Why anger when pre-meds like myself ask about various specialties?

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Alakazam123

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I am very interested in neurosurgery. Yes, I know it has a bad lifestyle during residency, but I don't a whole lot of sleep anyway, so I won't be "losing sleep" over that (no pun intended).

The reason why I want to go into neurosurgery is due to the endovascular component. My grandfather suffered two strokes, and the second one was fatal. My mother has a herniated disc, and my grandfather also suffered from spondylitis. For these reasons, I am very interested in neurosurgery. I could care less if the reimbursement is cut, or if I only make 100K/year as opposed to 500K/year. I want to prevent other fatal cases like what happened with my grandfather.

I personally suffered from a peripheral neuropathy called Parsonage Turner Syndrome, which was another reason for my interest in neuroscience, neurodegeneration, etc.

However, when I come on here and ask about specialties, all I get is roasted over and over again, and frankly it is very discouraging. I'm sorry, but that's just how it comes off. What is wrong with some curiosity?
 
First, neurosurgery is a competitive specialty. It is very difficult for excellent med students to match, let alone your average student. So when people say they are going to go into neurosurgery, that presumes you will score very well on Step, get excellent clinical grades, get pubs, and match. That's a lot of things to presume.

Second, it always seems like most people who want to go into neurosurgery say so because it is a "sexy" specialty that pays well, and most of these people have no idea what "bad lifestyle" really means.

There's nothing wrong with curiosity, and there's nothing wrong with saying you're interested in neurosurgery--particularly if you have a good reason like it seems like you do. But it is generally a bad idea to head to med school with a single specialty locked in your mind, doubly so when it's hyper competitive.
 
A sampling of your threads:

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I can't speak for the rest of SDN but I can say this. Like most of SDN, you suffer from a common problem. That is, you are worried about things that you aren't even close to yet. Like SDN, you ask all of these questions that a simple Google search would have sufficed, or have so many different flavors of the month that John Mayer would be proud.
 
It's probably not anger. Maybe you encounter frustration or lack of interest? If so it is mostly likely because pre-meds have really no idea about the rigors of medicine and often say things like:

Alakazam123 said:
I know it has a bad lifestyle during residency, but I don't a whole lot of sleep anyway, so I won't be "losing sleep" over that (no pun intended).
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and

Alakazam123 said:
I could care less if the reimbursement is cut, or if I only make 100K/year as opposed to 500K/year.
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I will add my two cents that one of the reasons I deal almost exclusively with non-trads is I got tired of 20 year olds and their starry eyed parents who insisted that they want their little Johnnie or Janie to ONLY become a neurosurgeon and ONLY attend Harvard. I cannot tell you the number of times I have had students tell me something like that, without ANY and I mean ANY comprehension of the process or the difficulty in getting into ANY medical school or how residency works. It is why I warn all applicants from the superstars to the bottom, that unless you can see yourself as a family practice doc in Des Moines, then think long and hard about medicine, cause you may windup there

BTW, here a few tidbits about the most competitive specialties
Residency Match: The 7 most competitive medical specialties | American Medical Association

Neurological surgery

Percentage of positions filled by U.S. seniors: 90.2 percent.
Behind the numbers: 240 U.S. seniors applied for PGY-1 positions in neurological surgery. The specialty had 225 total matches. Neurological surgery was among the specialties that had the highest percentages of matched U.S. seniors with a PhD—14 percent.

Integrated plastic surgery

Percentage of positions filled by U.S. seniors: 92.9 percent
Behind the numbers: 185 U.S. senior medical school graduates applied to PGY-1 positions in integrated plastic surgery. The specialty had 156 total matches. Among those who reported data to the NRMP, U.S. seniors listed an average of 5.8 abstracts, presentations and publications in their Electronic Residency Application Service applications.
 
Mr.S said:
Are you serious about the fact that You would be a neuro-surgeon for 100k?
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This answer is going to get me more hate, but I will be honest with you. Yes, I'd be willing to do so. I just want to prevent other families from losing grandfathers, and having an empty place at the dinner table at family get-togethers. I want to help other men and women who have spine problems similar to my mother's, who is in a lot of pain when she walks.

So the salary is not my motivation. I want to really make a difference. If I have to give up some sleep to get there, then so be it.

Again, I realize that I am a pre-med right now, and the first step is medical school. However, I'm not going in for the money. I used to think about things like that, but found through some experiences that there are greater things in life than just money. I just want to have enough to pay my bills and take care of my family. I don't care for a Porsche, Lamborghini, etc. That's not why I'm going into medicine.

