Too difficult to apply Rads 1st, IM 2nd, Fam 3rd in Ontario? (OOP MS3)

[WunderBar]

Hey everyone,

MS3 here. Going through clinical rotations now at a med school outside of Ontario. I feel I have a rather odd and specific preference for residency. In terms of disciplines, I feel I will either apply Rads 1st, Fam 2nd --or-- Rads 1st, IM 2nd, Fam 3rd. I also will be going for Southern Ontario Schools (I feel as though UofT, Mac, Queen's will be top 3 but not entirely sure). Trying to start planning my electives. 

I feel like the Rads/IM/Fam idea is ambitious, especially as an OOP med student. I fairly strongly value my ability to ultimately match in Southern Ontario (i.e. would rather do Fam in Toronto than Radiology in some other provinces, I think). I realize Fam in Toronto is no walk in the park. 

Am I being too ambitious? Would a three-way split between Rads/IM/Fam be too diluted? I feel as though Rads is my greatest and most honest interest, and thus I at least want to give it a shot. I am, however, greatly attracted to the increased likelihood of getting desired location with Family (both for residency and for a job later).

Some random factoids about me: I have a 1st author pub in a CARJ (hoping to get a strong LOR from my supervisor here). Trying to get another Rads-ish project on the go, hopefully will have something to show come Carms. Have not been to a single conference - but may try to do this for next project. I have a physics undergrad (in which I did quite well - no idea if programs care about that) which perhaps some rads disciplines might see as unique/favourable? 

Any and all suggestions and ideas welcome. 

[DNM]

Your life will be a lot easier if you just do Rads & family. IM is competitive enough where you can't get too picky about location without a CV & electives that are tailored towards it.  

[RagnarOdinson]

The tricky part about triple-planning is where you LORs are going to come from. You're going to have 7 electives to get letters. What this means is that you margin for error is zero, and that's a risky situation to be in. Not only that but you'd also likely need people who would be willing to write you two separate letters for two specialties, so you have enough letters to apply, unless you want "generic" letters, which are not usually advisable. Not only that, if you can't secure a letter from one of your electives it would fuck you over, and it could totally happen due to something outside your control. One of my electives the staff got sick and we had a different staff every other day, which meant securing a strong letter in that elective was impossible no matter how in my bag I was. 

 

I'll echo what DNM said, pick two and go with that. And yes IM is not a safe backup anymore, far from it, particularly if youre not willing to apply broadly. 

[anonymouspls]

IM is no longer a specialty you can just apply to, it needs to be your primary focus. Heard my home school IM program had nearly 40% uptick in applicants compared to last year, which was already a tough year even then. RADS is even crazier and its going to stay crazy for a few years I think until people see the competitive stats and shift away from it, but this will take a few years.

I don't think you can apply to two competitive specialties unless you are OK with going second round. So either Rads / FM or IM / FM, and if you do RADS / IM be prepared for the real possibility that you will get 2-3 interviews in total (happened to some of my colleagues this year.) 

[WunderBar]

Yep I'm starting to become increasingly disillusioned with Rads/IM/FM pipe dream. I think I'm going to have to go wither Rads / FM or IM / FM. The notion of doing Rads / IM in Ontario without even preparing myself for family is too risky for my taste, I feel. 

Kinda sad because I think that I'd be best suited for something like Rads, and the pathophys of IM is definitely more interesting to me than the rest of "medicine". Oh well. At least FM would be able to grant a more normal life (and after just 6/12 of clerkship, normalcy becomes quite enticing). I suppose adult medicine is still a substantial part of FM. 

Gonna go look into recent years competitive-indicating stats for Rads and IM. Haven't been keeping up since I actually started me school, oddly enough. 

Regarding LORs: I could try to get letters from, say, internists during my core clerkship rotations which simply speak to my impeccable, unrivalled clinical work ethic, and put that towards a Rads application, no? I thought I was just reading another form where people were suggesting that might be even better than trying to get a bunch of Rads letters, as it will be difficult to work with a given Rads staff for very long. 

Thanks for the replies so far. Appreciated. 

[RagnarOdinson]

3 hours ago, WunderBar said:

Regarding LORs: I could try to get letters from, say, internists during my core clerkship rotations which simply speak to my impeccable, unrivalled clinical work ethic, and put that towards a Rads application, no? I thought I was just reading another form where people were suggesting that might be even better than trying to get a bunch of Rads letters, as it will be difficult to work with a given Rads staff for very long. 

ya you don't want 3 rads letters only, but in your example that staff is writing you a rads letter. One of the advice I got from a rads PD is you don't want a letter that could be used for both IM and rads because then it's generic and you can't say "WunderBar would be a great RADS resident" you'd have to keep it generic. If youre lucky enough to get a staff that will write a separate rads and a separate IM letter that's what you want but obviously your mileage may vary.