realistic or unrealistic?

Hi Everyone, I would like everyone’s honest opinion. I would like to go to medical school and specialize in Ophthalmology. I understand that every medical student should always have a backup or a few residency choices just in case they don’t get their first pick. However, for me I only want to specialize in Ophthalmology. Does anyone think that I am taking a big gamble here? My greatest fear is that after 4 years of medical school (if I do get accepted) that I would not be accepted into an Ophthalmology residency. I can say that if I work hard I can accomplish anything, but of course that isn’t true.

are you taking a gamble? yes


Is it a substantially bigger gamble than any other medical student? not really


My question to you if you get into to medical school, work the clinical right, get the best LORs, apply to every ophthalmology program and don’t get accepted, are you going to walk away from medicine?

Wow gonnif, honestly I don’t really have good enough answer to your question. If I said yes that would not look good on my part. If I said no, I wouldn’t know what I’d do in medicine.

In high school I wanted to become a plastic surgeon. Within a couple years I decided orthopedic surgeon was the route for me. As I started working on my Bachelor’s any kind of surgeon sounded good, but definitely surgery.


Once I read more about the industry and actually talked to different kinds of doctors I become firmly set on “some kind of primary care” and heavily leaning towards a family practice. I’ve been set on this for the past 3 years.


But I realize that once I do rotations I may fall in love with something utterly bizarre (to me), change my mind six times or end up in what I currently consider the most boring of all specialties (the ER).


If you truly can only see yourself doing one specific thing, medicine may not be the right thing for you.


If you are open to other possibilities who knows where you’ll end up… and that’s a good thing

Spend some time shadowing doctors in multiple specialties. Your county medical society may be able to connect you with physicians who will allow you to shadow. Also consider optometry if you can truly only be happy with eyes, unless surgery is one of the main attractions of opthalmology for you.

  • In reply to:
what I currently consider the most boring of all specialties (the ER).



Wow. Really? Of all specialties that I would consider to be boring, EM wouldn't be even close to the top of the list. One of the things that I like best about emergency medicine is that it's unpredictable. My day might be very routine with lots of boring/bs complaints, but I might also have several very ill patients to take care of at once.

Granted, I'm a little biased because I'm an EM resident . . .

So you are willing to gamble 4 years of your life, $200,000 in debts, and if you dont get into ophthalmology, one of the most competitive residencies, you are going to walk away and pay off that debt and training doing something else?


I put that in stark “slap in the face” terms on purpose to help visualize what you are asking and gambling.


As Samenewme, who is a family practice resident suggests, shadow a ophthalmological surgeon. I would also suggest that you shadow at least 3 other types of doctors. “But why, I dont care about them?” I hear you exclaim! Because I think if you are even considering medical school, you should have a wide exposure to what doctors really do in various specialties. You may find things that interest or become even more convinced that only being an ophthalmologist is for you. Then that really expensive gamble is staring you in the face. And I have to deal with students who dropped out of medical school and 1 doctor who withdrew from residency. Their financial woes are great; the doctor had tried to attend our conference twice last year couldn’t even afford the gas money to get to us! I kid you not


Am I trying to dissuade you from medical school? No. Part of my mission in running this site is to make sure that accurate information is passed on and realistic assessments are made. You need to make a very informed, intelligent and acceptable decision in this matter. Most medical students practice something completely off their radar when they first entered medical school.


Again, as samenewme points out, Optometry should be considered and there is a state OD school in Brooklyn I believe.


I apologize if i came off harsh in this. But sometimes a good swift kick in the pants in needed. You have work, research, and shadowing to do. Go get cracking and keep us informed of your process. Many OPM members probably go thru similar and how you deal with it may help others.

The reason I chose Ophthalmology was because of my background in the optical field. I am currently a licensed Optician in NYS. During Opticianry school I was already determined to pursue a doctors degree in the field which includes either Optometry or Ophthalmology. I ultimately want to expand my scope of practice in the optical field and earning a doctors degree is the way to do it. I have had more exposure to Optometry but lately I have given Ophthalmology some thought because I never gave myself a chance to learn more about the profession. Therefore, I had to ask if it was realistic to pursue Ophthalmology. I do not do this for myself but for my patients. There are many times that I am unable to help my patients because of the limited scope of practice I have as an Optician. But don’t get me wrong I do enjoy what I do.

