please offer some advice!

[waldowaldo]

hey all,

i'm a 4th year med student currently applying for anesthesia. i recently took my radiology elective and LOVED it. i've really thought about my future and have decided to switch to radiology. what should i do now?? drop out of the match and take a year off? apply to prelim and hope to find a radiology spot during my intern year?

i was gonna graduate from med school and then do a year of research at a university closer to home and reapply....

any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated as my 4th year has now taken an unexpected turn...thanks everyone

very confused,
waldo

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[8744]

hey all,

i'm a 4th year med student currently applying for anesthesia. i recently took my radiology elective and LOVED it. i've really thought about my future and have decided to switch to radiology. what should i do now?? drop out of the match and take a year off? apply to prelim and hope to find a radiology spot during my intern year?

i was gonna graduate from med school and then do a year of research at a university closer to home and reapply....

any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated as my 4th year has now taken an unexpected turn...thanks everyone

very confused,
waldo

Drop out of the match, scramble into a prelimnary position, and try again next year with good letters from faculty radiologists. Explain this in your personal statement next year.

Don't match into a specialty you do not like. Trust me.

 

[Hurricane]

If you haven't already, set up a meeting with the PD of your med school's radiology program and ask his/her advice.

 

[cytoborg]

My roommate went through a similar thing - midway through interviews she realized she wanted to do a different specialty (derm), so she dropped out of the match, took an extra year to do research in the derm dept, and then re-entered the match the next year. She delayed her graduation until after the match so that she wouldn't have to start repaying her student loans, and our school didn't charge tuition for the extra years, so this made it cheaper for her. She ended up doing well (matched at her #2 choice).

I'm not sure scrambling for a prelim is the best idea, though I have limited (okay, no) experience with it, but you would get stuck with whatever spot is left over - maybe not the best experience for a year - and then have to interview while doing internship. I personally would take the time off to do it right. It will be a great opportunity to build your CV for radiology and do some cool stuff to distinguish yourself from all the other candidates who rushed straight through. You will likely do very well.

I know this isn't what you were planning, and you're probably feeling some anxiety and confusion right now, but lots of people end up taking a year or two extra doing research or just in general figuring things out, and they end up just fine in the end. Good luck.

 

[rugtrousers]

If you're applying to anesthesia, then you should already be applying to prelims (there aren't that many categorical programs). You could consider matching into the prelim of your choice and applying to radiology from there. Depending on your elective schedule, you can do radiology-related research that will strengthen your application, and you won't lose time.

 

[waldowaldo]

If you're applying to anesthesia, then you should already be applying to prelims (there aren't that many categorical programs). You could consider matching into the prelim of your choice and applying to radiology from there. Depending on your elective schedule, you can do radiology-related research that will strengthen your application, and you won't lose time.

i was thinking about that, but say i start intern year next june, then aren't all the radiology spots for the following year already filled by this years applicants since they are applying for internship for 2006 and radiology for 2007? i would have to hunt around for an open spot somewhere, no?

 

[rugtrousers]

i was thinking about that, but say i start intern year next june, then aren't all the radiology spots for the following year already filled by this years applicants since they are applying for internship for 2006 and radiology for 2007? i would have to hunt around for an open spot somewhere, no?

Some programs leave spots open for people changing fields. I guess the question is whether you would be better served by doing your intern year or an extra year in med school. You could do research during both, but would be able to do more research as a med student. I guess a radiology PD would be a good person to ask. You could also try to scramble into a 2007 radiology position, but I don't know how many unfilled spots there will be or if you would want to be in those places. Good !