Guest mel Posted August 31, 2001 Report Share Posted August 31, 2001 hi ian, i'm very interested in going into plastic surgery. i understand that it is a very competitive specialty and therefore want to do everything in my power to prepare. although i am only starting medical school, i want to find out what successful applicants did to attain their match. if you have any info on the general profiles of these students, it would be very helpful. eager...but perhaps overwhelmed and slightly confused Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted August 31, 2001 Report Share Posted August 31, 2001 I don't know. Plastics is, along with Derm, right at the very top of "hard to match" specialties. One guy from UBC matched into Plastics this year, and he did it at UBC. I don't think there's much you can do during your first year, nor should you. At this point, probably you should be focussing on knowing your classmates, perhaps doing some networking with different doctors, and having some fun. You might want to investigate shadowing a large number of doctors during the summer of your first year, and if not that, perhaps pursuing some research. Personally, out of those two options, I think you would be better served by shadowing lots of different doctors. One guy in my class visited 40 different doctors in various specialties in his first summer, and the information that you can receive through that number of contacts is incredible. One common piece of advice that I hear about choosing a residency is picking a specialty that you will feel happy about doing as a career. Therefore, a great place is to start by meeting people who have made it their career, and finding out what they like, and dislike about that specialty. Then see which specialties has the most advantages for you, and the least disadvantages. What might be extremely useful to you is trying to spend some time with plastic surgeons early. It would be very useful to you to discover what the life of a plastic surgeon really is like, and whether your future career and life goals are compatible with that specialty. Also try to find out what other specialties out there interest you. I think there's a very good chance that you'll find another specialty in medical school about which you'll feel even more passionately, and it would be quite a waste to have spent all of your time pursuing Plastic Surgery, when Otolaryngology strikes you as being even more interesting and challenging. By the way, you might want to investigate both Dermatology and Otolaryngology, as both of these specialties can be tailored towards a Plastics perspective. Also, in the US, most plastic surgeons started off as General Surgeons who then did additional fellowship training in Plastics. When the time comes for applying to residency, I think most successful candidates have decent to high grades, participate in outside activities (if you do nothing but medicine, you're going to be a very boring resident to work with), have had a wide range of exposure to the field via electives, have rotated through that city's residency program via electives, and have shown committment to that specialty, often through research. However, ultimately, the people who select you have to like you, and want to work with you. Even if you aren't the smartest person in the class, if you get along well with the doctors in the department who eventually participate in the selection process, you are much further ahead. There's nothing worse than selecting a resident who looks great on paper, but can't function well in the wards, or work together with the rest of the team. Ian UBC, Med 3 Ian UBC, Med 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Floating to the top... Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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