in. I was realistic and indicated I like X field but that that may be likely to change with more clinical experience in other fields
Click to expand...

And that's exactly how you should answer. Medschools don't want students who try to pigeon-hole themselves into one thing. With very little experience in anything, it makes you look overly presumptuous. It's okay to have an interest but be certain that they know that you are completely open to any field. They want students who they can mold to their school's standards.
 
I talked to our dean of admissions about this topic. She told me applicants are expected to have a plan and a specialty in mind when applying, even though the school knows most students change their mind more than once while in school.

I asked if not having a vision as to what kind of doctor you want to be is okay, since we are going to change our minds anyway. She said "no, that would be seen as a negative."

Make of that what you will. Medical education has a lot of hoops to jump through, and some hoops make more sense than others.
 
NO.

Quaestor said:
This question is actually two-fold.

I'm thinking of psychiatry as a potential specialty. If I told medical schools this, though, I'd imagine they'd want interest, such as shadowing a psychiatrist or psychology/neuro classes.

Only thing is, I'd rather take a microbiology course than a neuro course, simply because the professor is much better and the class is smaller and encourages discussion, whereas neuro would be yet another large lecture and treated as a weed-out, and quite frankly, I'd like to avoid any more weed-outs because I'm taking biochemistry next year.

I'm just afraid that my lack of neuro and psych courses won't speak very well if I wanted to display interest in psychiatry.

1. Do medical schools want you to have a path in mind?

2. If they do, would they look at my courses as a form of proof?
Click to expand...
 
I think if you've had a decent amount of experience in a certain specialty, you can speak with confidence on whether it particularly interests you or not.

A lot of my medical volunteering and shadowing (and research) came from months (during a gap year) in an academic center's Radiation Oncology department, so it allowed me to talk about specifics of why that specialty interests me (as opposed to giving a sort of vague statement of interest).
 
I like emergency medicine and OB/gyn, but will likely choose EM if nothing else interests me during medical school. Of course, I'm biased, because these are fields I've had significant exposure to. I pretty much already counted out OB/gyn, though, as their quality of life in general seems pretty sucky (in my experience, anyway), but you never know!

Lately, though, my interest has been growing for general surgery, even though I know very little about it. I repeatedly ask myself: how are surgeons (especially residents) not scared ****less to cut someone open?

Anyway, a little off-topic. Just some rambling. 😛
 
breakintheroof said:
The AAMC surveys students about their preferred specialty in the summer before med school matriculation, and then asks them again when they graduate. They recently linked these surveys for the class of 2014, and only 25% of graduates reported the same preference they had expressed before matriculation.

They also break it down by specialty. For those graduates going into psychiatry, 15% had indicated a desire to do so prior to matriculation, and 65% had said they were interested in a different specialty.

It's normal to have a specialty in mind. But everyone knows that it doesn't really matter.
Click to expand...

25% is higher than I would have expected tbh.

sazerac said:
I talked to our dean of admissions about this topic. She told me applicants are expected to have a plan and a specialty in mind when applying, even though the school knows most students change their mind more than once while in school.

I asked if not having a vision as to what kind of doctor you want to be is okay, since we are going to change our minds anyway. She said "no, that would be seen as a negative."

Make of that what you will. Medical education has a lot of hoops to jump through, and some hoops make more sense than others.
Click to expand...

There's a pretty simple work around for this, no? Get shadowing experience in a couple of fields (as an applicant should) and talk about which one you seemed to fit into more and why.
 
Slack3r said:
Most pre-meds have superficial or idealistic reasons for picking specialties. This usually changes by the time you get to third/fourth year.

I'd say being dead-set on a specialty while applying is more of a negative, if anything.
Click to expand...

My passion for the aesthetic form of 38mm areola, grade 1 ptosis, c-cup breasts was profound and very well explored since the beginning of pre-med coursework. I took significant strides to explore this outside of the class room as well, going as far as to research this in independent study, and involving significant quantities of peer-reviewed literature. It made for very compelling discussion when I chose plastic surgery as a senior in college.
 
caffeinemia said:
My passion for the aesthetic form of 38mm areola, grade 1 ptosis, c-cup breasts was profound and very well explored since the beginning of pre-med coursework. I took significant strides to explore this outside of the class room as well, going as far as to research this in independent study, and involving significant quantities of peer-reviewed literature. It made for very compelling discussion when I chose plastic surgery as a senior in college.
Click to expand...

