Still undecided about what I want to go into...

[poox]

Hi guys,

I'm going into my second year, and I am bothered by the fact that I still have no idea what I want to go into. A lot of people say that this is okay, but I feel that it is important to decide early on so one can do research in that respective field, get publications, etc so that they are competitive when it comes to the application process... The more I delay my decision.. the more time I lose that I could have used to build my application... Any advice would be greatly appreciated..

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[2012mdc]

Hi guys,

I'm going into my second year, and I am bothered by the fact that I still have no idea what I want to go into. A lot of people say that this is okay, but I feel that it is important to decide early on so one can do research in that respective field, get publications, etc so that they are competitive when it comes to the application process... The more I delay my decision.. the more time I lose that I could have used to build my application... Any advice would be greatly appreciated..

Focus on Step 1 and doing as well as you can.

Do you have any idea of what you're interested in? Clinic? Procedures? Surgeries? Acute care? Chronic care? Kids? Adults?

 

[airmax]

dont worry. 3rd year will help you a lot. first two years dont give you much insight into what you are actually interested in.

what the poster above me said. focus on studying and your step 1 exam. research, pubs, et all (from what I hear from PDs) don't need to be in the field you decide to go into. all they care about is if you did something or not, and some dont even care that much if you did research.

 

[235009]

Hi guys,

I'm going into my second year,

this is where i stopped reading. the only worry you should have right now is step 1.

 

[OveractiveBrain]

Hi guys,

I'm going into my second year, and I am bothered by the fact that I still have no idea what I want to go into. A lot of people say that this is okay, but I feel that it is important to decide early on so one can do research in that respective field, get publications, etc so that they are competitive when it comes to the application process... The more I delay my decision.. the more time I lose that I could have used to build my application... Any advice would be greatly appreciated..

Pick up a New England Journal this month. First, everyone will be talking about the new cancer screening guidelines (low dose CT scan screens in smokers reduce cancer mortality).

THEN

You might want to read the article on early specialization and its need. It opens so eyes.

 

[Ortho Guy]

Do Ortho.

 

[MB333999]

Do Ortho.

lol

 

[greg1184]

Two words... dart board.

 

[Rollo]

Focus on Step 1 and doing as well as you can.

Do you have any idea of what you're interested in? Clinic? Procedures? Surgeries? Acute care? Chronic care? Kids? Adults?

This. Answer these questions first as best as you can. Then you can start looking for research projects in the fields you narrow down and just go ahead and start something in one of those fields.

But your #1 priority is doing well in classes now.

 

[BigRedBeta]

Hi guys,

I'm going into my second year, and I am bothered by the fact that I still have no idea what I want to go into. A lot of people say that this is okay, but I feel that it is important to decide early on so one can do research in that respective field, get publications, etc so that they are competitive when it comes to the application process... The more I delay my decision.. the more time I lose that I could have used to build my application... Any advice would be greatly appreciated..

Really, for the most part, no one is going to hold it against you if you do research in some unrelated field. Everyone knows that it takes time to figure out what field is the best for a student. You can go through and look at the CV's of some really well published experts in a variety of fields and find that they have early publications in something completely unrelated - I've been looking at the faculty publication lists at a number of Pediatric Critical Care faculty as I research fellowships and I've seen a wide variety of subjects that have NOTHING to do with intensive care or even pediatrics.