I'm frustrated with our healthcare system, where only the wealthiest have access to the best medications and cutting-edge treatments. I'd like to influence that in some way and make healthcare more easily accessible. Perhaps we may not even need a single-payer system.

Anywho, it's things like that which draw me to neurosurgery, and not the paycheck.
 
Alakazam123 said:
This answer is going to get me more hate, but I will be honest with you. Yes, I'd be willing to do so. I just want to prevent other families from losing grandfathers, and having an empty place at the dinner table at family get-togethers. I want to help other men and women who have spine problems similar to my mother's, who is in a lot of pain when she walks.
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You won’t prevent any of that. The mortality rates from ischemic stroke are 78%, and most are not treated with surgery but with medication.
Spine patients never get better. They have chronic pain.

Alakazam123 said:
I'm frustrated with our healthcare system, where only the wealthiest have access to the best medications and cutting-edge treatments.
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Um. What.


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I’m not sure if “anger” is the right word, but pre-meds really don’t understand the sacrifice in lifestyle when it comes to being in the medical profession and especially an intense specialty like neurosurgery. Heck, I’m an MS1 and I still don’t fully understand it, but just being in med school has cut down many of the things I loved to do and had time to do in college. Seeing your friends do all these cool things while you’re at the library studying and missing weddings because you have an exam on Monday gets old really fast.
 
I would argue that you could save or extend lives in a more meaningful way through FM. Caring for your patients, educating them and keeping them as healthy as possible for as long as you can sounds like you can achieve your goal. Nothing against neurosurg.
 
OrthoTraumaMD said:
You won’t prevent any of that. The mortality rates from ischemic stroke are 78%, and most are not treated with surgery but with medication.
Spine patients never get better. They have chronic pain.



Um. What.


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Thank you for acquainting me with the realities of the field. Perhaps my opinions may change. But ultimately, I'm not into neurosurgery for the money.
 
Blanky said:
I would argue that you could save or extend lives in a more meaningful way through FM. Caring for your patients, educating them and keeping them as healthy as possible for as long as you can sounds like you can achieve your goal. Nothing against neurosurg.
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Perhaps my opinions may change. But ultimately, I'm not into neurosurgery for the money.
 
OrthoTraumaMD said:
You won’t prevent any of that. The mortality rates from ischemic stroke are 78%, and most are not treated with surgery but with medication.
Spine patients never get better. They have chronic pain.



Um. What.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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if I'm right as well, Medicare and Medicaid do not cover ALL therapies/drugs because of their high price tag. The CF-drug company Vertex Pharmaceuticals is an example. Nearly 20% of people with CF in the country do not have access to the medication due to the high price-tag of the drug.

Spinraza is another example of a highly priced drug, for SMA, which is not fully accessible to all those who need it.

I realize that the real world is cold and unfair, and that we can't always get what we want. However, I'd at least like to be involved in the movement to bring about change, and improve our system.
 
iforget2 said:
I’m not sure if “anger” is the right word, but pre-meds really don’t understand the sacrifice in lifestyle when it comes to being in the medical profession and especially an intense specialty like neurosurgery. Heck, I’m an MS1 and I still don’t fully understand it, but just being in med school has cut down many of the things I loved to do and had time to do in college. Seeing your friends do all these cool things while you’re at the library studying and missing weddings because you have an exam on Monday gets old really fast.
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That's true. I'm sorry for my naivete.
 
Here’s some general advice:

-Don’t put the cart before the horse.
Someone above already mentioned it but it’s not anger but rather I think frustration that pre-med after pre-med come on asking questions about a specific issue that is several steps down the line.

If I decided to start learning guitar tomorrow it would be like me going on a guitar forum tonight and asking which Taylor guitar Would sound better at a large touring venue.

-Neurosurgery is competitive. Literally the only thing you can do now is do as well in undergrad as you can and focus on getting into a quality med school (based on whatever factors you feel are important).

-Regardless of your motivation, you really aren’t going to get a sense of it’s the field for you until you actually get a chance to rotate there and spend time there as a med student. By then you’ll have some sort of context of how the medical world “works” and be able to better gauge the field and determine if it’s really for you.
 
Alakazam123 said:
By @Sophist but it was probably serious sarcasm...idk...
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That wasn't roasting. That's just reality. Only 41% of applicants matriculated at a med school last year. That doesn't include the students who were accepted and declined, but I'm betting that's a small number that doesn't move the needle that much. So even with them, it's safe to say that less than half of applicants get accepted.

