If you want cush, go to derm or FM. Remember what residency is all about --- jamming as much training and exposing you to as much as possible about your chosen specialty (and make no mistake, you do have a large part to play in this choice -- the decision is yours on what to apply to and where to put the program in the rank list) in the 5 years that they have you.
If you screw up in most other specialties, very rarely will people possibly die immediately. You screw up in general surgery and there will be immediate and sometimes final consequences. Like the hemoptysis that was the sentinel bleed of a AAA mesh repair that had anastimosed with the esophagus --- that took 4 general surgeons (one with a vascular fellowship and one with military expeience) about 3 hours to get under control -- after 20+ units of PRBCs, the patient went to the ICU with a fem-fem and axillary-fem bypass done with an aortic termination done below the renals -- it looked like they had been running a slaughterhouse in there. As the student, I was staying the heck out of the way, grabbing what they called for and wiping the sweat off of foreheads. These surgeons never missed a beat, never got shaken up, worked quickly and efficiently to save this patients life. They wound up dying from elevated ammonia levels in the ICU after about a month but the surgical work was impressive.
You cannot say that you will not be required to pull those same hours after training. You also need to consider that the skills have to become second nature. There is no one backstopping you in that surgical suite once you're out of residency. Now, you may join a group and be the junior partner but if you get in trouble, you're responsible.
You should be grateful to get into a program that trains you to work long hours, work when you're tired, tries to get you as much repetition as possible and as many varied experiences as you can get...not looking to skate or go into a cush residency. If you want a cush lifestyle, be a finance type. If you want to walk with that badass, confident swagger that only a surgeon has, you should jump for joy at the thought of living in the hospital/OR for the next 5 years. Remember -- Sweat dries, blood clots, bones heal -- suck it up, buttercup.
