What specialty are you most interested in so far?

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AnatomyGrey12 said:
Lolololol absolutely not.


Plastics might be the most competitive specialty in medicine. Residency is as rough as any surgical residency, and post residency will depend completely on what type of practice you have.


There is a difference between seeing a field through shadowing eyes and having to actually go through the thought process involved in that field yourself.
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Know any plastics I can hook up with over PM to get the scoop?
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Easy there, bitter DO MED. This is intended as a lighthearted thread - don’t attack people with this “rank and file” type of language. Chillax.
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Lol ok. I came in here to address some comments on plastics and get a pre-med in here blasting me with **** I never even brought up. Every time I come to the pre-med forums I'm reminded why I rarely do so.

Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Know any plastics I can hook up with over PM to get the scoop?
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Maybe you shouldn't respond to people in the above manner if you are then going to ask them for help. Especially people who have achieved many of the things people in this thread are aspiring to do.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Lol easy there pre-med. For starters the bolded isn't the same at all, and as to the rest I never commented on any of that, I simply made a factual statement seeing as you showed a misunderstanding of the difference between shadowing and actually doing something as a student. I am a student who will most likely be applying to a field that was one of my biggest interests at the start of medical school. No one said you aren't allowed to have interests and aspirations. I suggest being less reactive, you'll need that skill in medical school if you want good evals.

Anyway, the only reason I commented in this thread was to point out the side discussion about plastics had some misconceptions in it that needed to be clarified.
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Relax there med student. The reply is targeted mostly to the previous commenter in which you quoted my post reply where they very much insinuated that we couldn’t possibly have an interest if not yet in rotations. I suggest you touch down on the condescending nature, might help you when you start as a first year resident with interpersonal and team based relationships.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Lol ok. I came in here to address some comments on plastics and get a pre-med in here blasting me with **** I never even brought up. Every time I come to the pre-med forums I'm reminded why I rarely do so.



Maybe you shouldn't respond to people in the above manner if you are then going to ask them for help. Especially people who have achieved many of the things people in this thread are aspiring to do.
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Wow you are really full of yourself lol
 
Icebird said:
Relax there med student. The reply is targeted mostly to the previous commenter in which you quoted my post reply where they very much insinuated that we couldn’t possibly have an interest if not yet in rotations. I suggest you touch down on the condescending nature, might help you when you start as a first year resident with interpersonal and team based relationships.
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Jappa said:
Wow you are really full of yourself lol
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🙄
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Especially people who have achieved many of the things people in this thread are aspiring to do.
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Yah, people who are where you were 3/4 years ago. No need to talk down to people looking up to you for advice. Addressing individuals like “easy there, Premed” like that makes them lesser off than you is pure condescension. Like they are somehow lesser than you. They aren’t. We aren’t. We are you 4 years ago.
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Know any plastics I can hook up with over PM to get the scoop?
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Still in med school but planning to apply plastics, I know some things about the field (spend a lot of time with my home department residents and attendings).

Here's the basics though: highly competitive, need lots and lots of research in the field (becoming more common to do a research year in order to match) + connections + very high Step 1, residency is just as brutal as any other surgical sub (have to take lots of call for things like hand/face trauma and wound closure for other surgical subs), fellowships (hand/craniofacial/microsurgery etc) are important if you wanna do academics which means more training, still have to take call regularly as an attending unless doing cosmetics only

On the other hand it's an incredibly creative and intellectually stimulating field with a lot of variety. It's great for the artistically inclined which is what originally drew me to the field.
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Yah, people who are where you were 3/4 years ago. No need to talk down to people looking up to you for advice. Addressing individuals like “easy there, Premed” like that makes them lesser off than you is pure condescension. Like they are somehow lesser than you. They aren’t. We aren’t. We are you 4 years ago.
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I came in and made basic statements to be helpful and got blasted for arguments I never made. Yes I was that pre-med once, and sometimes it was helpful to be reminded of that fact. It was actually meant to be a light hearted statement. I have deleted the part of the post that likely made it come across as condescending.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
I came in and made basic statements to be helpful and got blasted for arguments I never made. Yes I was that pre-med once, and sometimes it was helpful to be reminded of that fact. It was actually meant to be a light hearted statement. I have deleted the part of the post that likely made it come across as condescending.
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It's typical preallo behavior unfortunately. But your advice is solid and well put, so I would safely disregard the negative reactions that are standard of the forum.
 
mangoangel said:
Still in med school but planning to apply plastics, I know some things about the field (spend a lot of time with my home department residents and attendings).

Here's the basics though: highly competitive, need lots and lots of research in the field (becoming more common to do a research year in order to match) + connections + very high Step 1, residency is just as brutal as any other surgical sub (have to take lots of call for things like hand/face trauma and wound closure for other surgical subs), fellowships (hand/craniofacial/microsurgery etc) are important if you wanna do academics which means more training, still have to take call regularly as an attending unless doing cosmetics only

On the other hand it's an incredibly creative and intellectually stimulating field with a lot of variety. It's great for the artistically inclined which is what originally drew me to the field.
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Thank you much for the follow up! Any resources that would be useful to look into to see if further interest is warranted? I am still a couple weeks out from any As at the least, but something to look up in my spare time lol
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Thank you much for the follow up! Any resources that would be useful to look into to see if further interest is warranted? I am still a couple weeks out from any As at the least, but something to look up in my spare time lol
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The best resources are people in the field and first hand exposure. When you are in school reach out to people in your home department to shadow, attend grand rounds, etc.
 
