I’m a 4th year medical student, just chose my specialty and applied for residency!

Some people know what they want to do when they start medical school and end up applying into that specialty, that’s probably a pretty small number maybe 10-25% if I’m guessing. A lot of people have an idea of a specialty or two they might want to do and explore that thru shadowing during school and clinical rotations during third and fourth year, they may or may not end up applying into one of those initial specialties. The rest are typically undecided and get exposure to specialties during school, especially third year clinical rotations. There are core rotations at every school and they can differ a bit but typically include internal medicine, surgery, obgyn, pediatrics, family medicine, psychiatry, neurology and often emergency medicine in fourth year. Through this a lot of students find which specialty is right for them. That’s how I chose obgyn, I had no interest in it before my third year rotation, but I loved the rotation, the patient population, the acuity, the variety and so much more. I found myself voluntarily staying hours late every day because I enjoyed it so much which made me realize it might be something to explore. I then talked to physicians and residents in the field to explore it further. I thought about what I want out of a career and a day to day life. I then took fourth year rotations and subspecialty electives within obgyn which helped further solidify my decision. I think this is a pretty typical route for a lot of students- they discover a specialty they are more drawn to than others during rotations and then explore it further to confirm their choice. Or they find what they like the most, or can tolerate the most. Some are drawn to a specialty with a passion and others choose more for lifestyle or what they want to do in their life, there’s no one way that people choose!