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Hi SDN,
As I'm sure you can see, this is my first post. I will be applying for MD/PhD entry in Fall 2012 so I am just starting my schools internal application process.
I have been doing fMRI research since I was a sophomore in high school and since I had experience in the psychological side of neuroimaging (when it would have been difficult to conduct a clinical study), I continued with that route in college. However, while I'm pretty sure that I want to continue doing functional imaging and I'm positive that I want to stay in neuroscience for my PhD, I'm not exactly sure that I want to continue my current direction. Instead, I may want to move to clinical neuroscience such as fMRI for neurosurgical planning or biomarkers for neurodegenerative disorders.
Is this normal? Is it expected that I continue my exact research direction or do adcoms accept a degree of flexibility? If I want to change, do I have to know exactly what I want to do? On that note, is it advantageous to look up and contact scientists at the medical school prior and during the application process to see where you would fit into their lab or if their work is in line with your interests?
Like I said, I'm just really starting the application stuff right now so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!
As I'm sure you can see, this is my first post. I will be applying for MD/PhD entry in Fall 2012 so I am just starting my schools internal application process.
I have been doing fMRI research since I was a sophomore in high school and since I had experience in the psychological side of neuroimaging (when it would have been difficult to conduct a clinical study), I continued with that route in college. However, while I'm pretty sure that I want to continue doing functional imaging and I'm positive that I want to stay in neuroscience for my PhD, I'm not exactly sure that I want to continue my current direction. Instead, I may want to move to clinical neuroscience such as fMRI for neurosurgical planning or biomarkers for neurodegenerative disorders.
Is this normal? Is it expected that I continue my exact research direction or do adcoms accept a degree of flexibility? If I want to change, do I have to know exactly what I want to do? On that note, is it advantageous to look up and contact scientists at the medical school prior and during the application process to see where you would fit into their lab or if their work is in line with your interests?
Like I said, I'm just really starting the application stuff right now so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!