ENT residency and beyond question

[SandP]

I am kind of on the fence between ENT and ophtho. I like both, based on my limited knowledge/shadowing as an M2, but I want to make sure that ultimately, I am happy. The thing is that I enjoy being challenged/busy so long as I have at least some time and energy to reflect on those challenges and improve. There were times in the first 2 years, for example, that I was too busy to be introspective, read, and think about ways to grow. This reflection aspect is not something I am willing to sacrifice. In general I like ENT medicine more but I like the ophtho lifestyle better. Also, the ophtho job market concerns me. With this in mind, I have some questions:

1) So will ENT, despite having a rigorous residency, allow me this time to reflect? Or will I just be exhausted the whole time?

2) A lot of attendings seem to like a 'no doubt' student-i.e. students who are full-in committed to the field (esp ENT). Am I supposed to essentially act like I am committed to ENT at the moment? I find this hard to do so given that I have not even started rotations yet.

3) Research wise. Have nothing at this point. Do I just have to make the decision now as far as ophtho vs ENT research?

FYI: Step 1= 258

In general, just got my Step 1 score and looking for advice for how to proceed...

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[ENTapplicant]

I'm an M3 applying into ENT this coming September.

1) My neighbor is a PGY3 ENT resident at the hospital where I am a medical student. I play basketball with every week on Wednesday nights (this resident has home call, and sometimes has to leave basketball to go attend to someone at the hospital). I have done multiple things on weekends, such as seeing movies, with this resident. I share this so that you can see that ENT residents (at least at some programs) have time for other things in life. I have another neighbor that's a radiology resident. The ENT's life definitely isn't as cush as that (I have seen a radiology attending apologize to a radiology resident for keeping the resident past 5pm), but ENT residents still have some time to themselves. I would be surprised if I get to keep all hobbies going at the same level through residency as I have through medical school though (should be obvious).

2) I didn't feel like I could say ENT is the specialty that (while not perfect) best fits who I am and who I want to be until midway through my third year. I found that residents and attendings found it refreshing when I would tell them the specialties I was considering, as opposed to saying, "I have no idea." or, "ENT or bust!". When I gave them some options of what I was considering, even if it was while I was on psychiatry and psych wasn't on my list, they would then tell me about their friends in those fields and what they like/dislike about them. So I found being tactfully honest to be helpful, and to garner more interesting discussion/small talk. Hasn't affected my grades or anything.

3) I had a classmate that just matched into a "top-tier" ENT residency and they did the majority of their research with Ophtho. They still had some ENT projects on the side, but they were very successful with regard to interviews and the match despite having most research in Ophtho. I would think that people like to see that you can complete research projects, and if it's done in another field they still learn from that that you can bring something to fruition. Doing it in ENT has the advantage (if you end up applying ENT) of creating a good relationship with a potential letter writer.