You're freaking awesome man.
 
medic86 said:
Lately, though, my interest has been growing for general surgery, even though I know very little about it. I repeatedly ask myself: how are surgeons (especially residents) not scared ****less to cut someone open?
Click to expand...

Experience. With the surgery team I'm on now, there is a resident from each year of training. The levels of confidence are pretty distinct. The chief resident functions relatively independently, the PGY2 gets a lot of guidance. And I'm over here worrying I won't cut the suture tails short enough 😉
 
Question: would it provide any advantage to indicate the specialty you had in mind in the personal statement if it is well supported by your ECs?
 
breakintheroof said:
The AAMC data bear this out. Ortho has the highest proportion of graduates who stated the same specialty interest from the beginning: 46.8%.

Second is peds (40.4%), though I imagine that is a very different population.
Click to expand...

Urology increased exponentially. That's my goal and having worked as a Urology Tech I have seen the options in the field. I hope to be part of that 5% from beginning to end. Still a long way to go.

Thanks for the information!
 
^^ Would it be any DISadvantage to have a specialty in mind, though? If one were to look at my application they'd assume I automatically have one (because of research in field and shadowing, mainly...and I did take a class related to it as well), and they'd be almost right except for the fact that I have no idea of the true day-to-day proceedings and might change my mind when I'm actually observing that. I wouldn't put that in my personal statement but I'm worried that having a specialty in mind would work against me because of the idea that I don't really know what actually happens in that specialty.

EDIT: If I did say I did research in X field would that necessarily hint that I'm interested in that specialty? So far I mentioned it was something I was curious about and hence the research, but other than that I didn't mention I wanted to go into it as a physician.
 
It's best to avoid discussing interest in a particular specialty unless explicitly asked (a la Hopkins secondary), so no, medical schools don't expect you to have chosen a specialty. That is one of the big purposes of clinical rotations in medical school.

For now, all you need to focus on is "why medicine?"
 
UNMedGa said:
It's best to avoid discussing interest in a particular specialty unless explicitly asked (a la Hopkins secondary), so no, medical schools don't expect you to have chosen a specialty. That is one of the big purposes of clinical rotations in medical school.

For now, all you need to focus on is "why medicine?"
Click to expand...

Tired said:
Just say you want to do primary care in underserved areas. Can't go wrong with that.
Click to expand...

If I understand correctly, then, I'd be better of not answering "What specialty" directly unless prompted.

So even if my application did hint at some specialty, would that still be considered pushing in that direction? Like, I could see it going the other way by saying, "Oh, I did X, Y, and Z which hints at this specialty but I really don't know if these things are representative of the specialty if I decide to explore it." Would that potentially be seen as me "knowing" what kind of specialty I want to do?

I'm being picky only because if I saw my app from the point of view of an adcom, hypothetically, I'd assume I had a specialty picked out.
 
Quaestor said:
This question is actually two-fold.

I'm thinking of psychiatry as a potential specialty. If I told medical schools this, though, I'd imagine they'd want interest, such as shadowing a psychiatrist or psychology/neuro classes.

Only thing is, I'd rather take a microbiology course than a neuro course, simply because the professor is much better and the class is smaller and encourages discussion, whereas neuro would be yet another large lecture and treated as a weed-out, and quite frankly, I'd like to avoid any more weed-outs because I'm taking biochemistry next year.

I'm just afraid that my lack of neuro and psych courses won't speak very well if I wanted to display interest in psychiatry.

1. Do medical schools want you to have a path in mind?

2. If they do, would they look at my courses as a form of proof?
Click to expand...


NO, NO.
I highly doubt this is something medical schools would care to look for unless you literally referenced it in your PS by saying "dear adcom, please look at my transcript and see that it makes sense for the specialty I'm interested in".
 
Dandine said:
If I understand correctly, then, I'd be better of not answering "What specialty" directly unless prompted.