Then matching in neurosurgery is even more difficult. The mean Step 1 score was a 245 this year. Mean number of research experiences was 5.2, and the mean number of abstracts, presentations, and publications was 18.3. Hell, 13.6% of matched applicants had a PhD. Only path and rad onc had higher percentages there.

Either way, good luck to you. But the advice to focus on getting into med school first is sound.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
That wasn't roasting. That's just reality. Only 41% of applicants matriculated at a med school last year. That doesn't include the students who were accepted and declined, but I'm betting that's a small number that doesn't move the needle that much. So even with them, it's safe to say that less than half of applicants get accepted.

Then matching in neurosurgery is even more difficult. The mean Step 1 score was a 245 this year. Mean number of research experiences was 5.2, and the mean number of abstracts, presentations, and publications was 18.3. Hell, 13.6% of matched applicants had a PhD. Only path and rad onc had higher percentages there.

Either way, good luck to you. But the advice to focus on getting into med school first is sound.
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Thank you, I appreciate it 🙂
 
Having an idea of what you want to do (neurosurgery) is great. Keep working towards that path of what seems like the place you will find fulfillment. But always be willing to look into other doors should they open. You may find that family medicine, psych, dermatology, etc., will give you what your future self will be looking for-you never know.

Older people just get a bit grumpy at how naive those younger than them often are. And there is definitely some naivety (I was naive myself-probably still am). But I think we’re also jealous to some degree of the enthusiasm and optimism that we see in those a few steps behind us.

At some point we all wanted to change the world, make a difference, help those less fortunate, and change the system. For those of us who have lost sight of that, it’s easy to be jaded and burnt out. And to lash out at those who exemplify what we used to be like and who are trying to become the type of person we wish we could’ve become ourselves.

Bright-eyes and bushy-tailed premeds force us to wonder “why aren’t I as excited to have achieved what they are so excited to be trying to achieve.”

Listen to/consider the advice of those wiser than you, but avoid jaded/burnt out doctors like the plague. Cynicism often tries to mask itself as wisdom, but it is anything but. Keep your eyes out for it on SDN-take in what wisdom you can here, but try to shield yourself from the cynicism that’s all too common in medicine (and SDN).
 
Its basically like saying "I want to be the quarter back for the Patriots, all of the other teams are okay but I want to play for them. And other football positions just don't appeal to me like being a quarter back"

But you're on a highschool football team. Just try to get into college first.
 
RangerBob said:
Having an idea of what you want to do (neurosurgery) is great. Keep working towards that path of what seems like the place you will find fulfillment. But always be willing to look into other doors should they open. You may find that family medicine, psych, dermatology, etc., will give you what your future self will be looking for-you never know.

Older people just get a bit grumpy at how naive those younger than them often are. And there is definitely some naivety (I was naive myself-probably still am). But I think we’re also jealous to some degree of the enthusiasm and optimism that we see in those a few steps behind us.

At some point we all wanted to change the world, make a difference, help those less fortunate, and change the system. For those of us who have lost sight of that, it’s easy to be jaded and burnt out. And to lash out at those who exemplify what we used to be like and who are trying to become the type of person we wish we could’ve become ourselves.

Bright-eyes and bushy-tailed premeds force us to wonder “why aren’t I as excited to have achieved what they are so excited to be trying to achieve.”

Listen to/consider the advice of those wiser than you, but avoid jaded/burnt out doctors like the plague. Cynicism often tries to mask itself as wisdom, but it is anything but. Keep your eyes out for it on SDN-take in what wisdom you can here, but try to shield yourself from the cynicism that’s all too common in medicine (and SDN).
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Thank you sir 🙂
 
As a MS3.5, I still take what the ms1&2s say with a grain of salt--they haven't even started on rotations. In mid third year many of us are changing, flip flopping, and still undecided. People who were 110% this have switched from going from 110% to 0% after rotating.
I can't imagine what my attendings used to say when I said the stuff I said as a pre-med to them. Just do what most of us who are more aware say: "I'm unsure yet, it's still a long ways away." But everyone has interests. It sounds pretentious when pre-meds say they really want to go into this or that. When I hear that now, I just think: that's good for you that you're trying to just get into med school. I completely tune the whole specialty thing out as just typical pre-med talk that holds no water.
 
