Vacation time during MS3/MS4 (reflect poorly for competitive specialty?)

shouldntbelurking · May 6, 2024

Hey yall, rising MS4 here applying to a top 3 competitive specialty.

I am currently studying for step 2 and need to extend my dedicated period by 4-6 weeks. My advisors have suggested that I use vacation time for this, but I am nervous this would reflect poorly on my transcript? They assured me it does not, but if doing a lighter online elective would look significantly better for residency, will consider doing an elective ... even if that would take away from some study time.

TLDR: would vacation time or lighter online elective be better option to extend dedicated? Thanks in advance!

Tenk · May 6, 2024

Either is fine but lighter is always better so you can save your flex or vacation time for the end. Your post match self will thank you.

operaman · May 6, 2024

Agreed nobody will care or even notice honestly. I can’t imagine going through an app trying to account for every week of medical school to figure out if they took extra study time for step 2. Plus I think this will become more the norm in the post S1 world anyhow.

I do think a lighter elective would be better simply to keep your vacation time for later. I used most of my M4 vacation time for interview season just to make it easier, though we didn’t have any online elective options at that time. Probably makes no difference honestly - I just didn’t want to be exhausted from rotations when flying to an interview, but the light online electives would mitigate that well.

Yeah honestly probably makes no difference either way. If you can save some time for post match you’ll be glad you did, but even if you can’t you can always aim for a “dermaholiday” or “radiation vacation” rotation.

shouldntbelurking · May 6, 2024

operaman said:
Agreed nobody will care or even notice honestly. I can’t imagine going through an app trying to account for every week of medical school to figure out if they took extra study time for step 2. Plus I think this will become more the norm in the post S1 world anyhow.

I do think a lighter elective would be better simply to keep your vacation time for later. I used most of my M4 vacation time for interview season just to make it easier, though we didn’t have any online elective options at that time. Probably makes no difference honestly - I just didn’t want to be exhausted from rotations when flying to an interview, but the light online electives would mitigate that well.

Yeah honestly probably makes no difference either way. If you can save some time for post match you’ll be glad you did, but even if you can’t you can always aim for a “dermaholiday” or “radiation vacation” rotation.

Thank you to you two both! This schedule is actually to bridge me into a research year so I will have additional vacation time when I come back for M4.

GoSpursGo · May 7, 2024

Nobody is going to care that you took vacation early.

Let’s not lose the forest for the trees here—you are extending your dedicated step 2 studying time, presumably because you are worried that you are not going to hit your target score for your competitive specialty. If you have arrived at the decision that you need more time, then make sure you don't sabotage yourself by getting distracted, even with an "easy" elective. At the same time, there is a point of diminishing returns where you will get fatigued and may even see your score start to decline--not sure how long you've already been studying, but getting an ADDITIONAL 4-6 weeks seems like a lot.

There's no right answer for how much time to take, but if you're extending your dedicated time make sure it is actually dedicated.

Vacation time during MS3/MS4 (reflect poorly for competitive specialty?)

shouldntbelurking

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Tenk

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operaman

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shouldntbelurking

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GoSpursGo

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