Surgery vs. two medicine or pediatrics electives?

[mercaptovizadeh]

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I'm interested in med/peds residency and was wondering about the importance of having the surgery clerkship grade in before I apply. The current schedule has IM clerkship > surgery clerkship > IM AI, and I worry about the intensity of that course of months, and would also like to make it to a scientific meeting and wedding around the time of the surgery clerkship. They're not likely to give me time off for either.

What would look better or be more important for an application to an IM or peds or IM/peds residency: surgery clerkship (hopefully with a good grade, but likely to be harder to honor than electives) vs. two electives in IM/peds?

If I replace surgery with electives, the surgery clerkship will end in October, so that grade doesn't automatically go into my Dean's letter.

 

[ArcGurren]

I'm interested in med/peds residency and was wondering about the importance of having the surgery clerkship grade in before I apply. The current schedule has IM clerkship > surgery clerkship > IM AI, and I worry about the intensity of that course of months, and would also like to make it to a scientific meeting and wedding around the time of the surgery clerkship. They're not likely to give me time off for either.

What would look better or be more important for an application to an IM or peds or IM/peds residency: surgery clerkship (hopefully with a good grade, but likely to be harder to honor than electives) vs. two electives in IM/peds?

If I replace surgery with electives, the surgery clerkship will end in October, so that grade doesn't automatically go into my Dean's letter.

Most important for IM in my opinion are your clerkship grade for IM and your sub-I/AI grade for IM. I've never heard of surgical clerkships having any bearing on whether you get an interview at an IM program.

 

[infarct]

2 electives in IM if doing IM, peds if doing peds, rr any combination of IM/Peds if doing med peds. Surgery is irrelevant

 

[Valentine Mott]

2 electives in IM if doing IM, peds if doing peds, rr any combination of IM/Peds if doing med peds. Surgery is irrelevant

I may respectfully disagree somewhat. Surgery is a core clerkship, in my school, all the core clerkships are lumped at the top in the academic portion of the MSPE. There tends to be more grade inflation in electives, especially those in your 4th year and program directors are well aware of this. Scheduling all the interviews that will be coming in during October will be a pain considering you will likely be stuck in the OR while people are snatching up interview slots, leaving you with your last choices of dates.

That being said, your chair letters will include performance from electives in those specialties, which will enhance those references. An honors in a sub-I may have more worth than your surgery clerkship grade.

My vote is to get in either a medicine or peds sub-I in and a critical care elective in the opposite specialty over the surgery clerkship.