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I am puzzled by where to rank the research track @ UCSD, can u guys give me an insight where to rank this track? it is a total of 6 yr program, 1 yr more than the regular track. Thank so much.
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1 extra year in Research Track at UCSD, worth it or not?
- Thread starter match2015hopeful
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Obviously, the strength or weakness of this track depends on how likely you are to go into academics. Choosing this track is going to be a nuanced decision. Three things I would mention to you:
1) This year will help you build a track record for a future academic position. If you go into academics, it's a roll of the dice whether this year will actually significantly help you in the long run. It won't necessarily hurt you if you eventually decide against academics, but in the short term you will feel you've lost a year of your life.
2) The devil will be in the details. Do you have a stipend? what is it? can you moonlight? What are the expectations for the year? Do you still have some clinical duties on the side? Examine the dice. If it's not an adequately funded year purely geared to you and your research, it becomes more or less just an extra year of training. You can get to where you want to be in academics without taking a bum deal for a year (exception: if you want to stay at UCSD for the duration, then this path makes a lot of sense).
3) During matching excitement it's easy to underestimate how important a paying job will be in a few years. The pressure will increase every year. Don't forestall the future job for a nonspecific vague benefit, 'cause you will be pretty annoyed with yourself in five years. Make sure you have a clearly defined plan on how you will use that year, even if it's just theoretical.
Also, as a minor note... don't think of that year as the year you will suddenly do a bunch of research and suddenly be an academic powerhouse. Think of it as the year you get to *finish* all the many projects you've begun over the previous 4.
1) This year will help you build a track record for a future academic position. If you go into academics, it's a roll of the dice whether this year will actually significantly help you in the long run. It won't necessarily hurt you if you eventually decide against academics, but in the short term you will feel you've lost a year of your life.
2) The devil will be in the details. Do you have a stipend? what is it? can you moonlight? What are the expectations for the year? Do you still have some clinical duties on the side? Examine the dice. If it's not an adequately funded year purely geared to you and your research, it becomes more or less just an extra year of training. You can get to where you want to be in academics without taking a bum deal for a year (exception: if you want to stay at UCSD for the duration, then this path makes a lot of sense).
3) During matching excitement it's easy to underestimate how important a paying job will be in a few years. The pressure will increase every year. Don't forestall the future job for a nonspecific vague benefit, 'cause you will be pretty annoyed with yourself in five years. Make sure you have a clearly defined plan on how you will use that year, even if it's just theoretical.
Also, as a minor note... don't think of that year as the year you will suddenly do a bunch of research and suddenly be an academic powerhouse. Think of it as the year you get to *finish* all the many projects you've begun over the previous 4.
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If I remember right, the research year actually comes at the beginning, in contrast to some other places which have integrated research towards the end. In my opinion, the extra year is not worth it, or at least I felt during the interview process. I think it is not great to have the research at the beginning, as opposed to having it closer to when you would want to apply for a job.
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Since you would be spending >$100,000 in lost earnings on the year, you'd want to be very sure you were maxing it out. Maybe if you had a Ph.D going in or some established research it could make sense, but otherwise it would seem pretty tough to get anything meaningful done in one's PGY-2 year... I mean you don't really know how to read a chest radiograph yet.
It depends.
- Scenario one: You have to stay in California, for example your wife or your husband has a well established job in SD: You are doomed to choose the research track just below the regular track even if it is two years more.
- Scenario two: You are 100% sure that you want to do academics AND making 60K a year instead of attending income is no big deal to you: Then doing research track at UCSD is reasonable. Even if you don't publish lots of papers, it gives you a lot of advantage to find an academic job esp if the job opening is at UCSD itself. Finding an academic job, not only for radiology, but also for most fields is hard in California. In the current job market, Big California programs hire either internal candidates or someone with 4 pages of publications from MGH.
- Scenario three: You want to do private practice or your are not sure: Then doing one extra year of research track is A WASTE of time. Don't do it unless you are dying to stay in SD. If you want to torture yourself by doing an extra year of training, at least spend it doing a second fellowship or a two year neuro fellowship or even something like quality fellowship or informatics fellowship, all of which are more useful than the research year at the beginning of your fellowship.
Having said that, if you are single and you don't mind having a light relaxed schedule for a year especially after medical school and internship and you don't need a lot of money, San Diego is a fun place to be for a year with a relatively relaxed schedule. You won't find such a special time in the future. Still the research year will be A WASTE of time, but don't forget that occasionally the best times in your life have been the ones that you thought you had wasted.
Good Luck
- Scenario one: You have to stay in California, for example your wife or your husband has a well established job in SD: You are doomed to choose the research track just below the regular track even if it is two years more.
- Scenario two: You are 100% sure that you want to do academics AND making 60K a year instead of attending income is no big deal to you: Then doing research track at UCSD is reasonable. Even if you don't publish lots of papers, it gives you a lot of advantage to find an academic job esp if the job opening is at UCSD itself. Finding an academic job, not only for radiology, but also for most fields is hard in California. In the current job market, Big California programs hire either internal candidates or someone with 4 pages of publications from MGH.
- Scenario three: You want to do private practice or your are not sure: Then doing one extra year of research track is A WASTE of time. Don't do it unless you are dying to stay in SD. If you want to torture yourself by doing an extra year of training, at least spend it doing a second fellowship or a two year neuro fellowship or even something like quality fellowship or informatics fellowship, all of which are more useful than the research year at the beginning of your fellowship.
Having said that, if you are single and you don't mind having a light relaxed schedule for a year especially after medical school and internship and you don't need a lot of money, San Diego is a fun place to be for a year with a relatively relaxed schedule. You won't find such a special time in the future. Still the research year will be A WASTE of time, but don't forget that occasionally the best times in your life have been the ones that you thought you had wasted.
Good Luck
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