Income of Specialties

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brygguy1

brygguy
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Does anyone know of a website that has average salaries for various specialties during and after residency?

Note: I DO NOT want to decide my specialty based on how much money I could make, but I DO want to make sure I know what I'm getting myself in to when it comes to loans and debt.

Thanks in advance

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Does anyone know of a website that has average salaries for various specialties during and after residency?

Note: I DO NOT want to decide my specialty based on how much money I could make, but I DO want to make sure I know what I'm getting myself in to when it comes to loans and debt.

Thanks in advance

Salaries during residency don't really vary much by specialty. The salaries are paid from funding granted per resident, not a differing amount based on specialty. You start anywhere from high 30s to high 40s, with the difference being based mostly on cost of living in the area, and go up a grand or two a year each year. As for post residency salaries, there are lots of sites with questionable data. Basically any search firm is going to give you inflated numbers, because their goal is to make you call them when seeking a job. So anything posted thereon is higher than you can realistically expect to get. FWIW, most salary info will change pretty substantially from the time you are a premed until the time you are post residency (probably around a decade from now). The various healthcare proposals seek to adjust salaries, and insurance companies keep playing with reimbursements, making some fields winners and losers. And lots of turf wars reallocate money from field to field (eg IR taking a bite out of vascular surgery and the like). Don't expect the data you see now to be very close to what you will get far far down the road.

And FWIW, it's a pretty safe bet that you will change your mind as to desired field of practice at least once during your med school career -- pretty much everybody does. So I wouldn't focus too much on specialty specific salaries. Suffice it to say, the less competitive things like FP, IM, psych and peds tend to earn less than some of the more competitive fields like derm and rads. But these latter are certainly not jobs that are "worth it" for many -- if you don't like what you are doing, you shouldn't devote the next 40 years of your life doing it. This isn't a prison sentence, it's your life, and this is how you are going to be spending most of it from here on out. So I'd say money is far from the most important thing on your list of things to focus on. Just my two cents.
 
Salaries during residency don't really vary much by specialty. The salaries are paid from funding granted per resident, not a differing amount based on specialty. You start anywhere from high 30s to high 40s, with the difference being based mostly on cost of living in the area, and go up a grand or two a year each year. As for post residency salaries, there are lots of sites with questionable data. Basically any search firm is going to give you inflated numbers, because their goal is to make you call them when seeking a job. So anything posted thereon is higher than you can realistically expect to get. FWIW, most salary info will change pretty substantially from the time you are a premed until the time you are post residency (probably around a decade from now). The various healthcare proposals seek to adjust salaries, and insurance companies keep playing with reimbursements, making some fields winners and losers. And lots of turf wars reallocate money from field to field (eg IR taking a bite out of vascular surgery and the like). Don't expect the data you see now to be very close to what you will get far far down the road.

And FWIW, it's a pretty safe bet that you will change your mind as to desired field of practice at least once during your med school career -- pretty much everybody does. So I wouldn't focus too much on specialty specific salaries. Suffice it to say, the less competitive things like FP, IM, psych and peds tend to earn less than some of the more competitive fields like derm and rads. But these latter are certainly not jobs that are "worth it" for many -- if you don't like what you are doing, you shouldn't devote the next 40 years of your life doing it. This isn't a prison sentence, it's your life, and this is how you are going to be spending most of it from here on out. So I'd say money is far from the most important thing on your list of things to focus on. Just my two cents.

Thanks, Law2Doc. I appreciate your help.
 
Thanks, Law2Doc. I appreciate your help.

I'm sure you are being sarcastic, but really, the specialty doesn't play a role in resident's salaries. For example a given hospital pays it's new residents in the 40k range. Doesn't matter if it's a medicine resident or a surgery resident or a psych resident. It's a fixed number. So it's silly to ask for a breakdown by specialty in residency. $40k is $40k is $40k whether you are earning it as a psych resident or a medicine resident or a surgery resident etc.

As for the post residency numbers, this has been explored in numerous threads and folks come away more ignorant than they started simply by virtue of folks citing Ceja and other search firm listings that are so wrong you are better off making up your own numbers. Not to mention that as I suggested above, all the numbers will change in a decade from now.
 
I'm sure you are being sarcastic, but really, the specialty doesn't play a role in resident's salaries. For example a given hospital pays it's new residents in the 40k range. Doesn't matter if it's a medicine resident or a surgery resident or a psych resident. It's a fixed number. So it's silly to ask for a breakdown by specialty in residency. $40k is $40k is $40k whether you are earning it as a psych resident or a medicine resident or a surgery resident etc.

As for the post residency numbers, this has been explored in numerous threads and folks come away more ignorant than they started simply by virtue of folks citing Ceja and other search firm listings that are so wrong you are better off making up your own numbers. Not to mention that as I suggested above, all the numbers will change in a decade from now.


Haha, no, I wasn't being sarcastic. That was exactly the information I was looking for. I appreciate your help.
 
And FWIW, it's a pretty safe bet that you will change your mind as to desired field of practice at least once during your med school career -- pretty much everybody does.

I hear this quite a bit from physicians and advisors, and it certainly sounds reasonable. However, how am I supposed to have Published articles in
a competitive field (Derm, oto, rads, etc), if I haven't decided by the end of my first year, which is when I can actually make time for research?

