What specialty do you see yourself going into?

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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What specialty do you see yourself going into?

  • Anesthesiology

    Votes: 20 4.5%

  • Dermatology

    Votes: 12 2.7%

  • Emergency Medicine

    Votes: 54 12.2%

  • Family Practice

    Votes: 13 2.9%

  • General Surgery

    Votes: 28 6.3%

  • Internal Medicine

    Votes: 59 13.3%

  • Neurology

    Votes: 16 3.6%

  • Neurosurgery

    Votes: 36 8.1%

  • Obstetrics & Gynecology

    Votes: 13 2.9%

  • Opthalmology

    Votes: 19 4.3%

  • Orthopedic Surgery

    Votes: 37 8.4%

  • Otolaryngology

    Votes: 7 1.6%

  • Pediatrics

    Votes: 26 5.9%

  • Pathology

    Votes: 10 2.3%

  • Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

    Votes: 12 2.7%

  • Plastic Surgery

    Votes: 10 2.3%

  • Psychiatry

    Votes: 7 1.6%

  • Radiation Oncology

    Votes: 13 2.9%

  • Radiology

    Votes: 32 7.2%

  • Urology

    Votes: 7 1.6%

  • Combination

    Votes: 12 2.7%
  • Total voters
    443
  • Poll closed .
S

sprinkibrio

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What do you see yourself going into as of now? Tentatively...
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It get's harder and harder for me to answer this question as time goes by - Theoretically I love surgery but its hard to ignore the sacrifice it takes to finish a surgical residency.
 
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EM. I think I have the right sense of humor for that kind of work. Plus I like variety...lots and lots of variety.

I do think it would be interesting to subspecialize within pediatrics, also...but I don't know if I want to do a 3 yr residency + 3 year fellowship. That's a long time before you can earn enough money to pay back your loans.

And I'm sure that by next week I'll have changed my mind. Good thing I have a while to decide.
 
I have changed my mind to pretty much everything, but I keep coming back to infectious disease. It's what go me interested in medicine in the first place so I guess that's it.
 
First choice - psych.

Second choice - psych.

Third choice - psych.
 
IM: You have more power over adults when they are your patients and not the ones yelling at you because their child is sick.

(I'm kidding). We'll see what I enjoy in rotations.
 
TMP-SMX said:
IM: You have more power over adults when they are your patients and not the ones yelling at you because their child is sick.

(I'm kidding). We'll see what I enjoy in rotations.
Click to expand...
EM or EM/IM followed by a critical care fellowship.
 
Some specialty of pediatrics. I just can't get enough of those kids!
 
wow ortho is really high..... probably have to wait for more responses though
 
I'm that typical meathead gung-ho bout Ortho before med school kid who will end up having his dreams shot down once he starts taking classes. I believe there are quite a few of us.
 
Robizzle said:
I'm that typical meathead gung-ho bout Ortho before med school kid who will end up having his dreams shot down once he starts taking classes. I believe there are quite a few of us.
Click to expand...
I lost my desire to do ortho the first time I watched a hip replacement. :laugh:
 
DropkickMurphy said:
I lost my desire to do ortho the first time I watched a hip replacement. :laugh:
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Same for me: one knee replacement surgery and I was satisfied with ortho. I've had multiple orthopedic surgeries myself, and if I never have to get near another arthroscopic surgery I'll be very happy.

(although it must be nice to work with atheltes; they're fairly healthy and usually have good recoveries. that must be very satisfying to watch)
 
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i wanna do some type of surgery
 
DropkickMurphy said:
EM or EM/IM followed by a critical care fellowship.
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I used to be really gung-ho about primary care but I'm starting to think maybe an EM/IM dual residency might be for me. I like EM but I don't want to do it the rest of my life and IM offers good flexibility.

Who knows? I've got awhile before I need to decide ;)
 
i really hate it when people say "tentatively." other pet peeves include starting posts with "agree(d)", and/or ending them with "hope this/that helps." i really hate the last one, because i seem to have gotten it in every email from a gsi since 2003.

p.s. when i grow up, i want to be a neurosurgeon. that is, if i ever grow up.
 
I'm leaning to EM. I had thought about OB/Gyn, then I saw the cost of malpractice insurance. Surgury looks like something that I would be interested in, but the amount of time a single surgury can take is more than I want to deal with.

I'm really surprised that not a single person has said they want to go into family practice yet.
 
wow...only me for fp. c'mon guys it cant be that bad.

fp/psych
 
Its the lifestyle!

According to KentW.
 
asif said:
Its the lifestyle!

According to KentW.
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As much as I respect KentW (and that is a considerable amount mind you) I don't have the personality for FM. I still hold the uncommon opinion that Harold Shipman did what he did simply to alleviate the boredom of primary care. :laugh:
 
Which one did you vote for? EM?
 
Call BS on this, but I heard some statistic that the majority of people who have a significant experience in a particular specialty prior to med school follow that career path.

Hence, I'm goin neurosurg.
 
asif said:
Which one did you vote for? EM?
Click to expand...
EM or EM/IM followed by a critical care fellowship.....I've also considered anesthesia and a few others.....
 
