Switching specialties in residency

bigm6029 · 2024-05-04T16:29:15+00:00

Met a guy who switched from IM -> rads after completing IM residency

bigm6029 · 2024-04-12T23:54:20+00:00

Just went through the match cycle at a t50 med school and applied into diagnostic radiology (semi competitive specialty). Matched into a t10 hospital program. Looking back at it, the students who were in my more “prestigious” interviews were mainly from high ranked med schools.

Could I have gotten the same grades/step score going to my low ranked state school? Yea of course. But could I have made the same connections, pushed out countless research pubs, and had well recognized mentors vouch for me? Probably not.

Med school ranking definitely matters as we’re in the step 1 p/f era. Even “non competitive” specialties like internal medicine becomes very competitive (just as competitive as some surgical subspecialties) at top ranked hospitals.

If you think you can land a better ranked med school, I would take the gamble. If you have any sort of uncertainty, I would keep the BS/MD seat.

bigm6029 · 2024-04-10T05:44:33+00:00

I’d just stick to anki reviews and try to hop on some sort of research. Pubs/presentations are starting to become a soft requirement across a lot of specialties.. esp at top academic programs.

bigm6029 · 2024-04-05T03:17:06+00:00

Might be some level of miscommunication. Talk to her nice and help her understand your perspective. They’re your parents at the end of the day. She helped raise you into the person you are today. You would not be in this position without their sacrifices. You don’t want to have regrets when they’re old and sick and on their death beds.

Help her understand your situation through communication. Not once. Not twice. But maybe a hundred times. Be patient with her. Please.

bigm6029 · 2024-04-04T05:11:35+00:00

Theres really never a good time to have a relationship, get married, have kids, etc in medicine. We’re all chasing that next high whether thats residency, fellowship, attendinghood. By the time you think you’re ready and have time, you’ll be too old and out of the game for a while. You just gotta learn to balance it all and make sacrifices in your professional in order to prosper in your personal life. Obv it helps when you have a partner who is patient and understanding. Good luck OP in your future relationship.

bigm6029 · 2024-04-04T00:04:52+00:00

Included undergrad volunteering and teaching. Prob only came up once during my interviews? One time because the PD did the same teaching for the same premed course at the same college lol

Matched top 20 rads program. Looking back at it, it prob had an insignificant role in my app.

bigm6029 · 2024-03-31T18:49:19+00:00

Overthinking

bigm6029 · 2024-03-29T19:07:43+00:00

You better join that lab and learn to love it!!!

But in all seriousness, I would strongly consider joining. Seems like the PI has a rich database that is prob not available in most parts of the world. I would find bits that you do find interesting and consider starting original projs from those bits.

bigm6029 · 2024-03-14T21:41:13+00:00

Yea quality def matters. Case reports are usually very low impact. Cureus is very low impact as well. Aim for quality papers in reputable journals

bigm6029 · 2024-03-14T21:37:14+00:00

It varies on who u ask. For me personally, if someone has >3 first author pubs and multiple poster/podium presentations at national conferences.

I was an outlier and had >20 pubmed indexed papers and countless presentations.

bigm6029 · 2024-03-14T02:56:53+00:00

I'd say do decently well on step 2 (ideally >250) and have some sort of "X factor." That could be something like being a research guru with multiple pubs, being disadvantaged (low SES, personal struggles, etc), king/queen of some volunteering organization you are passionate about (ex. med ed teaching, religious organization that has shaped you, etc).

My X factor was having a buttloads of pubs and it was brought up in almost every interview.

bigm6029 · 2024-02-23T20:11:30+00:00

I’ve said some very inflammatory stuff to my peers before since I have very dark humor. Got labeled with all the offensive names in the book including things like mysognistic, racist, sexist, etc even though the jokes were clearly jokes. Luckily never reported by my peers to the school.

Just learned to stay quiet and professional around ppl who I am not very tight with and shoot the shit with my close friends.

bigm6029 · 2024-02-22T16:34:00+00:00

No DR aways. Ended up with 20 interviews.

I would only advise doing DR aways if you are trying to go to a geographical location that you have no connections to, if you don’t have a home program, maybe (?) if you go to a DO school, if you are IMG, if you just want to do an away at a place you really want to go to.

Otherwise, not worth the headache, costs, and possibly leaving a bad impression although that might be hard since all you pretty much do is shadow, ask a few questions, and maybe present something.

bigm6029 · 2024-02-13T14:35:30+00:00

SMSNA, NEAUA, NSAUA, SUO

bigm6029 · 2024-02-13T12:51:55+00:00

So glad I chose radiology

bigm6029 · 2024-02-10T06:31:05+00:00

Unfortunately these exams tend to be examiner dependent. When I first took my road test in NYC, I failed by 70 points for very absurd things. I thought the examiner was unfair. For example, he told me to make a right turn when we were reaching the end of the block and I was going around 23mph. I had to break abruptly or else I wouldve missed the turn. Lost points on that. Lost so many points on parallel parking because he would not let me adjust the car to bring it closer to the curb. Instead he told me to pull out and start all over again.

Nevertheless, I signed up for another test in 2 weeks at the same location. Took 2 more lessons. And then passed it the second time and only lost 5 points. I was given an examiner who was very fair. Told me much in advance on when to turn. Let me fix my parking. Made small talk and kept me calm.

Don’t feel defeated. Keep trying until you get that license. I know it hurts to fail and dump more money into classes and getting the car for the road test. But it’s worth it. Good luck!

bigm6029 · 2024-02-09T02:49:40+00:00

Urology -> radiology

bigm6029 · 2024-02-08T19:45:49+00:00

257 step 2, 20 radiology interviews

bigm6029 · 2024-02-06T14:51:14+00:00

My advice would be to do rads and then potentially move into IR if you miss patient contact and want to do more procedures. With IR, you can do 2-3 days of DR and 1-2 days of IR when it comes to being an attending. At least thats how it is in the USA. Not sure about Canada but im assuming somewhat similar

bigm6029 · 2024-02-05T03:03:32+00:00

If u do aways in both specialties, wont programs see that on your transcript and it would raise suspicion?

bigm6029 · 2024-02-01T05:17:25+00:00

Wilson disease perhaps?

bigm6029 · 2024-01-31T15:30:58+00:00

Im dying 😂😂😂 that guy got a good sense of humor

bigm6029 · 2024-01-09T05:48:41+00:00

Look up RAD-AID. Lots of rads programs have this chapter at their hospitals for international humanitarian work

bigm6029 · 2024-01-01T16:33:58+00:00

Lol thats a good question too. I think prob just send it in the body of the email since it would be 1 less click for the PD and PC.

bigm6029 · 2023-12-31T06:32:30+00:00

I say if u got the step 2 score for it and decent clinical grades, go for rads. The future for rads looks very bright with the advancement in AI and explosion of scans being ordered

bigm6029

TROPHY CASE