Kirby Smart said:
Lol I would imagine...have you shadowed/volunteered/worked in one?

I think I'll do either Peds OR Psych. I think pediatric psych would be too hard...I'd imagine lots of young patients committing suicide and other really tragic things, but idk. I have a strong stomach and am interested in other really sad peds subs like heme/onc, but I think working with children that are tortured by their own mind would be even harder to do every day. But again, no actual experience yet, just my guesses.
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The saddest part is listening to the children tell of of the horrible abuses they have suffered in their short time here. It is also incredibly sad discharging children to a social worker to be dropped off at a homeless shelter for kids.
 
Anesthesia or surgery. During shadowing I've loved the environment and personalities in the OR, but I guess I have to decide if I love my bed/sleep more :laugh:
 
Cornfed101 said:
I wanted to see the difference between the two charts that @gonnif posted so here is a comparison of the overlapping data (2016-18)
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I went ahead and took that and made a graphical representation as well. Thanks for compiling! This is a graph of the three year averages, matriculants vs graduates. The orange bar of "Percent whole" is the (matriculant percentage)/(100-Undecided)*100 in order to see the portions of those who knew what they wanted (as the undecided is a large chunk and the biggest source of error)

1570460592713.png
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
I went ahead and took that and made a graphical representation as well. Thanks for compiling! This is a graph of the three year averages, matriculants vs graduates. The orange bar of "Percent whole" is the (matriculant percentage)/(100-Undecided)*100 in order to see the portions of those who knew what they wanted (as the undecided is a large chunk and the biggest source of error)

View attachment 282613
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Yeah I was surprised how most of them were relatively close. A disclaimer: not everyone that wanted to go into a specialty initially ends up wanting to go into that specialty at the end of medical school. What I mean by that is the people who wanted neurology before med school don't necessarily compose the people who wanted it at the end of med school, even though the percentage matches somewhat.

edit: realized this is still not clear. I am trying to say that the 3.5% that say they want to do neurology at matriculation could be a completely different group of people than the 3.1% that say they want to at the end of med school. There is no way of knowing that all 3.5% didn't switch to something else and another 3.1% came in from a different specialty. These tables are anonymous and therefore don't provide good micro data
 
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IM subspecialties (Heme/Onc esp.) > FM > Psych > Rad Onc for me so far.

Definitely keeping my options open as a lowly premed with so much more to learn though 😉
 
Cornfed101 said:
Yeah I was surprised how most of them were relatively close. A disclaimer: not everyone that wanted to go into a specialty initially ends up wanting to go into that specialty at the end of medical school. What I mean by that is the people who wanted neurology before med school don't necessarily compose the people who wanted it at the end of med school, even though the percentage matches somewhat.
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Exactly. You ikely had people changing their mind, defaulting on it because it matched their interests (and step score). ENT, Optho, urology, and vascular surgery are the only surgical specialties that more went into than intended at the beginning, which I find interesting. But oh boy those neur0 surge and ortho dropoffs lol
 
Hem/Onc, or something else in Internal Med, kinda interested in surgery but those step scores tho
 
Most interested in ENT or NeuroS but if it turns out I don't love surgery like I think I will then I want to explore Psych/FM.
 
Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick said:
Exactly. You ikely had people changing their mind, defaulting on it because it matched their interests (and step score). ENT, Optho, urology, and vascular surgery are the only surgical specialties that more went into than intended at the beginning, which I find interesting. But oh boy those neur0 surge and ortho dropoffs lol
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I am not surprised by ENT, Ophtho, or urology. I am a bit surprised by vascular surgery. That's like the anti-lifestyle specialty.
 
Ortho, EM, and mayyybe PM&R, but keeping my eyes open. Main determining factor is probably going to be seeing more of the surg attending lifestyle and if I want it.

Desired practice setting: midwest, non-urban (rural or suburban)
 
Neurology in the rural Midwest or southeast. Still 18 months from applying to med school and will stay open-minded
 
I'm very open to everything (although probably not surgery just because of lifestyle), but I find neurology really interesting purely from a research potential standpoint: Alzheimer's, dementia, cancer, nerve defects, etc. I currently research the prevalence of mTBI and how it leads to pituitary dysfunction in Veterans. I hope I get the opportunity to continue research in the same vein as a medical student/in the future 🙂

Interacting constantly with different providers at my job has really opened my eyes to the importance of keeping an open mind, however. I've been exposed to specialties I previously never I'd be interested in (e.g. urology, endocrinology, etc.) but now find really cool.
 
SeaHusky said:
Interacting constantly with different providers at my job has really opened my eyes to the importance of keeping an open mind, however. I've been exposed to specialties I previously never I'd be interested in (e.g. urology, endocrinology, etc.) but now find really cool.
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That's one of the things I love about medicine. I've shadowed 8 different specialties, and I can honestly say that all of them are really cool. There is some really awesome stuff you can do as a physician.
 
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