Career planning

Choosing a medical specialty is one of the most important decisions that you will make in your professional career. It is an ongoing process that begins at matriculation into medical school and culminates on Match Day. There are stages to this process to help you develop an incremental and comprehensive plan that will allow you to reach the best possible decision.

There are a variety of resources at the School of Medicine and online to educate and assist you in your career development to provide comprehensive, well-managed, and easily accessible information. Early in medical school, you will be introduced to the AAMC Careers in Medicine website. This online resource will provide you with resources and tools to explore various medical specialties, complete self-assessments to guide specialty exploration, ultimately choose a specialty and support you throughout the residency application process. 

The School of Medicine offers comprehensive programming and resources to help you explore and choose a specialty. The Office of Student Affairs and Career Development in collaboration with the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs provides Longitudinal Career Development Programming across all four years of your medical education from matriculation to graduation such as:

  • Specialty Interest Groups
  • Medical Specialty Series
  • CV & Personal Statement Clinics
  • Annual Regional Residency Recruitment Fair
  • One-on-one advising
  • Year 3 Specialty Advising sessions
  • Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) meetings
  • Residency application workshop
  • Residency Interviewing workshop & Mock Interviews
  • Year 4 Residency application drop-in sessions
  • Rank Order list workshop

Please see the Core resources from the site navigation to find a wide array of career planning opportunities.