Specialty Selection: Very practical questions

[deleted263296]

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Alright, here's the deal. I'm a third year student and my school is requiring us to select 4th year electives before we finish the year. My impression is that ERAS is due Sept 1 for best chances of selection, so that only leaves me July and August to explore specialties. I'm currently debating between 3 specialities that don't have rotations during the third year and are all pretty selective. I just feel really rushed into the decision, like I have to set up these electives before I even finish third year. Are my anticipated time constraints correct? Has anyone been in a similar situation and what worked for you?

 

[ACSurgeon]

Alright, here's the deal. I'm a third year student and my school is requiring us to select 4th year electives before we finish the year. My impression is that ERAS is due Sept 1 for best chances of selection, so that only leaves me July and August to explore specialties. I'm currently debating between 3 specialities that don't have rotations during the third year and are all pretty selective. I just feel really rushed into the decision, like I have to set up these electives before I even finish third year. Are my anticipated time constraints correct? Has anyone been in a similar situation and what worked for you?

It would be helpful if you tell us what these specialties are. You might be able to narrow it down to 1 or 2 (instead of 3) based on certain things you enjoyed/hated during third year rotations.

Also, September 1st is the earliest to submit ERAS. This is not a deadline by any means. You can get letters of rec and supplment your application through October and still get interviews. Obviously, the sooner the better.

Tentatively, try to narrow down your options to 2. Make your July rotation the specialty you think you're more inclined to do. August the other specialty. Then, you can schedule something for September and October to get additional letters/do away rotations.

Alternatively, you might have to take a year off to do research and shadow in the 3 specialties and have a better planned 4th year. If these fields are very selective, you will need a perfect plan, which doing 2-3 different sub-I's early in 4th year is NOT. An example on this is a friend who was debating between ENT and radiation oncology. Did 1 year of research in head and neck cancer. Got exposure to both fields, and will be coming back next year as a 4th year, focusing only on ENT.

 

[DrBowtie]

Order them in order of competitiveness. Hardest in July, then August.

 

[ACSurgeon]

Order them in order of competitiveness. Hardest in July, then August.

Unless their competitiveness is drastically different, it makes more sense to order them based on interest. If the OP is interested in Derm and ENT, it doesn't make sense to try to figure which is more competitive. You need a stellar app for either. If the OP is interested in Derm and psych or neuro, then your suggestion would work.

 

[MightyMoose]

Check this book out:

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guid...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1300899557&sr=8-1


It might be able to give you a little more info on each field.

 

[BigRedBeta]

Using September 1st as a deadline is very specialty dependent. Many fields, especially the more competitive ones, won't start offering interviews until after the release of Dean's Letters in November. Others that are less competitive (and in general bigger) like peds and IM that have huge classes to fill will begin offering interviews in mid September because they have 4 interview days a week for 14 consecutive weeks and need to get that organized.

So if you're in a competitive field where your interview days are limited anyways, and invitations won't come out until after November 1st, waiting a touch is not a huge deal. If you're going into a less competitive field (though applying to competitive programs) earlier is better so that you can schedule interviews more readily.

Lastly, you can apply to programs in all three fields, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It'll cost you money to do so, but once you've decided on a field, you can just cancel the interviews you set up in the other areas. I personally know someone who applied to and interviewed at Ophtho, Anesthesia and Psych programs during one Match cycle. He eventually decided on anesthesia but only after he had been on at least 2 interviews in each specialty.

 

[Iwy Em Hotep]

Alright, here's the deal. I'm a third year student and my school is requiring us to select 4th year electives before we finish the year. My impression is that ERAS is due Sept 1 for best chances of selection, so that only leaves me July and August to explore specialties. I'm currently debating between 3 specialities that don't have rotations during the third year and are all pretty selective. I just feel really rushed into the decision, like I have to set up these electives before I even finish third year. Are my anticipated time constraints correct? Has anyone been in a similar situation and what worked for you?

Go find physicians in each field to shadow now while you're in the hospital. That will help you decide.