If a medical student wants to have a solid chance at matching into a competitive specialty, how can he / she wait past the first year? How can a student make lasting connections with physicians in their field of interest (resulting in glowing LORs) if they don't have a few good years to dedicate to that relationship?

I'm not trying to sound rude, I'm just dumbfounded on how myself (or others) can match into something competitive without years of proper preparation? It sounds as if some coveted specialties are insanely brutal to match into. If a student changes their mind, their old research work is not as valuable as research in the field of interest right?
 
I hear this quite a bit from physicians and advisors, and it certainly sounds reasonable. However, how am I supposed to have Published articles in
a competitive field (Derm, oto, rads, etc), if I haven't decided by the end of my first year, which is when I can actually make time for research?

If a medical student wants to have a solid chance at matching into a competitive specialty, how can he / she wait past the first year? How can a student make lasting connections with physicians in their field of interest (resulting in glowing LORs) if they don't have a few good years to dedicate to that relationship?

I'm not trying to sound rude, I'm just dumbfounded on how myself (or others) can match into something competitive without years of proper preparation? If a student changes their mind, their old research work is not as valuable as research in the field of interest right?

Just to answer part of your question, those competitive residencies don't care about your personal development. There's some goofy dude out there who guns for rads from day 1, come hell or high water. Come match time, said goofy dude has a leg up on you, no matter what sort of 'come to Jesus' moment you may have had in the spring of 3rd year.
 
I hear this quite a bit from physicians and advisors, and it certainly sounds reasonable. However, how am I supposed to have Published articles in
a competitive field (Derm, oto, rads, etc), if I haven't decided by the end of my first year, which is when I can actually make time for research?
You don't have to have with, the possible exception of rad onc where research is very heavily considered.

Also, I would say the minority of med students publish articles (especially the plural).

If a medical student wants to have a solid chance at matching into a competitive specialty, how can he / she wait past the first year? How can a student make lasting connections with physicians in their field of interest (resulting in glowing LORs) if they don't have a few good years to dedicate to that relationship?
LORs come from your clinical rotations done during years 3 and 4 of medical school.

I'm not trying to sound rude, I'm just dumbfounded on how myself (or others) can match into something competitive without years of proper preparation? If a student changes their mind, their old research work is not as valuable as research in the field of interest right?
Lots of people swich plans, research looks good period. Having it in your field is a nice bonus but having research experience is good no matter what you did it in.
 
Also, I would say the minority of med students publish articles (especially the plural).

Certainly the minority yes, but for example, the gunner guide over in the Derm forum suggests "Having one or two publications is typical" (I can't imagine), and points to a more solid application having 3+ pubs, and even goes as far as suggesting 5+ pubs for some applicants (is this mudphud area?).

LORs come from your clinical rotations done during years 3 and 4 of medical school.

Also, is an applicant supposed to have LORs from his specific field of interest? Aren't many specialties not covered in year three?

Thank you for the information, I really appreciate the insight :D
 
Lots of people swich plans, research looks good period. Having it in your field is a nice bonus but having research experience is good no matter what you did it in.

The problem is that at some residencies (let's just use rad-onc again), having some tangentially related research that looks good isn't good enough.

Just to answer part of your question, those competitive residencies don't care about your personal development. There's some goofy dude out there who guns for rads from day 1, come hell or high water. Come match time, said goofy dude has a leg up on you, no matter what sort of 'come to Jesus' moment you may have had in the spring of 3rd year.

It seems like the only way you can keep your options open without ruining your chances at the more competitive residencies is to just go for the most competitive one you think you might be interested in. If you do change your mind, at least it's now a relatively "easier" one so you can accept the penalty of having "wasted" time. :(
 
Also, is an applicant supposed to have LORs from his specific field of interest? Aren't many specialties not covered in year three?
You are supposed to have a LOR from your field of interest. If you're applying to a speciality that's not part of the core curriculm you usually use your first available elective to rotate in it and get a LOR. For some schools you have an elective third year, for many it will be the first rotation of 4th year.
 
It seems like the only way you can keep your options open without ruining your chances at the more competitive residencies is to just go for the most competitive one you think you might be interested in. If you do change your mind, at least it's now a relatively "easier" one so you can accept the penalty of having "wasted" time. :(

Then you have to convince the easier specialty that they aren't a fallback/safety when you have your rad onc research. :laugh:

Don't worry too much, you can still do it without knowing from the beginning, I'm just referring to the "ideal" candidate.
 
I'm sure you are being sarcastic, but really, the specialty doesn't play a role in resident's salaries. For example a given hospital pays it's new residents in the 40k range. Doesn't matter if it's a medicine resident or a surgery resident or a psych resident. It's a fixed number. So it's silly to ask for a breakdown by specialty in residency. $40k is $40k is $40k whether you are earning it as a psych resident or a medicine resident or a surgery resident etc.

As for the post residency numbers, this has been explored in numerous threads and folks come away more ignorant than they started simply by virtue of folks citing Ceja and other search firm listings that are so wrong you are better off making up your own numbers. Not to mention that as I suggested above, all the numbers will change in a decade from now.

Not 100% accurate but close. While looking at my state schools website, the residency salaries varied. Not much but they were not all the same. Most of the surgical residencies were closer to 50k while some barely broke 40k. The benefits, such as vacation or away conferences, varied as well.
 
L2D, I don't know how you have the time or mainly, the patience, for these in-depth and well-articulated answers to pre-allo questions, most of which run along the same vein. Commendable...any thought to academics in your future?
 
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