Don't want to intercalate but want to do surgery?

Hi,

I have an offer to study medicine which will be 6 years long (with foundation/widening access year) and I never had an interest in intercalating. I am interested in surgical specialities like ENT/ophthalmology/dermatology, but I heard it's a minimum requirement to intercalate to get onto them? I don't want to spend 7 years in uni and I want to be able to finish training as early as possible. I also want to be able to work for charities like medicins sans frontiere but apparently you need a degree in tropical medicine? Is it possible to pursue these ambitions without intercalating?

Dermatology is a medical specialty - it is pretty competitive though.

Surgical specialties are also competitive and ophthalmology is really competitive. You need to show evidence of doing work which is above and beyond to get specialty training posts. That doesn't mean you have to intercalate specifically, but intercalating would give you extra points on job applications as well as give you opportunities to research and obtain publications and other good CV experiences. I think if you're interested in competitive specialties, the benefits of having an intercalated degree outweigh the inconvenience of an extra year of being a student.

I don't think you absolutely need the DTM&H or a MSc in tropical medicine to work with MSF, but it would probably be helpful. At any rate that's something you would obtain once you've finished med school and completed a few years of work.

Also, do you need to make any of these decisions right now? Perhaps the most prudent thing would be to start the course and see how you feel as you progress?

Can't you do your own research?