I empathize with you, megboo. It's hard to navigate this fine line. I recently started honestly saying I was planning to do psych, and then I'd often follow that up with something I had learned on the clerkship that I thought would really help me. For example, on medicine or surgery I would point out how much I enjoyed primary care or managing patients with delirium, which are both related consult-liaison psych. I also would gently deflect with saying what I loved about their field. I think for me, it came down to being true to myself. Saying out loud what specialty I plan to do made the decision more "real" for me, and that's why I started to answer honestly. But I tried to answer with tact and respect as well for my superiors.

I have always found that there is a tactful way to be yourself. People will judge you no matter what decisions you make. Being who you truly are (without offending others) is the best way (in my opinion) to live an integrated and successful life. In other words, appreciate family medicine (if you can) but don't feel the need to lie about it.

My roommate in medical school made the mistake of telling everyone she was going into opthalmology. She is now a cornea specialist, but the so/so grade she got in internal medicine as her stated career goals annoyed the residents and attendings gave her many sleepness nights, tears, etc. We know what medical training should be, but you should know what it is. I wouldn't tell them.

Anyway, have you rotated in all of these other areas yet? I don't think its dishonest to tell them you don't know. I and many others changed their minds, last minute. I wouldn't burn any bridges, keep an open mind.

Unfortunately for me, for example, I have IM last. My school ends late, so I finish in July. In August, I have an away. In September I rotate with the military. There is no "I don't know" at that point. That would be seriously impossible even just logistically. My applications for my away are due by April 1. DUE. Hopefully, my IM service will be more reasonable. I can't help that it won't be IM, but I can be incredibly interested and respectful (as I am anyway). At that point if I said I didn't know - that would just be a slap in the face to them. I'm going to be honest when I get there, but I'll probably deflect and talk about my advisor who mentors me and I have worked under, who is under the IM umbrella.

I still have to rotate through OB/Gyn, Psych, Peds, and IM. So I'm not being dishonest when I say "I don't know", even though I'm about 90% sure anesthesia is where I'm headed.

OB/Gyn is actually a second choice, Surg a third, but there are some IM specialties that I find interesting as well.

So no, I'm not technically lying, but I kinda feel like I am when I say it when I know how I feel about anesthesia.

I'm not a giggly kind of girl and I don't play coy, I just flat out say, I'm keeping an open mind right now. Having finished 2/3 of my FM rotation, I'm pretty sure I'm not interested in it. I like the peds, but only the babies, and I like the OB, and I like the procedures. I found an ovarian mass on a patient yesterday and that got me excited, but I loathe dealing with chronic health issues. I'm also going to bang my head against a wall if I see one more cold/flu case.

In 2 weeks I start OB/Gyn and it will be much more interesting for me.

I'm a little bummed that I will also be doing my IM rotation last, and late because I was on maternity leave last fall, when I was supposed to do IM. I will finish the 3rd week of Sept and then go take Step 2 that weekend. I'm trying to be able to do a 2-week rotation in between semesters in June for anesthesia (M4) to get a nice LOR. I did one week already with surg, but that was getting my feet wet, so to speak. I'm going to have tons of questions in a couple of months for our anesthesia moms here - look out!

Well, yes, one of the most important things is not to have people think that you are being dishonest or "playing the game." So if you are in a situation where it is known where you are applying at such and such a time then of course, you have to tell them. And there are diplomatic ways to explain why you chose something else.

I myself don't take it personally and as a medicine subspecialist tell my students that are going into surgical fields or radiology that I expect them to do even better on their medicine rotation this is one of their only chances to learn internal medicine and they will need it the rest of their career. As a result, I get asked to write a lot of letters of rec by these students, as its good to have a non-surgical letter of rec as part of your application.

But the bottom line is on rotation esp. early in the year it is a good idea to have an open mind and not to close any doors (esp. because you may think you know for sure, but that can change), and sadly there are a few that do (hopefully unconciously) sway their grade based on their perception of your future big picture that shouldn't have a huge impact on your overall future.

I agree with sah, mostly because you might change your mind. All people are biased toward their own specialty choice, and the simple fact that you are interested in something (completely) different might be cause for (subconscious) insult. I would not want to be in the situation where someone started out assuming I don't value what they do until proven otherwise. The other downside is that your attendings/residents might not invest in you as much.

So anyways, I kept my mouth shut, and every time I did let my interests slip, even after I had established that I was a hard worker and smart and cared about the specialty, I regretted it. Wish I could be more supportive!