Booking Electives When Torn Between Two Specialities

[AppleCider]

Hello everyone!

 

I'm currently torn between general surgery and vascular surgery. I can only have 6 surgical electives, and so was thinking of splitting 3 and 3.

 

With only 3 in each speciality though, I'm having a hard time picking which schools to go to. I've been told by someone most programs will not interview you without having met you (aka without having done an elective there) - is this true? I know certain places are very strict about this, but can others say if they've had interviews at places they didn't do electives at? If I did say, a general surg elective at Toronto, would that count as having "met" me for vascular surgery too? I'm scared I'm really limiting myself by being unsure of which one I want to do in the end. I know vascular is the more competitive option. 

 

Also, does 3 and 3 seem like a bad way to split it? If you only had 3 of each to go to, which schools would you choose?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

 

 

[Fresh fry]

Hello

 

I am going through CaRMS currently and applied to 2 surgical specialties and got interviews in both. I might have some insight for you but I am different in that I had much more elective time (summers and extra) than you.

 

First stop would be go to CaRMS and look at program descriptions:

http://www.carms.ca/en/residency/r-1/program-descriptions/

Every program includes a bit about electives. Some will say "an onsite elective is not required" others will say "onsite electives are highly encouraged". 

After that you just need to realistically know which schools you really want to apply too. As a safe rule you should do an elective in your 3 top choice schools, not necessarily program but schools. While you are there you should do a site visit with the programs, or at least ask to talk to the program director/assistant/or one of the chief residents. Explain your situation and tell them you are interested.

Depending on where you live you need to play the "region game". For example if you are from Ontario, did undergrad in Ontario, and your family lives within 10km of the CN tower the odds of you moving to Newfoundland for a gen surge residency are not great. The program will likely not waste time interviewing you unless you do an elective there and spend a tonne of time convincing them that you really like lobster. However if you are Queens, then basically all of Ontario is open to you as you are likely to rank all of the Ontario programs post CaRMS. In other words you don't have to go to each site in Ontario, just the main programs that you are really interested in. 

 

I am from one of the extremes of the country and couldn't do a bunch of electives in Ontario so I did one in one program at one site and another in another program at a different site. That way when I applied it showed that I was willing to come to Ontario and i wasn't looking to be in one certain area of the province. I was able to get a few interviews in Ontario and some at sites I have not done electives or site visits at. IE I will be interviewing at Western and haven't been to London since I was 9 years old. that being said in my letter I took the time to explain why London would be a good choice for me to live and how I was willing to go where i needed to go. Western is also known as a top surgical school so you should stroke their ego a bit when you right their letter

 

I won't lie you are walking a tight rope and it would be much better if you knew what program you were interested in for sure but life isn't perfect. No matter what you do Gen Surge will feel like you are backing up with them as many people interested in surgery back up with gen surge. Selling yourself to vascular is probably easier; its off the beaten path and because of competition they understand that people back up.

 

I wouldn't necessarily split my electives 50/50. Try something like do 4 vascular electives back to back at your top sites followed by 2 gen surge. you can tell the vascular guys you were preparing for not being matched and were backing up and you can tell the gen surge guys you found the light late in the game and want to come to gen surge. Because gen surge is a core rotation, and has way more spots nationally, I would favor my electives towards vascular.

 

There is no 100% right way to navigate this but hopefully i gave you some ideas. Best of luck.