DropkickMurphy said:
As much as I respect KentW (and that is a considerable amount mind you) I don't have the personality for FM. I still hold the uncommon opinion that Harold Shipman did what he did simply to alleviate the boredom of primary care. :laugh:
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av-640-Schiffmann.jpg


Just had to post this
 
FutureNeuroStud said:
Call BS on this, but I heard some statistic that the majority of people who have a significant experience in a particular specialty prior to med school follow that career path.

Hence, I'm goin neurosurg.
Click to expand...

I too am going neurosurg...I also have family reasons for being drawn to the specialty...on top of my experience with neurosurgeons
 
FutureNeuroStud said:
Call BS on this, but I heard some statistic that the majority of people who have a significant experience in a particular specialty prior to med school follow that career path.

Hence, I'm goin neurosurg.
Click to expand...

I dealt with depression for a long time. Almost ruined my life. I recovered. Gonna become a psychiatrist 110%.
 
I have some ideas... but that's all they are right now. Just ideas. I have talked with several medical students, and they say that all of your preconceived notions change during medical school and [especially] during clinical rotations. So while I have ideas, I am trying to keep an open mind when I begin med school.

Having said that, current interests include:
-Surgery
-EM
-IM
-Anesthesiology
-Dermatology
-Otolaryonology
-Pathology
-Urology
-Cardiology
-Radiology

Yeah, I know that's a lot, but hey, my options are open!
 
If I had to make a wager, I would feel comfortable putting my money on EM. That and a Toxicology Fellowship seem like the way to get to where I want to be and learn what I want to learn.

Others of interest are radiology, anesthesiology, pathology, and general surgery. None of those seem to fit as well as EM seems like it will for me though. Surgery comes close, but the work hours kill it for me.

Most of the other specialties don't really interest me, though I don't think I would be miserable in them (all except Plastic Surgery, Psychiatry, OB/GYN, Urology, and Proctology; absolutely no desire or interest in those).

Always fun to wonder what the future will hold...
 
cardiology should be on there, or does it fall under one of the other categories? Nice to see such a varied distribution.
 
degoo_ said:
cardiology should be on there, or does it fall under one of the other categories? Nice to see such a varied distribution.
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I believe there are caps on the number of possibilities you are allowed to place on a poll.
 
Probably go toward Internal Medicine, but with a focus on "Community Medicine". I ultimately want to work with the underserved, and although family practice would be suitable, with internal medicine I will have more options to specialize in perhaps, endicrinology, immunology, etc.
 
IM is my first choice, followed by EM and Ortho.
 
All of this could definitely change, but:

Definitely more interested in primary care--family practice or pediatrics. Really interested in women's health, so OB/GYN and potentially maybe Maternal Fetal medicine in the long run. And just for variety, cardiology is something I've thought about.

Eh, like I said...its really hard to tell right now.
 
etf said:
i really hate it when people say "tentatively." other pet peeves include starting posts with "agree(d)", and/or ending them with "hope this/that helps." i really hate the last one, because i seem to have gotten it in every email from a gsi since 2003.

p.s. when i grow up, i want to be a neurosurgeon. that is, if i ever grow up.
Click to expand...

Do you also hate "technically"? That's a big one that bothers people... All I can say is breathe. In out in out. Hope this helps.

degoo_ said:
cardiology should be on there, or does it fall under one of the other categories? Nice to see such a varied distribution.
Click to expand...

I didn't include cardiology because it's a subspecialty. Really, I just took the index from How to Choose a Medical Specialty by Freeman and stuck it on here. Notice they are in alphabetical order. That was NOT me! I am not THAT OCD.
 
I am really interested in doing a dual residency, Perhaps Peds/MedGen, IM/Peds, IM/MedGen, or IM/EM. Also have an attraction to Neurology and Rad.. We'll see how everything unfolds! :)
 
IM followed by a fellowship in Infectious Diseases. I love the bugs...hence the name.

Oh and to the folks that said Neurosurgery...be prepared to NEVER SLEEP. Like for 30+ years, not just your residency. My pops is a NS and I pretty much never ever ever saw him growing up. He likes to boast even at 60 that he only needs 3 hours a sleep....actually that sleep just isn't necessary. Needless to say....I do not share this view....:sleep: :mad:
 
microgal said:
IM followed by a fellowship in Infectious Diseases. I love the bugs...hence the name.

Oh and to the folks that said Neurosurgery...be prepared to NEVER SLEEP. Like for 30+ years, not just your residency. My pops is a NS and I pretty much never ever ever saw him growing up. He likes to boast even at 60 that he only needs 3 hours a sleep....actually that sleep just isn't necessary. Needless to say....I do not share this view....:sleep: :mad:
Click to expand...

thanks for the headsup...I figured this..but sleep is not so important to me
 
Integrated plastics.
 
Vascular surgery should be a choice, since it's a stand-alone residency now. I picked general surgery because vascular or other weren't choices.
 
IM-->cardiology; maybe even pediatric cardiology because I love kids, too. :p
 
11% ortho? i dont want to rain on anyones parade..but some of us still live on a planet called earth...
 
Pathology or Pediatrics... perhaps Pediatric Pathology :)
 
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