So I was going to start my own thread on this, but since this one's been bumped and is relevant, I figured it'd be more prudent to post here instead. I don't know if anyone here is familiar with oncology as a specialty, but maybe someone can help a bit or share their experiences.
Post-DVM, I'm considering trying for a small animal rotating internship with the eventual goal of doing an oncology residency. Obviously, with specialization training in general becoming more competitive in recent years, I may have do an oncology internship or two in there depending on how things go.
I'm currently a second year student, and I have a fair amount of experience following our oncology service and helping out here and there. We've also been working on getting an oncology case report published, on which I have been assured that I will have first authorship. I am hoping to continue helping out with small research projects here and there.
My issue is that my first year grades are not very good. In fact, they're quite awful. A couple of As, lots of Bs and Cs, and two Ds in large animal anatomy and neuro (the former I'd anticipated as I'd been struggling in the class pretty much all year, in spite of seeking help and lots of tutoring; the latter D was a shock as I'd had a B+ in the class all semester, so I must have just completely bombed the final). My current GPA is in the very low 2.0s and I can only imagine that I'm near the bottom of my class in terms of rank, if not at the bottom. Part of it is because I was working two jobs while in school and part of it is due to some holes in my study methods that I have since recognized and and will be working to remedy in the coming year.
But with how much more cutthroat the match seems to be now (at least judging by the published stats), even if I managed to turn my GPA around and made it over the 3.0 hump and continued accruing research and making contacts in the onocology field, and even with a first authorship under my belt, is it honestly even worth applying? Is my rocky first year just too much of a blemish on my transcript to overcome?