How To Rank 3Rd Year Rotation?

[Economist]

Hello, I'm a M2 at we are going to be ranking our 3rd year rotation soon and I was just hoping to get some opinions on what is the 'best' way to rank 3rd year rotations. Since pre-carms elective deadline is during the second block, would it be best to do your field of interest early on to validate your interest before pre-carms elective deadlines or would it be better to leave it until later so you can make a better impression and not look like you don't know anything? Would it be too much to have surgery and internal back to back? Any advice/tips would be great

 

 

[ellorie]

I think it depends how sure you are regarding your specialty of interest.  For me, I was 100% sure going into clerkship, so I picked a track with my specialty in the middle - that way I had some experience as a clerk when I did it, but I had time to network and get more of a feel for things as I was applying for electives.  But I mainly wanted the track with surgery in the summer because surgery at my medical school was lighter in the summer and I knew I was going to hate it.

 

In the end though, it doesn't really matter all that much, if you are at a school where you do all your core before all your electives.  It helps to have some idea of what specialty you'll be trying to match to by midway through third year, so if there's stuff you really need to rule out, it makes sense to try to do that stuff early.

 

I wouldn't have wanted to do my specialty first - too much learning curve.

[rmorelan]

I think it depends how sure you are regarding your specialty of interest.  For me, I was 100% sure going into clerkship, so I picked a track with my specialty in the middle - that way I had some experience as a clerk when I did it, but I had time to network and get more of a feel for things as I was applying for electives.  But I mainly wanted the track with surgery in the summer because surgery at my medical school was lighter in the summer and I knew I was going to hate it.

 

In the end though, it doesn't really matter all that much, if you are at a school where you do all your core before all your electives.  It helps to have some idea of what specialty you'll be trying to match to by midway through third year, so if there's stuff you really need to rule out, it makes sense to try to do that stuff early.

 

I wouldn't have wanted to do my specialty first - too much learning curve.

 

I would agree with that  

 

so what area of medicine are you interested in and how sure are you that you want to do it? - and I mean REALLY how sure are you because some of the scenarios people think are better have the field of choice quite late - that way they a) know the system and are just generally better clerks and it sharpens their skills in the target area just before they go on electives and have to impress. 

 

one other thing to consider is if you school has any particular slow down periods. For instance surgery often slows down in the summer - which isn't optimal if you are looking for maximum surgery time/exposure. 

 

I think ellorie rightfully points out you really don't want to do first the field you are most likely to want to end up in.