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- Jan 1, 2009
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Hi, everyone!
Serbian MG here, interested in hem/onco. I graduated last June in top 1% of class (2nd out of 450, to be more specific... not that it matters that much, the school being in Serbia and all). In the past four years I did a few international rotations; unfortunately, none of them were in the US (one clinical - radiology in Finland, and three research ones - physiology in Portugal, immuno-genetics in Thailand and immunohistology in Germany, a month each). All I have to show for it is quite a bit of lab experience and a paper published in the no.1 journal for microscopy (and 84th in cell biology ), as the 3rd author, plus some presentations at international students' conferences (got the Best overall in Ankara, Turkey... yeah). I'll also be getting an MS in citology, immunohistochemistry & embriology, hopefully by the end of summer. The only clinical experience I had since graduating is the Serbian "internship" - 6 months of clinical rotations needed prior to getting a license.
I've been studying for the usmle for two whole months now, and the plan was as follows - step 1 in April, step 2 CK in May, go to the US for step 2 CS in June (maybe try again in July), do some observing from July 'till September and try to get as many LoRs as possible (with which I can wipe my *ss, I know, but it's the best I can do), apply to decent internal medicine programs ('decent' meaning ones that could get me into a hem/onco fellowship later on) and a couple of backups in pathology, interview, pray (to the FSM).
Now, I've been lurking here since my 2nd year of med school and I know that what-are-my-odds questions usually don't get answered, so this isn't one of those. I'm pretty sure it's a decent plan that could've been better had I spent a couple of months of my final year getting USCE instead of dicking around in Phuket (in retrospect, I think it was totally worth it). The thing is, today I learned that I wouldn't have to jump through regular bureaucratic hoops to get into a histology PhD program in Belgrade and would quite easily be able to finish it in a couple of years, working as a TA/LA in the meantime. It's immunohistology, most of the groundwork is already done, and I'd be doing some of the stuff in Germany, which is nice...
On one hand, PhD>MS, and it would be in a basic since pretty relevant to the field I'll be going for. On the other, I dunno if it's enough to compensate for a 3 year break from clinic. I may fit some Serbian/German clinical experience into it, but I'm pretty sure it'll be mostly mice and rats. Now, even if I did accept, I'd go for ECFMG certification this year; I'm not gonna let 2 months' worth of studying go to waste. But should I just forget about it, go for it, or maybe wait for my step 1 scores and do it if they're not that good (220+? looking at people's scores here you'd think 240 wasn't good enough).
Your thoughts on this would be really appreciated
(Oh, and 1st post. Yay!)
Serbian MG here, interested in hem/onco. I graduated last June in top 1% of class (2nd out of 450, to be more specific... not that it matters that much, the school being in Serbia and all). In the past four years I did a few international rotations; unfortunately, none of them were in the US (one clinical - radiology in Finland, and three research ones - physiology in Portugal, immuno-genetics in Thailand and immunohistology in Germany, a month each). All I have to show for it is quite a bit of lab experience and a paper published in the no.1 journal for microscopy (and 84th in cell biology ), as the 3rd author, plus some presentations at international students' conferences (got the Best overall in Ankara, Turkey... yeah). I'll also be getting an MS in citology, immunohistochemistry & embriology, hopefully by the end of summer. The only clinical experience I had since graduating is the Serbian "internship" - 6 months of clinical rotations needed prior to getting a license.
I've been studying for the usmle for two whole months now, and the plan was as follows - step 1 in April, step 2 CK in May, go to the US for step 2 CS in June (maybe try again in July), do some observing from July 'till September and try to get as many LoRs as possible (with which I can wipe my *ss, I know, but it's the best I can do), apply to decent internal medicine programs ('decent' meaning ones that could get me into a hem/onco fellowship later on) and a couple of backups in pathology, interview, pray (to the FSM).
Now, I've been lurking here since my 2nd year of med school and I know that what-are-my-odds questions usually don't get answered, so this isn't one of those. I'm pretty sure it's a decent plan that could've been better had I spent a couple of months of my final year getting USCE instead of dicking around in Phuket (in retrospect, I think it was totally worth it). The thing is, today I learned that I wouldn't have to jump through regular bureaucratic hoops to get into a histology PhD program in Belgrade and would quite easily be able to finish it in a couple of years, working as a TA/LA in the meantime. It's immunohistology, most of the groundwork is already done, and I'd be doing some of the stuff in Germany, which is nice...
On one hand, PhD>MS, and it would be in a basic since pretty relevant to the field I'll be going for. On the other, I dunno if it's enough to compensate for a 3 year break from clinic. I may fit some Serbian/German clinical experience into it, but I'm pretty sure it'll be mostly mice and rats. Now, even if I did accept, I'd go for ECFMG certification this year; I'm not gonna let 2 months' worth of studying go to waste. But should I just forget about it, go for it, or maybe wait for my step 1 scores and do it if they're not that good (220+? looking at people's scores here you'd think 240 wasn't good enough).
Your thoughts on this would be really appreciated
(Oh, and 1st post. Yay!)