Speciality at Application?

[wclubin]

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[medstylee]

not at all. you shouldn't be expected to have any real basis to make that decision yet anyway. you'll figure it out in med school. none of my five interviewers have asked me anything like that.

 

[pathdr2b]

Originally posted by wclubin
I would like to know if it is advantageous, or required for that matter, to have a specialization chosen at the time one applies to med school?

I think it depends on how well you know your "chosen" speciaity and how well you can speak about it in an interview. I also think that if you have "chosen" a speciality and communicate this in an interview, you will need to be able to explain some of your expereinces with other specialities and how you know so early in the game why these specialities aren't for you.

 

[AlternateSome1]

At the interviews I went to, the interviewers asked which speciality but seemed ready to pounce if I hadn't told them I was keeping my options open until after the third year. Just be able to justify you answers. If you have something you really want to go into, you better have a reason. Don't lie though!

~AS1~

 

[Gleevec]

You can see you're interested in X specialties, even if they are completely unrelated. No one knows until they do their rotations anyway, and even then people still change their mind.

 

[Heal&Teach]

A nice resource on specialties from the American Board of Medical Specialties (not sure if someone else has posted this):

"What Medical Specialist For You"
http://www.abms.org/Downloads/Which Med Spec.pdf

You could at least have a heads up on the possibilities if you did want to choose something.

H&T

 

[Gleevec]

Originally posted by Heal&Teach
A nice resource on specialties from the American Board of Medical Specialties (not sure if someone else has posted this):

"What Medical Specialist For You"
http://www.abms.org/Downloads/Which Med Spec.pdf

You could at least have a heads up on the possibilities if you did want to choose something.

H&T

That is a fantastic link. If your library has Isersons, Id check it out, it has some good descriptions as well.

 

[wclubin]

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[DannGee]

there's actually a test on UVA's website which tells you which specialties might suit you best, based on 130 questions. i dont have the link right now, but i got there from typing "medical specialties" into yahoo. it's on the first page of the search results.

 

[wclubin]

lkajdsfasdf

 

[Heal&Teach]

That UVA test asks you the same questions in seventeen different ways (actually, they're not all that different). Slightly painful for 130 questions, probably why I didn't place in surgery (Ive got the attention span of a flea). J/K.

http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/

My rankings were pretty interesting, considering that I want to go into primary care (and stated several times that I wanted to be involved in my patients' lives):

1 Peds
2 Medical Oncology (?)
3 Emergency Medicine
4 Dermatology
5 Family Practice
6 Physical Med & Rehab
7 Ob/Gyn
8 Occupational Medicine