How to choose a medical specialty

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The AAMC Careers in Medicine website is REALLY badass with tons of useful info and self-eval tools (they even match specialties to personality types). You need to get a login from your school though.

Iserson's Getting Into A Residency has some decent straight-to-the-truth rundowns of different specialties as well.
 
seriously said:
geez, is it just me, or does this ask the same 10 questions over and over again?
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It's probably doing that because it wants to see if you answer that question consistently. If you fluctuate continuously on how you answer the question, it's going to realize you don't have a strong opinion on it, and probably not weigh the answer much when picking your specialty.
 
Slide said:
That site had pathology as my #1 specialty that would suit me best. Considering that I really don't have a desire for pathology and histology is beginning to irate me, I'm calling BS on those rankings. However, I did take a personality survey thing during a free lunch at school and it also had me matching into pathology as a potential field. Maybe I should start changing my personality.
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The silly thing about those tests is that when they line up with what a person wants to do anyway they are lauded as nearly miraculous. When they come up with something the person doesn't like they are called BS.
 
I've given up on taking specialty predictors because I'm always getting different answers. I dunno if I'm changing my mind on different days or they're using different criteria. So far I've had the following as top choices:

Ophthalmology
GI
OB/GYN
Family Practice
Hematology/Oncology
Psychiatry (!?!)
 
This is a book I found helpful: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Specialty (Lange Medical Book) by Brian Freeman (Author)

The first few chapters deal with the Match and followed by 19 chapters about each specialty. Each chapter is written by residents in that field and addresses the pro's and con's plus lifestyle and statistics.
 
I liked "How to choose a medical specialty" by Taylor.

Honestly though, in my experience books can give you a general idea about fields with which you are totally unfamiliar, but aren't so helpful in helping you narrow down your list of "these three specialties all sound pretty good." Best thing to do is to talk to people in those fields and try to get as much exposure as you can (rotations, research, etc).
 
I've been reading the ultimate guide to choosing a medical specialty. It has been very informative and it is written by doctors. It's not the end all be all, but it has been very informative and lead me in some new direction. It also gives great practicals for getting matched in the different specialties.
 
This might help ...

bmj.jpg
 
Hmm; that flow chart is becoming a tad trite.
 
J DUB said:
Old school:

Rotate thru 3rd and 4th year and make a decision.

I like to do a pro and con list. and add a rating scale to each point for significance. Damn, I am a nerd! 😱
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Wow. That's a lot of effort. In my M3 rotations, I typically couldn't stand most stuff; loved 1 thing, and liked 1 other thing.

(The pro/con idea is a good idea to hold onto when going over which programs you interview at for residency.)
 
Slide said:
That site had pathology as my #1 specialty that would suit me best. Considering that I really don't have a desire for pathology and histology is beginning to irate me, I'm calling BS on those rankings. However, I did take a personality survey thing during a free lunch at school and it also had me matching into pathology as a potential field. Maybe I should start changing my personality.
Click to expand...

Or maybe there is more to pathology than you've encountered to this point!
 
If you can't figure out what you want to choose, do the opposite.

Slowly cross out specialties you don't want to do, and hopefully you'll be left with only a few that you can choose from.
 
Actually, human beings are comically bad at making grand, complex decisions in a logical, methodical manner. Usually your best bet will be to gain whatever experience you need firsthand, then just sleep on it for a while (literally) and go with your gut. And like all other life decisions, this is not a make-or-break, nor is it irreversible.
 
DocPsychosis said:
Actually, human beings are comically bad at making grand, complex decisions in a logical, methodical manner. Usually your best bet will be to gain whatever experience you need firsthand, then just sleep on it for a while (literally) and go with your gut. And like all other life decisions, this is not a make-or-break, nor is it irreversible.
Click to expand...

Me-thinks Psychiatry for you?
 
What med school year are you Pop? If you are in year one, you've got plenty of time. No matter what stage you're at, just talk to people: residents, older medical students--and see what people say. At some point some thing will probably get you at least marginally interested. Maye a good start is to figure out if you are a surgery or medicine kind of person. Some of that can be determined by talking to people from those types of fields (i.e. see if you are comfortable with personality types) and some of that is done by doing the clinical rotations and experiencing it first hand.
 
Man, I was excited ZagDoc was posting again until I saw the thread was six years old.
 
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