some advice for a third year before ya'll seniors leave us

[fireball372]

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I just wanted to sneak in this post before you senior med students coast into the post match haze. I am a third year from a big midwest med-school who just very recently realized that i wanted to do Anesthesia.
My questions are regarding what to do fourth year and a good number of schools to try to interview with.
My grades have always been pretty good, and my Step I is 240's. I have absolutely NO research experience though.
Advice on how to get a few recommendation letters would be helpul too.
I have enjoyed reading your posts so far and would appreciate advice to all of us rising senior med students.

 

[docsleep]

I think that you will be fine. Turns out that we had a 7% unfilled rate this year. I would say that you should definitely do an elective rotation at a program that you are interested in...kind of the protocol for any specialty. I'd buy a copy of baby miller or just get it from your library, and just try to suck up what you can from the rotation. Show interest...stay late, you know how it goes. I know that my recommendation from an anesthesiologist that I spent the majority of my time with was the most important one in my file. Your scores sound great. I applied to 15 places, and I interviewed at 10, ranked 8. I know that many more people on these boards have ranked in the 20s and interviewed more, but I wanted to stay in a general area.

I think the major factor is face-time and showing interest. They will know who you are. Once the match results come out, you can see which programs filled this year and which didn't.

Good luck, and don't worry. I know that the end of 3rd year seems overwhelming, and you don't seem to have any directions as to how to do all of this. But your school maps it out for you, and everyone ends up figuring it out. Now we're experts of sort

 

[doc_strange2001]

I agree. I think most of us will have our way with the match this year. With 7% of spots unfilled this year, Anesthesia was less competitve than IM and Peds. Someone in the EM forum crunched the numbers. 240 is superstar for Anesthesia. You will get interviews wherever you want. Get some good letters. Do an ICU month too ( dont want to slack too much) but otherwise enjoy fourth year. Research prolly wont make too much of a difference but wont hurt.

On getting good letters:
Work hard, be a team player, ask lots of questions and mostly JUST ASK. Its kinda painful but most people will be happy to do it when you ask......even if its the chairman.

Relax and be yourself...You will be a great candidate

 

[Skrubz]

Like the above posters, your Step 1 is great for anesthesia. You don't need research experience to get interviews, as I had none myself. Do at least 1 month of anesthesia and try to arrange to work with a small number of attendings so you get more face time with them. The others have posted good advice on how to impress... don't be afraid to ask to do procedures, but if you're working with a resident, clear it with the resident first (don't want to steal his/her procedures). Do an ICU month, and if you feel like it, do a month of pain so you can talk about it on the interview trail.

 

[fireball372]

Thanks so much for the invaluble advice, its such a great feeling to FINALLY know what i am going to go into. Any other MSIII's out there, lets keep the forum rockin' through our fourth year trail. we'll try to keep each other sane.

 

[VentdependenT]

I did a night of call with the attending I received a letter from. Because of that he wrote me a solid LOR. He's a well known guy in the ASA and lots of folks knew him personally on my interviews. It worked for me.

With a 240 you're solid gold brotha. I too recommend doing an SICU rotation before hand. Looks spiffy and shows tons o' interest. Enjoy your 4th year.

Venty

 

[spacetygrss]

Originally posted by fireball372
Thanks so much for the invaluble advice, its such a great feeling to FINALLY know what i am going to go into. Any other MSIII's out there, lets keep the forum rockin' through our fourth year trail. we'll try to keep each other sane.

I'm SO there!!!