So even if my application did hint at some specialty, would that still be considered pushing in that direction? Like, I could see it going the other way by saying, "Oh, I did X, Y, and Z which hints at this specialty but I really don't know if these things are representative of the specialty if I decide to explore it." Would that potentially be seen as me "knowing" what kind of specialty I want to do?

I'm being picky only because if I saw my app from the point of view of an adcom, hypothetically, I'd assume I had a specialty picked out.
Click to expand...

I think you might be overthinking it a bit. Good for you for paying attention to the details, though. Just don't let it give you an infarction!

You can talk about how your past experience in X, Y and Z relate to you, and how these experiences have strongly influenced your desire to practice medicine. I don't think inferring that you have some interest in a certain area is a bad thing - where it becomes problematic is when you declare that "I'm going to be (specialty)!" without being able to explain any of the reasoning behind it. For example, lots of kids in high school get enamored with earning power and seeming complexity/prestige of specialties such as neurosurgery, so they short-sightedly declare that they want to be a brain surgeon, and when people ask them why or if they've shadowed neurosurgeons/done neuroscience research, they draw blanks. This is an indicator of immaturity to some degree. It's for the purpose of avoiding this appearance that I generally say to avoid talking too much about picking a specialty.

So, in short, let me emphasize that the primary purpose of your medical school application (including the PS) is to answer the question "why medicine". However, if your experiences in psychology/psychiatry have strongly influenced you, don't just say "I want to be a psychiatrist," but rather illustrate how your experiences in this field have proven your commitment to practicing medicine. It's ok to indicate some interest in certain fields, as natural interests do start to come up as you explore; just don't go for the "specialty or bust" mentality, is what I think I'm trying to say.

I think I could have made this a bit more clear, so I apologize if the answer is confusing. I was posting somewhat hastily.
 
Pretty sure this falls into a gray area, in my opinion it all has to do with how realistic and well developed that interest in that particular field is. I definitely worried about revealing my intention to pursue a certain specialty (which has been mentioned in this thread ), especially with the focus many schools seem to want to place on producing "primary care doctors". Against advice to do otherwise I did reveal that intention in personal statement etc. Whether or not that got me in is impossible to say for sure, but at the school I was interviewed and accepted at, it was by a doctor in a closely related (overlapping) specialty, and after a relatively awkward beginning to the interview our discussion evolved into a highly technical discussion of my master's thesis, publications and relevant research topics in that specialty. Obviously I will never know for sure what the magic bullet was for admission but I can't help but think that at least at this particular school it may have been a consideration. I think its definitely more relevant for non-trads who may have worked for several years in areas closely related to the specialty they desire to pursue.

Edit: Also in all 4 interviews I've had I was asked specifically where i see myself in X (10 or 15) years, and specifically in which specialty
Edit 2: Actually, thinking back, in every interview the choice of specialty was a pretty major topic and multiple questions were asked about it for example why I have interest in that particular field, what related experiences I had etc.
 
Last edited:
Tired said:
They can't call everyone a liar, right?
Click to expand...

If your upbringing consists of [Elite Main Line Philly High School] to [expensive-ass top tier college], then I'm going to go assume you've never met an "underserved" person in your life unless they were cleaning your floors. Sadly it's not that these kids are lying. Too many of them actually believe what they're telling themselves.

Even worse, coming from a college where we recruited hard for "rural valedictorians" I have a lot of friends who later went on to train at places like UMich and UNC-CH Family Med whose applications ran the risk of getting lost in the shuffle with all the bullsh-tters.
 
Tell people you are deadset on some sort of sub-sub-specialty. They will be wowed at how knowledgeable you are.
 
Take/do what sounds interesting to you. Doing what you think adcoms would like is really bad/tacky. It kinda chips away at you as a person.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

F
Medical Assisting Specialty
Replies
5
Views
608
flipflop3214
F
P
Will cuts to NIH funding affect how Medical Schools value research expereince/productivity in applicants?
Replies
5
Views
2K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
V
How many volunteering hours do I need to apply to "service-heavy" schools and have a shot?
Replies
5
Views
1K
Goro
Goro
R
Do some medical schools require anatomy?
Replies
1
Views
837
wysdoc
wysdoc
O
  • Question Question
How do top Medical Schools view top MCAT scores
Replies
5
Views
751
CBass2288
CBass2288
Top