Is waiting for rotations too late to get interested in ROAD & be competitive?

[theWUbear]

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I am aware that as a pre-med this is a topic that may not yet be relevant for me, but I'm curious 🙂

I have no experience in radiology, ortho, anesthesiology, derm, plastics, surgery, etc. Since these are some of the most competitive specialties, many medical school students aiming for them use their first year summer to start research in the field, and gun for the specialty in general throughout medical school.

Does it put you at a significant competitive disadvantage to wait until you are doing third year rotations to 'fall in love' with a highly competitive specialty? If so, would it be best to as a pre-med or pre-clinical yrs med student gain experience in a number of specialties to test the waters?

 

[Law2Doc]

I am aware that as a pre-med this is a topic that may not yet be relevant for me, but I'm curious 🙂

I have no experience in radiology, ortho, anesthesiology, derm, plastics, surgery, etc. Since these are some of the most competitive specialties, many medical school students aiming for them use their first year summer to start research in the field, and gun for the specialty in general throughout medical school.

Does it put you at a significant competitive disadvantage to wait until you are doing third year rotations to 'fall in love' with a highly competitive specialty? If so, would it be best to as a pre-med or pre-clinical yrs med student gain experience in a number of specialties to test the waters?

Yes and no. It definitely helps to have done specialty specific research. However it is not critical, and all scientific research done at the med school level looks good on a CV. Publications, posters and presentations all look great regardless of the specialty, although again, if you did it in the specialty you ultimately choose so much the better. But truth of the matter is most people don't know at this juncture. So all you can do is take your best guess, and know that even if you guess wrong, it will still look pretty good. From your list it looks like you are leaning toward a surgical field, so anything surgical probably works. Find something likely to at least throw off an abstract or poster before it's time to apply and you are golden. Bear in mind that if you find you need to do specialty specific research, there are ways to add a year to your program and do that research -- I know a few folks who delayed 4th year or graduation so they could have a year of research in a particular specialty. Tends to be important for a few of the uber competitive things.

As for testing the waters of a number of specialties, I wouldn't worry about it as a premed -- nobody will take you as seriously. But during your late first year and second year, after you have adjusted to the work flow, if you have the time it never hurts to "shadow" folks in various specialties to see what they do, particularly those fields which aren't generally covered by the 3rd year core rotations. Few people take advantage of this opportunity, which exists at most med schools, but it can really help med students realize that they could never do X or are really interested in Y.

 

[byurazorhog]

I am aware that as a pre-med this is a topic that may not yet be relevant for me, but I'm curious 🙂

I have no experience in radiology, ortho, anesthesiology, derm, plastics, surgery, etc. Since these are some of the most competitive specialties, many medical school students aiming for them use their first year summer to start research in the field, and gun for the specialty in general throughout medical school.

Does it put you at a significant competitive disadvantage to wait until you are doing third year rotations to 'fall in love' with a highly competitive specialty? If so, would it be best to as a pre-med or pre-clinical yrs med student gain experience in a number of specialties to test the waters?

There's a relevant recent thread in the Allopathic forum in which Long Dong, now a derm resident kinda addresses your question. He basically says that it would certainly be advantageous to your residency app if you start making connections and doing research in the field of your interest early in med school. Competitive residencies usually look much more favorably on applicants with significant and relevant research experience so his answer makes logical sense. Obviously if you know from the get-go what you'd like to do for the rest of your life, you can get a head start on the competition. Many of us truly will not know what we'd be interested in until we go on rotations and experience the specialties first hand. I don't think people "wait" until 3rd year to make decisions...it just happens to be WHEN people find out their real passion.

 

[Law2Doc]

...Many of us truly will not know what we'd be interested in until we go on rotations and experience the specialties first hand. I don't think people "wait" until 3rd year to make decisions...it just happens to be WHEN people find out their real passion.

Yeah, you have to realize that a lot of what you think you'll like, you won't, and a lot of things you think you won't like, you actually will. So it's really best to keep an open mind on rotations. And yet, you miss the opportunity during those first two years to create the ideal CV in terms of things like targeted research. It's one of the shortcomings of med school, and why I think you ought to be a bit proactive and get out there and see some of the non-core specialties during the pre-clinical years. And why doing a research year after your third year is not always a crazy idea, if, for example, you decide you want to do a research heavy specialty. So since you want to be keeping an open mind for your rotations, you kind of do have to "wait" until 3rd year, and possibly even early 4th year to make your decisions because to do otherwise may mean you didn't give some specialty that might have been perfect for you a fair shot.

 

[DrBowtie]

After Step 1 will be when you can truly get interested in a ROAD. Up until then some of our faculty won't give you the time of day.