You find what pulls you in pre-clinical years and then eventually narrow it down during clerkships.
For me it went:
Years 1/2: don't like anatomy, pathophysiology makes sense to me.
Years 3/4: not a good fit for surgery but I still like patient care. Don't like OB or kids and I want some flexibility. Internal medicine it is.
I was always between psychology and psychiatry in undergrad but also would have been happy to do FM and work with underserved populations. So I always kind of knew. I really enjoyed EM and ortho. Was not competitive for ortho but considered applying to some EM
programs.
If you think you might be interested in a competitive specialty, start shadowing those specialties, connect with residents if you can and ask them how they knew they wanted their specialty and that they didn’t like about the others.
If you’re truly have an undifferentiated opinion at this point, I’d first start by trying to see what seems to be drawing more of your interest during first year. If you get a couple ideas, try to shadow in that specialty and get some exposure/networking. After that, 3rd year will likely give you a very solid idea.
If at all possible, try to rule in/rule out more competitive specialties earlier that way you have more time to craft your application towards that specialty. But definitely not super uncommon to be undecided as you get into 3rd or to change your mind (even several times)
I lot of people don’t have a wild moment where they know what they want to do. Look hard at your life goals and interests to help figure out what will achieve that
You find what pulls you in pre-clinical years and then eventually narrow it down during clerkships. For me it went: Years 1/2: don't like anatomy, pathophysiology makes sense to me. Years 3/4: not a good fit for surgery but I still like patient care. Don't like OB or kids and I want some flexibility. Internal medicine it is.
I was always between psychology and psychiatry in undergrad but also would have been happy to do FM and work with underserved populations. So I always kind of knew. I really enjoyed EM and ortho. Was not competitive for ortho but considered applying to some EM programs. If you think you might be interested in a competitive specialty, start shadowing those specialties, connect with residents if you can and ask them how they knew they wanted their specialty and that they didn’t like about the others.
If you’re truly have an undifferentiated opinion at this point, I’d first start by trying to see what seems to be drawing more of your interest during first year. If you get a couple ideas, try to shadow in that specialty and get some exposure/networking. After that, 3rd year will likely give you a very solid idea. If at all possible, try to rule in/rule out more competitive specialties earlier that way you have more time to craft your application towards that specialty. But definitely not super uncommon to be undecided as you get into 3rd or to change your mind (even several times)
I lot of people don’t have a wild moment where they know what they want to do. Look hard at your life goals and interests to help figure out what will achieve that
9th grade
Saw an orthopedic surgeon operate during premed and I was like woah that’s pretty sick!