What Do I Do for my 1.5 years of 4th year

[IzzyMD09]

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So I have basically come to the conclusion that I have no idea what I am doing in regards to MS IV

I do know if I don't get a good enough score on Step I, I will undoubtedly have to do an internship year or something along the lines to match in a desired field....and since im taking step I in two days... I figured what the hell might as well ask now!!! 🙂

so here is the deal

1. I will start my 4th year electives in August 08 and then while the rest of my class come back to finish 4th year in their International Rotation in a Developing Country(required to graduate which I think is awesome) I will be taking leave to do a 6 month clinical research elective in Boston with some with a lot of notoriety it said field of choice (derm)!

2. I obviously won't be applying to the MATCH for that year 08, but will in 09, After my 6 months elective, I will have 6 months to kill before returning to school to finish my international rotation and graduate, besides applying and interviewing with those 6 months off, what should I do

---more electives in the same field
--- a basic science research elective
---- do nothing and just fill out my application
--- do electives in different fields
---- travel


thanks for all your help and I hope that I can get as much great feedback as humanly possible

Izzle

 

[LurkNoMore]

you have a unique situation and the answer most likely depends on the field into which you hope to match. A blend of research/additional rotations and travel would prob be a good one. Travel isn't necessarily a bad thing if you can some-how relate it to your medical career, in fact, it might make you unique and give you something to talk about in an interview (especially if it is mission work, or combined with some mission work... i.e. backpacking through europe, then doing some mission work in the balkans as some in my class did). I think the elective you are doing in research will be very helpful and may remove the need to spend the time with additional research but it would always be great to add more research to your CV if you are going after something competitive.

 

[IzzyMD09]

its a good point you bring up
but my application will be unique already as our school requires a 2 month elective in a developing country in which we dont just do medical work but we do a community research project as well

so my only question is going to spend another month in another developing country going to make a difference, i mean dont get me wrong the opportunity would be great, especially since residency + travel is not typically an equation, plus the experience would be awesome too

is to many rotations a bad thing, like in the same field?

just weighing my options...thanks for the help

 

[CanIMakeIt]

its a good point you bring up
but my application will be unique already as our school requires a 2 month elective in a developing country in which we dont just do medical work but we do a community research project as well

so my only question is going to spend another month in another developing country going to make a difference, i mean dont get me wrong the opportunity would be great, especially since residency + travel is not typically an equation, plus the experience would be awesome too

is to many rotations a bad thing, like in the same field?

just weighing my options...thanks for the help

I have been told that it is better to take electives other than what you want to go into 'coz that will be most likely last time you will be seeing any of those things ever again. So take something like radiology, radiation onc etc etc that are not realted to your field 'coz you will be doing your field for the rest of your life anyway so take something that you won't be...