The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Specialty

Of all the books I've read in medical school this is the most important. Most other books about residency have one page summaries of the specialties and talk mainly about interviewing and applying. This book has 20 pages per specialty written by a resident in the field with personality profiles, pay scales, ways to pad your CV, honest info on the dark sides of certain specialties, etc. Also there are several chapters at the beginning explaining the way the computer algorithm works for the match and how the match came to be out of recent history. It is a must read for every medical student during the third year. I recommend reading it over Christmas so you can finalize your decision by March and set up fourth year accordingly.

Actually, as its name implies.. This book is the ultimate guide in the process of choosing a specialty. Other books that come after it are anita tylor's "how choose a medical specialty", which is more to the point but gives little detail about each specialty. After is "So You Want to Be a Brain Surgeon" which has much less in each specialty than the previous two.

I bought this book on a lark for my girlfriend who is a medical student and wanted to find out more about specializations. It's a bit american-centric but then again the book was written by americans. However, she still found the book extremely relevant in answering most, if not all, of her queries. The book is divided into all the varying specializations offered and each is specialization is written by a specialist in the particular field being discussed. All in all, a great deal for doctors-to-be and makes for an interesting read on a lazy sunday afternoon for the casual reader like me.

I read this book during my second year of med school and found it to be an invaluable resource. The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Specialty is divided into two parts. The first has general information about specialties and the Match along with strategies to approach both. The information on the NRPM alone is reason enough to buy the book. After reading Part One, I had a much better understanding of how to plan for residency while still in the early stages of medical school. The second part of the book profiles individual types of residencies. Each chapter is written by a resident or practicing physician in that area. They provide a glimpse into what it is like in those specialties. Each chapter focuses on personalities, scientific interests, lifestyles, and the residency experience. The book even provides details and statistics covering match percentages, employment data, average weekly work hours, and median compensations. The only valuable piece of information that it does not provide are average GPAs and USMLE scores for the specialties. It also briefly covers fellowships for each residency. The specialty chapters are in alphabetical order for easy reference. Although it does not cover every single possible specialty and subspecialty out there, it comes close and definitely includes all the major ones. Whether decided on a specialty or not, this book is perfect for anyone at any stage of medical school or pre-medical education. The earlier one reads this book, the better.

I'm a third-year medical student, and I've been worrying for some time now about how I'd decide what specialty to go into. Of course, nothing substitutes for some good, old-fashioned soul-searching, but Dr. Freeman's book will certainly kick your inner dialogue into gear.What impressed me most about this book was the quality of information--everything was accurate, up-to-date, and written in an engaging way. I learned many things about each of the specialties I am consdering that I'd never read anywhere else. I also appreciated the fact that each specialty chapter is written by someone who's actually "been there, done that"--they're all written by residents.Overall, I highly recommend this book to any medical student who is pondering what specialty to choose.