The "what specialty" question... (Secondaries)

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RedSox143

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I'd like to hear from a medical student or senior person on this one rather than someone who hasn't been accepted but I'm open to discussion.

So the question essentially asks "what specialty and why?"

How should one go about answering this?

I've been working at a hospital for years doing clinical and bench research on hematological disorders and have been shadowing hematologists and nephrologists for years , however I heard everyone wants to hear that primary care is the specialty students are interested in and I also have a good essay for that being from and under served area so shat should I do?!
 
Speak to your passions. If you're interested in heme/nephro, state that. I'm sure you can include being from an underserved area in that as well.
 
Do you want to tell the truth or tell the committee what you think it wants to hear. Not "everyone" wants to hear that primary care is what students are interested in. It all depends on the school's mission.

What attracts you to medicine? Longitudinal care with a strong focus on prevention and care of common chronic conditions? Say you want primary care. Diagnostic puzzles and care of the acutely and/or severely chronically ill? You might want a specialty in medicine or pediatrics. High tech solutions to clinical problems? Anesthesiology, all the surgical specialties, interventional radiology, radiation oncology, even infertility. Very short term care : Neonatology, emergency medicine, trauma surgery, maybe even hospice care.

There are many reasons to be attracted to medicine and many ways to relate to patients over many decades or over several hours or days. What floats your boat and why?
 
Do you want to tell the truth or tell the committee what you think it wants to hear. Not "everyone" wants to hear that primary care is what students are interested in. It all depends on the school's mission.

What attracts you to medicine? Longitudinal care with a strong focus on prevention and care of common chronic conditions? Say you want primary care. Diagnostic puzzles and care of the acutely and/or severely chronically ill? You might want a specialty in medicine or pediatrics. High tech solutions to clinical problems? Anesthesiology, all the surgical specialties, interventional radiology, radiation oncology, even infertility. Very short term care : Neonatology, emergency medicine, trauma surgery, maybe even hospice care.

There are many reasons to be attracted to medicine and many ways to relate to patients over many decades or over several hours or days. What floats your boat and why?
What if we talk about wanting to do a particular specialty in an essay for a school whose mission is primary care based?

That's what I did. I couldn't think of enough BS excuses for wanting to do primary care so I just spoke about what really interests me. I hope I didn't do myself any disfavors here. lol
 
What if we talk about wanting to do a particular specialty in an essay for a school whose mission is primary care based?

That's what I did. I couldn't think of enough BS excuses for wanting to do primary care so I just spoke about what really interests me. I hope I didn't do myself any disfavors here. lol

I agree with this, I think the schools I am applying to are focused on primary care and pride themselves on it do I'm conflicted about this question , obviously I have no idea what specialty I want but I'll never find out if this essay doesn't go over well haha
 
If the school's mission is primary care and you are interested in something other than primary care, are you a good fit for the school? The school may figure that you are not, and they could be right. You might be a better fit elsewhere and that's what you should pursue.
 
If the school's mission is primary care and you are interested in something other than primary care, are you a good fit for the school? The school may figure that you are not, and they could be right. You might be a better fit elsewhere and that's what you should pursue.

I agree with this 100% but due to primary care shortages most schools are focusing more on primary care, it's not that I don't want primary care or that the school is only primary care it's that my experiences help me write a better essay for hematology but I would love primary care personally I'm just trying to write the best essay possible and this prompt has me stumped for some reason, thanks for the input!
 
Say what specialty you're interested in, and specifically why. If your reasons really don't go beyond "this is all I've seen" and "they get paid well" and "they seem cool", then instead discuss a more general interest in medicine without nailing down a particular specialty.

Plenty of people come into school w/o knowing what they want to go into. Don't lie about an interest in primary care; there's no need to do that at most schools. Even "primary care focused" schools happily turn out a decent amount of specialists every year.
 
If the school's mission is primary care and you are interested in something other than primary care, are you a good fit for the school? The school may figure that you are not, and they could be right. You might be a better fit elsewhere and that's what you should pursue.
See, this is what worries me...I am absolutely, 100% not interested in primary care. I'm not going to lie and say that I am. But I am concerned that not mentioning it will hurt me at a lot of schools, and I don't have the stats to cut my app field too narrow.
 
If the school's mission is primary care and you are interested in something other than primary care, are you a good fit for the school? The school may figure that you are not, and they could be right. You might be a better fit elsewhere and that's what you should pursue.
So do you think I screwed myself with my essay? :O It's not like the school (Quinnipiac) churns out 100% primary care physicians. I'm sure they'd want some variety to increase the schools' residency placement reputation.
 
See, this is what worries me...I am absolutely, 100% not interested in primary care. I'm not going to lie and say that I am. But I am concerned that not mentioning it will hurt me at a lot of schools, and I don't have the stats to cut my app field too narrow.

If you don't have the stats now, what makes you think you'll have the Board scores to get into a residency other than primary care? Maybe this whole thing is a fool's errand. You are in for a penny, in for a pound at this point given that (I assume) you've submitted your AMCAS and are working on secondaries.

You hope to get into schools where you aren't a good fit in terms of interests because your stats are not a good fit with the schools that align with your interests. Good luck.
 
So do you think I screwed myself with my essay? :O It's not like the school (Quinnipiac) churns out 100% primary care physicians. I'm sure they'd want some variety to increase the schools' residency placement reputation.
That's a dangerous way to approach things...implies that their mission is low-class or disreputable. If they intend to place primary care physicians and they DO, they're meeting their goal...to imply that your going into a specialty would benefit them is...weird.
 
If you don't have the stats now, what makes you think you'll have the Board scores to get into a residency other than primary care? Maybe this whole thing is a fool's errand. You are in for a penny, in for a pound at this point given that (I assume) you've submitted your AMCAS and are working on secondaries.

You hope to get into schools where you aren't a good fit in terms of interests because your stats are not a good fit with the schools that align with your interests. Good luck.
Haha, nope, not applying until next year. I only want to do this once, so I am taking my time to prep.
I am not worried about standardized exams, it's my GPA which is crap, from before I intended to go to med school. I always made sure that I learned the material, but I didn't worry about getting an A vs a B on the time management front. I've definitely fixed that problem now (4.0 postbacc while working 2 jobs, among other things), and the MCAT is not going to be what holds me back, but still...I just don't have the GPA numbers. I took too many credits during uGrad (avg of 17/semester) for 9 or 10 postbacc courses to have a huge impact.
 
The salary, I'm sure.
It mainly has to do with my research and clinical experiences, I've been published multiple times in American journal of hematology and thrombosis research, I had to learn more than I liked to at the time to stay ahead of the work during college but now that I'm working full time and out I really have grown to like it.

I feel like hematology touches most specialties in a way and it's a great specialty to be firmly grounded in that allows you a more holistic view of afflicted patients
 
I'd like to hear from a medical student or senior person on this one rather than someone who hasn't been accepted but I'm open to discussion.

So the question essentially asks "what specialty and why?"

How should one go about answering this?

I've been working at a hospital for years doing clinical and bench research on hematological disorders and have been shadowing hematologists and nephrologists for years , however I heard everyone wants to hear that primary care is the specialty students are interested in and I also have a good essay for that being from and under served area so shat should I do?!
Is this riverside's secondary?
You know they NEED primary care to the point that they are giving full scholarships to students who opt for primary care and stay in the riverside area.

Still, the emphasis is working with underserved communities. You want to be truthful about your interests, but you can relate it to working with underserved communities.
 
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