Why, thank you, AttyHubby, for your insightful and encouraging words concerning my question about LORs. Maybe it is ridiculous concerning it is towards the end of September, but I have had a lot of trouble choosing a specialty due to 1) geographical limitations because my husband is already matched 2) lifestyle considerations bc he is general surgery and we want a family. I guess my predicament is still "ridiculous" but I haven't wanted to go to an attending and say, "not sure what I want to do, but hey, you wanna write a letter for me!" I mean, that seems sort of ridiculous. But I might be wrong.
At this point I am so discouraged by the whole thing I'm considering taking a year off and getting a MPH. Ugh.
Admittedly, my last sentence was meant to be provocative, but what I said first did directly answer your question. Considering this is a school issue, the only one who can find out exactly how firm your school's Oct 9 deadline is...is you.
Sorry if you think I'm being harsh, but I find it hard to believe that after a year of 3rd year clerkships and now several months of 4th year you still can't decide on a specialty. Your limitations should be narrowing it down further for you, not making it harder. Geography makes it easy to pick programs (my wife has the same issue by the way). Wanting a lifestyle specialty helps, too. Obviously things like surgery are out. You can narrow it down further by your grades/steps. I mean, if your step 1 is a 215, you can cross things like derm, rad onc, rads, optho off your list which narrows down the "lifestyle" specialties even further.
What have you liked about clerkships so far? Do you like working with kids better than adults? If so, peds might be your path. Do you like working fast, frantic, and doing lots of procedures? Maybe EM is your thing (very lifestyle friendly due to the shift work aspect). Want to keep a lot of options open? Both Peds and IM have a huge number of subspecialty fellowships available, sometimes it seems almost as many as all the other specialties combined. Also, since Peds, IM, etc aren't super competitive, you'd have a much better shot at matching near your husband.
I'm not trying to be mean, I'm trying to spur you into action. These are things that should have been decided a while ago - and you must know that. You're behind here (and your school's Oct 9 BS isn't helping), but it's not too late. Make a decision, decide which attendings like and know you best (don't necessarily have to be in your chosen field, but at least 1 should be), and ask them to write one and also let them know about the schools ridic deadline. Your school's deadline may end up being a blessing in disguise because if it forces you to get complete at programs by mid Oct you will still have a great shot at interviewing at most/all of your programs.
Good luck, but most importantly, get moving!
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and apparently the date isn't absolutely, completely set in stone, THANK GOD.