Alakazam123 said:
This answer is going to get me more hate, but I will be honest with you. Yes, I'd be willing to do so. I just want to prevent other families from losing grandfathers, and having an empty place at the dinner table at family get-togethers. I want to help other men and women who have spine problems similar to my mother's, who is in a lot of pain when she walks.

So the salary is not my motivation. I want to really make a difference. If I have to give up some sleep to get there, then so be it.

Again, I realize that I am a pre-med right now, and the first step is medical school. However, I'm not going in for the money. I used to think about things like that, but found through some experiences that there are greater things in life than just money. I just want to have enough to pay my bills and take care of my family. I don't care for a Porsche, Lamborghini, etc. That's not why I'm going into medicine.

I'm frustrated with our healthcare system, where only the wealthiest have access to the best medications and cutting-edge treatments. I'd like to influence that in some way and make healthcare more easily accessible. Perhaps we may not even need a single-payer system.

Anywho, it's things like that which draw me to neurosurgery, and not the paycheck.
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It's not that theres anything wrong with making 100k. It's a fine salary that a single person can live very well on. It's that it doesnt make sense to delay your career start for at least 10 years, go into significant debt, and have limited control over where you'll live as you have to enter matches for residency and fellowship for such a salary. The effect this has on quality of life and financial stability in addition to the fact that you are working hard for long hours is hard to understand until you've been through it.
 
Alakazam123 said:
This answer is going to get me more hate, but I will be honest with you. Yes, I'd be willing to do so. I just want to prevent other families from losing grandfathers, and having an empty place at the dinner table at family get-togethers. I want to help other men and women who have spine problems similar to my mother's, who is in a lot of pain when she walks.
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To echo @OrthoTraumaMD: in my experience, the vast majority of strokes (being ischemic strokes) are handled by neurology and IR if intervention is needed. Even hemorrhagic strokes need to be of a certain size before evacuation is done, I believe. I can't recall consulting neurosurgery for any strokes during my neuro/IM rotations.

Basically, I don't think you're getting "hated on" for being interested in a specialty. I was interested in a specialty going into medical school too, and I'm currently applying into it now. It's more that you're presenting yourself as "neurosurgery or bust" when you don't seem to know what neurosurgeons actually treat. That's unappealing to medical schools for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that neurosurgery is competitive and the odds of you getting into that specialty even if you want to pursue it after all aren't 100%.
 
Alakazam123 said:
This answer is going to get me more hate, but I will be honest with you. Yes, I'd be willing to do so. I just want to prevent other families from losing grandfathers, and having an empty place at the dinner table at family get-togethers. I want to help other men and women who have spine problems similar to my mother's, who is in a lot of pain when she walks.

So the salary is not my motivation. I want to really make a difference. If I have to give up some sleep to get there, then so be it.

Again, I realize that I am a pre-med right now, and the first step is medical school. However, I'm not going in for the money. I used to think about things like that, but found through some experiences that there are greater things in life than just money. I just want to have enough to pay my bills and take care of my family. I don't care for a Porsche, Lamborghini, etc. That's not why I'm going into medicine.

I'm frustrated with our healthcare system, where only the wealthiest have access to the best medications and cutting-edge treatments. I'd like to influence that in some way and make healthcare more easily accessible. Perhaps we may not even need a single-payer system.

Anywho, it's things like that which draw me to neurosurgery, and not the paycheck.
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Not hatred, I believe you might mean that now. I do not at all , not even close, believe you will think that after 4 years of med school and 7yrs of residency. Nope. No way you would do it for 100k then if you had other options
 
Considering specific specialties when you haven't even started medical school is just beyond pre-mature. Outside of true outliers, it's very unlikely that you really understand what is involved with respect to the practice of any specialty. Further, as mentioned above, there are so many things that have to fall into place before you even start thinking specific specialties. It would be like a middle school student saying that they want to go to XYZ university; it's not that it's necessarily a horrible thing to be thinking about, but that there's so much that needs to happen before that decision even gets made that it's almost silly to think about it.
 
nlax30 said:
Here’s some general advice:

-Don’t put the cart before the horse.
Someone above already mentioned it but it’s not anger but rather I think frustration that pre-med after pre-med come on asking questions about a specific issue that is several steps down the line.

If I decided to start learning guitar tomorrow it would be like me going on a guitar forum tonight and asking which Taylor guitar Would sound better at a large touring venue.

-Neurosurgery is competitive. Literally the only thing you can do now is do as well in undergrad as you can and focus on getting into a quality med school (based on whatever factors you feel are important).

