Academics vs private

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IRISH22

the dude
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Its been said that if an attending asks (on the interview trail, externships, etc), I should always maintain that I want to pursue a carer in academics. It would seem that some--maybe most--academic Radonc attendings harbor some kind of spite for students that that even think they want to operate in private practice someday. Is there any basis to this? Furthermore, should I even know by this point?

thoughts?​

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Is there any basis to this?

Yes. At larger, more academically oriented programs there is a bias. It will hurt you if you come out of the gates (e.g. interview) stating that you want to head to private practice.

In smaller programs this is not always true.
 
I honestly don't know if I want to do academics or private practice..so that's what I said in my interviews. You will be asked about this at EVERY interview..so have a good answer for it. I simply stated that four years ago I didn't even know about radonc..and here I am going into the field when I thought I'd be in a completely different field. A lot will probably change for me in the next 5 years..how on earth should I know if I am destined for private practice or academics at this point. Basically I told them that I hadn't ruled anything out. I also stated that I knew that the "right" answer was academics. I remember asking one interviewer, "how many interviewees have told you that they want to go into private practice?" He answered "zero." So I told him that I felt that applicants feel forced into answering academics..but that I wasn't going to say that just so I could say the "right" answer. I think he admired my candor (either that or he thought I was a dill-hole). Either way, I would figure out a way to answer the question honestly as I think they will sense your insincerity if you aren't truly decided on academics at this point. But Gfunk is right..it may hurt you at certain programs to give the answer "I don't know."
 
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well be careful. some programs know they aren't shunting grads to academic practices and if you say you are really set on it, they will tell you its not the program for you. other programs really are happy either way. some are very biased to produce academics. The issue of "spite" is another one; there are very few with an active dislike to people who go into private practice that i know of. however the issue of your career throughts influencing if they feel you'll "fit" the program is quite real. but it can work either way.

Its been said that if an attending asks (on the interview trail, externships, etc), I should always maintain that I want to pursue a carer in academics. It would seem that some--maybe most--academic Radonc attendings harbor some kind of spite for students that that even think they want to operate in private practice someday. Is there any basis to this? Furthermore, should I even know by this point?

thoughts?​
 
if you are asked the dreaded question, the 2 safest answers are: academics or i havent made up my mind yet. caveats to this are if you are at a top 5-10 program with a heavy research focus, then the only answer is academics.
 
be warned though; very often your cv will speak the truth that you wont. its not hard to see. people do change their mind in training, but be careful lest you get pegged a bs artist. that will kick you all the way down the rank list.
 
most people who apply to radonc have research under their belt (if i remember correctly, approx 70%)...so i doubt their cv would say others.

its funny because a lot of students who apply to radonc happen to stumble upon it and many dont have radonc specific research.
 
i dont know the figures but i doubt its as high as 70%. remember this forum is VERy skewed to the weird and wonferful world of over achievers. But in any event, people can usually tell the difference beetween research and *research*.
 
actually its a bit higher. of US seniors, 97% had research projects. 78% had publications.

check out:
http://www.nrmp.org/matchoutcomes.pdf

its a compilation of statistics from the 2005 match.

btw steph, how many medical students conduct ground breaking *research*? any *research* project that gets published with a med students' name on it seems like they put some effort into it...and thats all that matters.

any program going through the match is going out on a limb when they rank a medical student (and vice versa).
 
thanks for the data. BTW ther eis also a report form Yang et al. about the high % who lie about their research in their application. Its a few mos old I believe.

i dont think i was arguing they need groundbreaking research. To be honest, few doctors ever do groundbreaking research. As for "making the effort", the point still stands. Residency committees can genuinely determine what constitues are real effort from a "bulk-the-cv" gesture.
 
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