Interested in Plastics

[Hejman]

Hello all,

I am a pre-med student who will be attending medical school this fall. From my extensive shadowing experiences and working as an ED tech in the hospital, I have been exposed to all the specialties and have had the chance to talk to many physicians. I have asked them about what it took to get where they were, why they chose what they chose, and whether they had any regrets.

So far, out of all the specialties I interacted with, the ones I narrowed down as the ones I was most interested in, were the following (in order of interest)

1) Plastic Surgery
2) Radiation Oncology
3) Interventional Radiology
4) Dermatology
5) Emergency Medicine

Having said that, at this point in time, #1, Plastic Surgery, is what I am really interested in. I shadowed someone who had a private practice and I really liked what he did (apart from cosmetic procedures, he specialized in hand reconstruction, etc.)

Now being very new to the game, all I know at this point is that nearly all the specialties on this list are extremely competitive to get into (unfortunate for me) so I want to get a good head start by getting an idea of what I should be doing "right" from day 1 in medical school in order to become a plastic surgeon. I know things will change, and I know that I might not want to be a plastic surgeon even a year from now, but I would rather tread the safe path and do things right the first time, so that regardless of where my interest lies, I dont have any regrets later on. Thanks all!

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[shffl]

1) Plastic Surgery
2) Radiation Oncology
3) Interventional Radiology
4) Dermatology
5) Emergency Medicine

P.R.I.D.E.

I thought that was pretty cool lol

 

[MrBeauregard]

OP,

From day one you need to ensure that you are making yourself the most competitive applicant the world has ever seen. You need to try your hardest to ace every single test and do research beginning the summer after MSI. You need to absolutely crush Step 1 and make sure you honor ever single third year rotation.

For the complete list:
A. Be top third (really, top quarter; ideally, top 10%; perfectly, #1).
B. Attain AOA (ideally, junior AOA).
C. Bust out a >250 Step 1
D. Honor all third year rotations
E. Do research with well-respected faculty
F. Get stellar letters of recommendations from PRS faculty at your school; make sure they know people in high places so they can put in a good word for you.
G. Luck.

Hope this helps. I am interested in plastics as well, and I pretty much wake up every morning and read this list out loud to myself.

 

[sillyjpants]

OP,

From day one you need to ensure that you are making yourself the most competitive applicant the world has ever seen. You need to try your hardest to ace every single test and do research beginning the summer after MSI. You need to absolutely crush Step 1 and make sure you honor ever single third year rotation.

For the complete list:
A. Be top third (really, top quarter; ideally, top 10%; perfectly, #1).
B. Attain AOA (ideally, junior AOA).
C. Bust out a >250 Step 1
D. Honor all third year rotations
E. Do research with well-respected faculty
F. Get stellar letters of recommendations from PRS faculty at your school; make sure they know people in high places so they can put in a good word for you.
G. Luck.

Hope this helps. I am interested in plastics as well, and I pretty much wake up every morning and read this list out loud to myself.

Interesting post... I should have been reading this out loud to myself a long time ago. I guess it's too late now. Good luck in your endeavors, Hejman and MrBeauregard!

 

[Apollyon]

1) Plastic Surgery
2) Radiation Oncology
3) Interventional Radiology
4) Dermatology
5) Emergency Medicine

Interesting, because there was a kid graduating med school when I was finishing residency, and he was debating between Rad Onc and EM. (He went Rad Onc.)

 

[MrBeauregard]

Obviously my post was part ridiculousness and part truth. I was attempting to draw attention to the extremely competitive applicant pool that is integrated PRS, or even fellowship PRS for that matter.

It still is a well known fact that plastics applicants must be academically well-suited as well as well-rounded individuals. You obviously don't have to hit each of the marks I put forth in my list, but none of them would hurt your chances at matching. I worked for a large group of plastic surgeons for a couple of years before medical school and they really had an impact on my future aspirations. I don't really wake up and read that list out loud to myself, but I do remind myself on a daily basis of what it is I want to do and what it will take to get there. I think the important thing really is keeping your eyes on your goal and working hard every single day to reach that goal.

 

[maxheadroom]

1) Plastic Surgery
2) Radiation Oncology
3) Interventional Radiology
4) Dermatology
5) Emergency Medicine

I don't really see any sort of cohesive theme in these beyond high pay (in 4/5) and areas that appear to be sophisticated and exciting.

Start medical school and get some exposure to the different disciplines. Figure out what you like. Get the best grades and scores you can.

 

[droliver]

I don't really see any sort of cohesive theme in these beyond high pay (in 4/5) and areas that appear to be sophisticated and exciting.

I had the same thought. It suggests you really are not that tuned in yet as to what you really are interested (which you'd expect as a pre-med unless you have had a lot of exposure). These fields have relatively little in common on so many levels to be honest

 

[drpatelplasticsurgery]

crack 250+ on Step 1, honor at least Surgery and Medicine during 3rd yr, and in the meantime explore your shortlist of fields by shadowing on free time/attending specialty grand rounds/getting your face recognized in a room by faculty. if you don't succeed in all of the above, do your best and consider taking extra time off (1-2 yrs) to do clinical research. bench stuff can be more rigorous but is also more painstaking w/ a higher threshold for publishability (using my experience w/ plastics journals as comparison).

once you narrow down things (hopefully sooner than later), kill some resident research scraps and start working your way up the food chain to higher authorship. the sooner you commit to a super competitive field the better, but don't rush to a decision unless it's fully informed. mentors can be key in this process and may be the ones going to bat for you come ranklist time during February 4th yr...

the above sounds so straightforward the way i write it, but believe me it's tough, even if you're a great test-taker. in the end some measure of luck and interpersonal skills may make all the difference in matching and not.