-Regardless of your motivation, you really aren’t going to get a sense of it’s the field for you until you actually get a chance to rotate there and spend time there as a med student. By then you’ll have some sort of context of how the medical world “works” and be able to better gauge the field and determine if it’s really for you.
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The personal sacrifices required to do any surgical field well, (all of medicine) for that matter well is too great to be paid anything less than spectacular.

If the pay is mediocre, mediocre you will get.

And believe me being a witness to mediocre is not pleasant/
 
It’s good to have aspirations. Don’t let people on here discourage you from pursuing what you want to do. Just because you’re a premed doesn’t mean you’re incapable of comprehending the difficulty and sacrifices involved in this career path. The earlier you start preparing yourself (both mentally and in terms of building a CV), the more likely you are too match in the specialty of your choice. A lot of people fail at things and therefore think it is impossible for someone else to accomplish what they couldn’t, when they probably just didnt have what it takes to begin with. Worse, many of the people on this post haven’t even started medical school and are throwing around discouraging advice like they are all-knowing because they read something on SDN. My advice, and the advice of real medical school advisers, pursue what you want, just make you sure you have a plan B in case it doesn’t work out and know when it’s time to switch to plan B if you need to.
 
NotSoObvious said:
It’s good to have aspirations. Don’t let people on here discourage you from pursuing what you want to do. Just because you’re a premed doesn’t mean you’re incapable of comprehending the difficulty and sacrifices involved in this career path. The earlier you start preparing yourself (both mentally and in terms of building a CV), the more likely you are too match in the specialty of your choice. A lot of people fail at things and therefore think it is impossible for someone else to accomplish what they couldn’t, when they probably just didnt have what it takes to begin with. Worse, many of the people on this post haven’t even started medical school and are throwing around discouraging advice like they are all-knowing because they read something on SDN. My advice, and the advice of real medical school advisers, pursue what you want, just make you sure you have a plan B in case it doesn’t work out and know when it’s time to switch to plan B if you need to.
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Highlighting the difficulties of the path and why many people find it naive to have a specific, competitive specialty in mind is not discouraging advice. It is answering the question in the OP with realism. You can prepare your cv all you want, but if you get a 210 on step you’re going to have quite a difficult time matching nsg. Additionally, as someone who tends to be a bit of a futurist, focusing too far into the future can distract you from needs to be done now in order to get to that future. Saying to focus on getting into med school is not discouraging. It’s important. Getting into med school is not easy, and you can be a neurosurgeon if you don’t even get into med school.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
Highlighting the difficulties of the path and why many people find it naive to have a specific, competitive specialty in mind is not discouraging advice. It is answering the question in the OP with realism. You can prepare your cv all you want, but if you get a 210 on step you’re going to have quite a difficult time matching nsg. Additionally, as someone who tends to be a bit of a futurist, focusing too far into the future can distract you from needs to be done now in order to get to that future. Saying to focus on getting into med school is not discouraging. It’s important. Getting into med school is not easy, and you can be a neurosurgeon if you don’t even get into med school.
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Then study for step and get a good score so you can put that on your ERAS app to accompany your cv. You know a great way to get into neurosurgery residency if your really interested in it because of life experiences? Start showing that interest in undergrad. You get a low step score, then switch to plan B.
 
NotSoObvious said:
Then study for step and get a good score so you can put that on your ERAS app to accompany your cv. You know a great way to get into neurosurgery residency if your really interested in it because of life experiences? Start showing that interest in undergrad. You get a low step score, then switch to plan B.
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🙄

That last part is part of what we’re saying, which I guess you completely missed. It’s fine to be interested, but you need to know it’s a difficult path and keep an open mind to other options as they go since things happen (like low step scores and finding out you don’t like the actual day to day once you rotate).
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
🙄

That last part is part of what we’re saying, which I guess you completely missed. It’s fine to be interested, but you need to know it’s a difficult path and keep an open mind to other options as they go since things happen (like low step scores and finding out you don’t like the actual day to day once you rotate).
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Okay Matthew!