  • Emergency! Said:
Granted, I'm a little biased because I'm an EM resident . . .



Hahah, only a little bit! While I enjoyed the variety of the ED, when I volunteered there the waiting killed me. I hate standing around, waiting for work to come.

Despite that, I'm 50% likely to end up volunteering in a different hospital's ER (private rather than county) next week. It's possible it will be a very different experience and change my view.

I can agree with the waiting at the ER Pixie. The ER volunteering isn’t nearly as exciting as my free clinic stuff.

I volunteer at the New York Eye and Ear and most of the time all I do is wait around for work. It makes me not want to volunteer anymore because it’s just not exciting enough. Any suggestions on where else I can volunteer to gain some experience in the field?

  • In reply to:
Hahah, only a little bit! While I enjoyed the variety of the ED, when I volunteered there the waiting killed me. I hate standing around, waiting for work to come.



Must not be a very busy ED. Most of the time, I barely have time to go to the bathroom or shove a sandwich in my mouth, let alone stand around waiting for work to come. It's a rare occasion that there aren't charts in the rack waiting to be seen. I can imagine though, that the need for volunteers could be a little on the boring side.

Last Saturday was crazy busy in the ED. There were a ton of critically ill patients, on top of a slew of drunk college kids from the big rivalry game weekend.
  • etam_OMD Said:
I volunteer at the New York Eye and Ear and most of the time all I do is wait around for work. It makes me not want to volunteer anymore because it's just not exciting enough. Any suggestions on where else I can volunteer to gain some experience in the field?



Go to the 'hood. You'll be PLENTY busy there.

The problem with my ED is not it’s location as it is in the “hood”, they just don’t let hospital volunteers do as much as they used to it seems. I can basically give direstions and bring sandwiches. I see a lot of cool stuff but my involvement is minimal, and the trauma room is enirely off limits to volunteers.

  • BaileyPup Said:
The problem with my ED is not it's location as it is in the "hood", they just don't let hospital volunteers do as much as they used to it seems. I can basically give direstions and bring sandwiches. I see a lot of cool stuff but my involvement is minimal, and the trauma room is enirely off limits to volunteers.



My guess is that there are legal reasons for why this would be the case.


  • BaileyPup Said:
The problem with my ED is not it's location as it is in the "hood", they just don't let hospital volunteers do as much as they used to it seems. I can basically give direstions and bring sandwiches. I see a lot of cool stuff but my involvement is minimal, and the trauma room is enirely off limits to volunteers.



Interesting. I was limited in which patients I could talk to, for safety reasons - the county hospital is where prison patients are brought. But I was allowed in the trauma room, when there was room for me between all the med students, and could talk to all the other patients.

It just meant on prison-patient heavy days I was shoved in a corner with nothing to do unless an escorting officer asked for a water.

Getting back to the original thread…


One of my classmates with whom I’ve kept in touch (class of 2006) only wanted to do derm. She did not match that year or the next. She decided to do a prelim year in internal medicine, was accepted to a small out-of-state program and finished in 2009, again applied for derm and again did not match that year or in 2010. Now at the six-year mark, she has virtually no chance of matching in any program, regardless of specialty, although she has again applied to derm. While I admire her tenacity, I personally think the window of opportunity has closed. Even in family med, a “non-competitive” specialty, applicants who have been out of medical school for more than 3 years do not get invited to interview, with very few exceptions.


Although my first instinct is to tell you to go for it because you won’t know until you try, if you are sure you wouldn’t consider anything other than opthalmology you would probably be better off pursuing optometry. I would never want to shoot down anybody’s dream, but now is the time to be realistic about your ambitions, not in your third year of medical school. Richard’s advice is sound: the financial risk is too great not to have a plan B.