Does showing interest in one specialty look bad when applying for another?

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

So as you can probably tell by my username, I have a few specialties I'm interested in. Based on the Charting Outcomes for the past few years, 3 out of the 4 of them heavily weigh "interest in specialty" during candidate selection.

Say I apply neuro, but I have a few experiences dedicated to PMR, rads, or psych, will that count against me in selection? Will they think I'm applying neuro as a backup?

You can say "oh, you're guaranteed to match any of those specialties" and I'm aware I can match *somewhere* as a US-MD, but my goal is to match at very specific regional institutions and want to hedge my bets as much as possible.

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[Darrow O'Lykos]

Prior experiences in other fields won't be held against you, and in fact will benefit you (i.e.: research pubs).

Now, if you have a disproportionate amount of one over the field you end up applying, that may raise some eyebrows.

 

[operaman]

Those are all either related or not fields that typically have to think about this. None of them are terribly competitive so unless your app is heavily skewed, you should be fine. Even better if you’re a strong applicant overall. If you don’t look like someone who needs a backup field, then less likely to sound any alarm bells.

Interest in specialty is important to everyone. Primarily it’s because unmotivated residents are a drag and at higher risk of attrition which leaves everyone scrambling.

 

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

Prior experiences in other fields won't be held against you, and in fact will benefit you (i.e.: research pubs).

Now, if you have a disproportionate amount of one over the field you end up applying, that may raise some eyebrows.

That's true. I've built my pre-clinical completely around being a great neuro/FM applicant, I'm essentially taking a neuro-pathology Post-Sophomore Fellowship right now, and (due to class politics) I was rejected for some neuro leadership for clerkships next year and was forced to take a Psych position, which had me pretty steamed. Nothing against psych, just prob not for me.

Perhaps I can just swing my residency personal statement as "Well I explored everything and ended up picking (whatever) specialty!"