I am well into the new year. In fact our first big test is bearing down on me with a vengeance. But if that was all I had to worry about I would be happy. We recently received the form to choose our schedules for clerkship. I was pretty proud of myself for narrowing down my prospective specialties to just three (emergency, neurology and internal), until I started to contemplate the possible streams for clerkship.

With only 7 months of clerkship before they cut off our academic records for CARMs applications, strategies to get time in chosen fields but also look good during that time, are high on our minds. And, as they like to remind us as often as possible, our class is much larger than the class ahead of us. This is expected to limit our choices and inevitably lead to disappointment for many. (I am in the combined MD/graduate program so my place in the medical class was held for a year. This refrain of constrained resources particularly raises my ire. If they were going to raise the class size why didn't they make sure they had the capabilities to train everyone first. Instead we get 'your class is much bigger', as if this would explain our compromised education. Gahh!)

I am considering letting emergency slip to a distant third just to dial down the stress intensity. I think I am already well placed for either internal or neuro. I feel very behind for making myself competitive for an emerg spot even though I have done some shadowing, a summer elective (in Nepal) and started a research project in emergency.

There is much to consider and only a week to weigh it. I probably shouldn't devote too much energy to it, though. Since my 'class is much bigger than the class ahead' I probably won't get my choices anyways. I should leave it to fate.