Going to a rural/FP school with no intentions of FP

[von Matterhorn]

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A school I'm interested in is completely, 100% focused on rural/FP training. I'm certainly not opposed to rural/underserved areas as I'm not much of a city guy or anything, but I don't think I will ever want to go into FP. Surely there are specialists in rural areas, so what happens if you go to a school like this and then apply for something more specialized? Surely they can't do anything to you at this point, but is it simply frowned upon?

 

[von Matterhorn]

bump bump

 

[shamwowzer]

A school I'm interested in is completely, 100% focused on rural/FP training. I'm certainly not opposed to rural/underserved areas as I'm not much of a city guy or anything, but I don't think I will ever want to go into FP. Surely there are specialists in rural areas, so what happens if you go to a school like this and then apply for something more specialized? Surely they can't do anything to you at this point, but is it simply frowned upon?

A school that doesn't require you to sign a contract just banks on the fact that people are more likely to go into rural medicine if they attend the institution that clearly has a focus within its mission statement.

They know not everyone will choose FP because life is fairly unpredictable which means no one can be 100% sure of what they are going to specialize in.

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[Nymphicus]

A school I'm interested in is completely, 100% focused on rural/FP training. I'm certainly not opposed to rural/underserved areas as I'm not much of a city guy or anything, but I don't think I will ever want to go into FP. Surely there are specialists in rural areas, so what happens if you go to a school like this and then apply for something more specialized? Surely they can't do anything to you at this point, but is it simply frowned upon?

A school like this most likely has more resources and opportunities for primary care rather than research or specialties.

Although, I don't think there are any US MD schools that "only train family doctors."

 

[NickNaylor]

A school I'm interested in is completely, 100% focused on rural/FP training. I'm certainly not opposed to rural/underserved areas as I'm not much of a city guy or anything, but I don't think I will ever want to go into FP. Surely there are specialists in rural areas, so what happens if you go to a school like this and then apply for something more specialized? Surely they can't do anything to you at this point, but is it simply frowned upon?

They can't do anything, but why on earth would you go to a school that specializes in training A when you don't want to be A? That makes no sense.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos)

 

[Mjolner]

They can't do anything, but why on earth would you go to a school that specializes in training A when you don't want to be A? That makes no sense.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos)

I'm guessing it's the school OP feels that he/she has the best chance of getting into maybe??

 

[235788]

I'm guessing it's the school OP feels that he/she has the best chance of getting into maybe??

Who knows. I wonder if OP is talking about a DO school or washington U

 

[ModusPwnens]

Who knows. I wonder if OP is talking about a DO school or washington U

University of Washington may be #1 primary care but there are plenty of grads who specialize in other things.

 

[tenndoc]

keep in mind that this is the guy who doesn't want to do colored medicine...🙄

 

[von Matterhorn]

They can't do anything, but why on earth would you go to a school that specializes in training A when you don't want to be A? That makes no sense.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos)

State school + low stats. Not to mention, I do actually like the idea of rural medicine. I just don't know if I want to be a FM physician. I'm not completely ruling out the idea of FM, but I would really hate to go to a school hell-bent on FM, sign a contract, and then realize 4 years and 250k later that I really want to be a cardiologist or an ophthalmologist.

FWIW, I'm talking about UMD.

 

[MT Headed]

State school + low stats. Not to mention, I do actually like the idea of rural medicine. I just don't know if I want to be a FM physician. I'm not completely ruling out the idea of FM, but I would really hate to go to a school hell-bent on FM, sign a contract, and then realize 4 years and 250k later that I really want to be a cardiologist or an ophthalmologist.

FWIW, I'm talking about UMD.

Can you talk about the contract a little more? I looked at the Maryland and Duluth school websites and didn't see any references to contracts that obligate students to a particular type of residency.

 

[von Matterhorn]

Can you talk about the contract a little more? I looked at the Maryland and Duluth school websites and didn't see any references to contracts that obligate students to a particular type of residency.

Sorry, was just speaking in generalities, I have no idea if they require some kind of contract. I strongly doubt they do, though.

 

[BoondocksDoc]

State school + low stats. Not to mention, I do actually like the idea of rural medicine.

This reasoning makes sense. I don't know of any school that makes you sign a FP contract or anything, but they certainly will give a preference in admissions to FP, rural and in-state applicants. (ie. figure out a better way to explain your application than this...😉)

And, obviously they know that things change, but you probably won't have as many opportunities at that school for networking, clerkships, etc in other specialties. Although rural isn't ONLY FP, it largely is and it might be a stretch to go from there to a more competitive tertiary specialty.

 

[pasiley]

State school + low stats. Not to mention, I do actually like the idea of rural medicine. I just don't know if I want to be a FM physician. I'm not completely ruling out the idea of FM, but I would really hate to go to a school hell-bent on FM, sign a contract, and then realize 4 years and 250k later that I really want to be a cardiologist or an ophthalmologist.

FWIW, I'm talking about UMD.

If you are talking about MN-Duluth. Don't worry, of the handful of people I know who went there, none of them intended to go into rural or family practice. They just didn't tell the adcoms that.

Since the only other state school MN-TC is much more difficult to get into, it is very common for students from rural backgrounds to pretend to be interested in rural care so they can get into MN-Duluth with their lower admissions standards.