The Undecided Third Year

As we are nearing the end of yet another academic year, the third year medical students are beginning (or already have) to submit schedules for their fourth and final year of medical school. Most of them by this time have a pretty good idea what their primary interest is. This is not the case for everyone.

I suppose this is somewhat of a foreign concept to me. I knew what I wanted to do before I even hit the doors of my high school years. After being cared for when I had my eye injury, I was forever inspired and chose ophthalmology as a career path. Which is a damn good thing since at the time my aspiration was to become a geneticist, and thank God I didn't. At any rate, I tried my best to maintain an open mind during medical school should some other practice grab a stronger hold of my attention, but none did so. Those that came close offered a relatively shittier resident life with higher divorce and suicide rates. No thanks.

But still, it would seem at this point that the decision ought to be near made. I am full aware that one of my close colleagues didn't decide until June of her third year to enter ophthalmology.  She is very fortunate it worked out for her - it's an overall pretty competitive field which meant she already had good credentials. She is probably the exception - especially for blooming ophthalmologists since their match is earlier than others.

Well, I wish you well, third years. Give yourself time to decide, because you'll want to test the waters some more before you commit.