Alakazam, stick with your heart. If it’s what you want to do and you think you can do it, then keep up the hard work. Don’t let nay sayers say you can’t do it. You will always have people telling you how hard it is and how many others have failed. If you have the resolve, work ethic, resilience, (and some natural gifts) then talk to and work with real neurosurgeons and see if its something you want to pursue. It’s never too soon to start investiagting. All those experiences will go on your cv and will not only help with residency down the line but will also help with your med school app. That’s the beautiful thing of your experiences in medicine; they’re cummulative. Something that helps you get into medical school will also help with your residency if you plan it right
 
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20Hopeful16 said:
As a MS3.5, I still take what the ms1&2s say with a grain of salt--they haven't even started on rotations. In mid third year many of us are changing, flip flopping, and still undecided. People who were 110% this have switched from going from 110% to 0% after rotating.
I can't imagine what my attendings used to say when I said the stuff I said as a pre-med to them. Just do what most of us who are more aware say: "I'm unsure yet, it's still a long ways away." But everyone has interests. It sounds pretentious when pre-meds say they really want to go into this or that. When I hear that now, I just think: that's good for you that you're trying to just get into med school. I completely tune the whole specialty thing out as just typical pre-med talk that holds no water.
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So so so true. Ive changed my mind so many times so far. My step 1 score also made me rethink my future. That alone can close a lot of doors.
 
NotSoObvious said:
Okay Matthew!

Alakazam, stick with your heart. If it’s what you want to do and you think you can do it, then keep up the hard work. Don’t let nay sayers say you can’t do it. You will always have people telling you how hard it is and how many others have failed. If you have the resolve, work ethic, resilience, (and some natural gifts) then talk to and work with real neurosurgeons and see if its something you want to pursue. It’s never too soon to start investiagting. All those experiences will go on your cv and will not only help with residency down the line but will also help with your med school app. That’s the beautiful thing of your experiences in medicine; they’re cummulative. Something that helps you get into medical school will also help with your residency if you plan it right
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Nice false dichotomy.
 
Hugs and respect to all those who gave me advice. Some of the advice was harsh, but I appreciate it nonetheless. @NotSoObvious , thank you for your kind words. Thank you as well to @RangerBob whose words warmed my heart. I will take all of your advice. As of now, I am fascinated by neurosurgery and would love to be one in the future. But...one step at a time 🙂 Cheers!!
 
It's so funny how pre-meds throw around specialties they're interested in and it's an enjoyable conversation (I was guilty of it too). When you start med school and you have this same conversation, people who say for sure they want go into a certain field usually are judged as being too hasty (rightfully so especially if you're a first year). Once you start your first day of class and get exposed to this overwhelming amount of information about each specialty, I'd be honestly surprised if I can make a sure decision a couple years from now.

I came in wanting to do a surgical subspecialty like yourself. Now I'm heavily interested in Psych and maybe IM. I can almost guarantee that while you will go to medical school chances are you won't be a neurosurgeon. Not because you won't be competitive enough but probably because something else will catch your eye and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
 
NotSoObvious said:
Okay Matthew!

Alakazam, stick with your heart. If it’s what you want to do and you think you can do it, then keep up the hard work. Don’t let nay sayers say you can’t do it. You will always have people telling you how hard it is and how many others have failed. If you have the resolve, work ethic, resilience, (and some natural gifts) then talk to and work with real neurosurgeons and see if its something you want to pursue. It’s never too soon to start investiagting. All those experiences will go on your cv and will not only help with residency down the line but will also help with your med school app. That’s the beautiful thing of your experiences in medicine; they’re cummulative. Something that helps you get into medical school will also help with your residency if you plan it right
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Unless you have some stellar research during undergrad that translates into great research productivity in your MS years, experiences from undergrad won't matter too much.

Don't do things while you're a pre-med that might make your app better for a neurosurgery residency. Do things that interest you.
 
Kpw101 said:
It's so funny how pre-meds throw around specialties they're interested in and it's an enjoyable conversation (I was guilty of it too). When you start med school and you have this same conversation, people who say for sure they want go into a certain field usually are judged as being too hasty (rightfully so especially if you're a first year). Once you start your first day of class and get exposed to this overwhelming amount of information about each specialty, I'd be honestly surprised if I can make a sure decision a couple years from now.

I came in wanting to do a surgical subspecialty like yourself. Now I'm heavily interested in Psych and maybe IM. I can almost guarantee that while you will go to medical school chances are you won't be a neurosurgeon. Not because you won't be competitive enough but probably because something else will catch your eye and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Click to expand...

Yep...one step at a time. Psych seems cool too. Yeah, you never know I guess. But we'll see how things turn out. I like an active lifestyle where I don't sit around too much and stare off into space. I like working with my hands (though my dexterity is not the best lol). We'll see man...we'll see what happens.
 
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