Anyone having to choose between graduate school and residency?

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Dr026

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I've decided to apply to grad schools to study neuroscience, which has always been my passion even before medical school. Additional incentives include the free time it'll permit me to pursue other interests such as writing, traveling and enjoying the arts. I figured the satisfaction which comes from doing what you love will compensate for the pay if it's lower than that of a typical MD. I also believe that one should enjoy life while young, since I have a funny feeling about enjoying good times people enjoyed when they were ten years younger.

While in med school, my interest in surgery grew. The lifestyle, physician burnout and lack of free time made me jettison the idea of going into a surgical residency. It seems like giving so much up, for just one thing.
Choosing between a good life (research) all through and a few rough years followed by a fantastic time afterwards, with the prospect of retiring early (residency) has been on my mind. Possibly, the huge pay I'll get as an attending, would drive me on and the fact that residents earn better than grad students.
I just don't want to be sucked into the 80 hour grueling work week and acting like a robot, whose fuel of motivation on stressful days and at hours when my other passions scream of neglect, is the thought of earning more than my non-physician friends and the thought of a luxurious autumn.

Any thoughts?

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I'm not entirely sure what your question is (I recommend tightening up that writing). But I get the impression you're romanticizing the idea of being a researcher a bit much. It's not the same grind as residency and clinical practice but it's not without its pressures. All the same, if medicine isn't for you, it's not for you. Good luck!!
 
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I'm not entirely sure what your question is (I recommend tightening up that writing). But I get the impression you're romanticizing the idea of being a researcher a bit much. It's not the same grind as residency and clinical practice but it's not without its pressures. All the same, if medicine isn't for you, it's not for you. Good luck!!

The ambiguity in the writing reflects its ambiguity in reality. It's like wanting to do two different majors, because of an almost equal amount of interest (when only one can be done) and searching for an underestimated plus in either, to help make the choice.

As you've rightly stated, research is not without its pressures. But I lean towards research because having passed through med school, I doubt if the pressures are anywhere near that of clinical practice generally. Besides, hardly does anyone post about researcher burnout. It's almost always physician burnout.
 
The ambiguity in the writing reflects its ambiguity in reality. It's like wanting to do two different majors, because of an almost equal amount of interest (when only one can be done) and searching for an underestimated plus in either, to help make the choice.

As you've rightly stated, research is not without its pressures. But I lean towards research because having passed through med school, I doubt if the pressures are anywhere near that of clinical practice generally. Besides, hardly does anyone post about researcher burnout. It's almost always physician burnout.
People tend to not care about things that don't effect them. Physician burnout effects the care of patients. That is why it gets attention.

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/opi...-burnout-should-be-a-major-cause-for-concern/ Academics is a lot more miserable that non-academic medicine imo.

Are you in Nigeria or the US? It seems like you prefer research and just want to stick with medicine because of the prospect of money. There is no guarantee that the money at the end of residency will be what it is now. You can make good money in industry research and, if you budget well, still retire early enough.
 
People tend to not care about things that don't effect them. Physician burnout effects the care of patients. That is why it gets attention.

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/opi...-burnout-should-be-a-major-cause-for-concern/ Academics is a lot more miserable that non-academic medicine imo.

Are you in Nigeria or the US? It seems like you prefer research and just want to stick with medicine because of the prospect of money. There is no guarantee that the money at the end of residency will be what it is now. You can make good money in industry research and, if you budget well, still retire early enough.


Nigeria presently, but looking toward the US.
Considering the psychological and physical investment in medicine, the prospect of money becomes a top motivator, in addition to the joy of making people's lives better.
That's supported by the unsatisfactory tone heard when researchers talk about their income as not being proportional to the impact of their findings.

That report highlights the understated downsides to research. I guess things are not always the way they seem from afar.

Industry research looks good tho.
 
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Research will suck your soul.
So will medicine.

Pick your poison:
doing work at a snail's pace and feeling frustrated with a million grants and not being able to do what you want,
or
dealing with the BS of medicine like malpractice and the nesrly military like meritocracy and not serving the patients in a way you want
 
I had this dilemma when deciding between med school and grad school to start with. I took time off after undergrad to do research (neuro) and was wondering whether the PhD route was better suited for me, but I had some really great mentors and friends who gave me a lot of really solid advice. If you're already in med school, finish it up. If you get to the end and really don't want to do a residency, get a postdoc position. You don't need a PhD to do a postdoc, and your broad medical background is actually really attractive to a lot of fields of research. If you can stick it out, do your residency and become a board-certified physician - it'll be much easier to get academic research positions since you have the ability to work with human patients.

I personally went with MD (and have not regretted it at all) because I'd rather deal with the internal difficulties of burnout rather than the external difficulties of the academia job market. Especially in the US, we have far more PhD graduates than postdoc positions available. You mentioned industry, which I don't admit to knowing much about, but those jobs are also hard to come by. People are doing 2 postdocs now, which is pretty crappy when you look at the pay and the hours. The hours are probably universally better as a postdoc than as a resident, but there is an immense pressure to publish (publish or perish) that I don't think is talked about enough. Do a bit of research into the mental health of grad students - it's worse than you think.
 
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Research will suck your soul.
So will medicine.

Pick your poison:
doing work at a snail's pace and feeling frustrated with a million grants and not being able to do what you want,
or
dealing with the BS of medicine like malpractice and the nesrly military like meritocracy and not serving the patients in a way you want

This is insightful.
 
I had this dilemma when deciding between med school and grad school to start with. I took time off after undergrad to do research (neuro) and was wondering whether the PhD route was better suited for me, but I had some really great mentors and friends who gave me a lot of really solid advice. If you're already in med school, finish it up. If you get to the end and really don't want to do a residency, get a postdoc position. You don't need a PhD to do a postdoc, and your broad medical background is actually really attractive to a lot of fields of research. If you can stick it out, do your residency and become a board-certified physician - it'll be much easier to get academic research positions since you have the ability to work with human patients.

I personally went with MD (and have not regretted it at all) because I'd rather deal with the internal difficulties of burnout rather than the external difficulties of the academia job market. Especially in the US, we have far more PhD graduates than postdoc positions available. You mentioned industry, which I don't admit to knowing much about, but those jobs are also hard to come by. People are doing 2 postdocs now, which is pretty crappy when you look at the pay and the hours. The hours are probably universally better as a postdoc than as a resident, but there is an immense pressure to publish (publish or perish) that I don't think is talked about enough. Do a bit of research into the mental health of grad students - it's worse than you think.

Thanks for your response. I also took time off to be part of a neuro research. It's good to find someone else who has been through it. This got me more informed.
 
Besides, hardly does anyone post about researcher burnout. It's almost always physician burnout.

I think that's probably just because the number of physicians is so much higher than the number of PhD researchers. "Live by the grant, die by the grant" is a real phenomenon and it's definitely stressful, although a different kind of stress than medicine/clinical science. The job market in academia isn't exactly predictable either.

If a research career is definitely 100% a better fit for you, go pursue it. But maybe consider at least doing your intern year so you have a medical license and/or consider trying to find a post-doc or position in industry with your MD instead of starting basically from scratch in grad school.
 
Thanks for weighing in. I appreciate the measured approach.
 
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