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If you are shopping around between several subspecialties, when do you ultimate decide the path that is right for you? I understand the sequence of events of applying to fellowships. But, I'm curious about when IM docs made their decisions about the fields that they went into.
I personally won't have much elective time during M4 year to take medicine electives that would give me some exposure to the fields I'm interested in (for example, ID consults, rheum, geriatrics, allergy/immuno, etc). And, I've looked at some residency programs to see how their rotation schedules. Some programs seem to push some subspecialty time to the 2nd and 3rd years, which seems like it would make getting the appropriate clinical exposure difficult before fellowship applications.
I'm not really needing advice on my specific situation (since I'm sure most students would have some flexibiity to either take an elective while in school or ensure the needed residency rotations early enough). But, I'm curious when people on the forum "knew" what they wanted to do (within medicine). Did you know during M4? Did sub-I or electives point you in the direction? Or was it during R1 (or later)? Did you go through each subspeciality with an open mind and systematically rule out the alternatives?
Anyway - best wishes
I personally won't have much elective time during M4 year to take medicine electives that would give me some exposure to the fields I'm interested in (for example, ID consults, rheum, geriatrics, allergy/immuno, etc). And, I've looked at some residency programs to see how their rotation schedules. Some programs seem to push some subspecialty time to the 2nd and 3rd years, which seems like it would make getting the appropriate clinical exposure difficult before fellowship applications.
I'm not really needing advice on my specific situation (since I'm sure most students would have some flexibiity to either take an elective while in school or ensure the needed residency rotations early enough). But, I'm curious when people on the forum "knew" what they wanted to do (within medicine). Did you know during M4? Did sub-I or electives point you in the direction? Or was it during R1 (or later)? Did you go through each subspeciality with an open mind and systematically rule out the alternatives?
Anyway - best wishes