General Surgery 5 and 7 year Programs

[daenschl]

What is the status on needing to do research for fellowships these days? For those at the end of residency/in fellowship/in practice, what are you seeing out there? I recognize that peds and surg onc need research, but what about other fellowships, like vascular, CT, colorectal, etc.?

I'm MS3 going into Gen Surg. No specific plans for fellowship yet, but thinking about various things and definitely interested in fellowship. I know I'm putting the cart quite a way in front of the horse by thinking about fellowships at this point, but I like to think about what the next 5-10 years of my life might look like.
I'm possibly a little bit older than some other people at this point in my training and already have a family, so if I don't have to do 1-3 years of research in residency, I might look for those programs that don't require research when looking for programs to apply to.

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[doc05]

Also an MS3 but after talking to residents applying both vascular and colorectal, these fellowships are (relatively) not as competitive as the others you mentioned, and therefore do not require dedicated lab time. Further, some vascular and CT fellowships are being discontinued by some institutions that are implementing integrated residency pathways. Will be interesting to see how that trend continues in the future.

Keep in mind that many of the stronger programs (that will have a research requirement) will also have the better reputation and connections to get you the better fellowship spots. even in a "less competitive fields" like CT or vascular or colorectal.

 

[Apollyon]

Yeah I mean, I'm training chief residents who are almost universally younger than I am, which is interesting.

Aren't you out of training? You being older than the residents seems logical. Or, possibly, you wrote it the opposite of what you meant.

 

[vhawk]

Aren't you out of training? You being older than the residents seems logical. Or, possibly, you wrote it the opposite of what you meant.

Haha sorry yes typo or brain fart. They are older than me

 

[GenSurgONLY]

I guess my point, as someone else with experience, is that research years shouldn't matter as much as how well you fit in with a program, something you won't find out until your interview. If you know you don't want to do academic surgery, don't apply to the big name places like MGH, BWH, JHU, Wash U, etc..., because you don't need to. There are places that will train you as well, if not better, in how to be a non-academic surgeon. If you do want to do academics, the research years shouldn't matter, as you have declared yourself interested in research by the very nature of wanting to be an academic surgeon.

You answered my question here years earlier than from my recent post. I was trying to ask about this recently but could not get a straight answer. Sometimes, I just want an answer without the snark.

Thank you!