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Hi all,
So a bit of background, I'm currently an M1 and I KNOW I don't want to do a competitive specialty. As of recent I realized that while I do love a lot of things about medicine, I can't commit to the long path of delayed gratification often required by most surgical specialties. This realization and for my own personal reasons, I'm quite sure I would want to pursue either psychiatry (heavily leaning) or EM, both specialties that aren't very competitive, and I am also coming from a t20.
On to the reason for the post; has anyone heard of anyone taking a research year between M3/M4 abroad, more specifically Latin America? Honestly I don't need much productivity from my research year, I'd really just want to meet the minimum requirements to not have it reflect poorly on me, so as long as it has a neutral (or slightly positive) effect, I'm happy. The main reason for asking this is because growing up I never traveled, and in undergrad I certainly might have overdone it on the premed grind and feel like I didn't take as much advantage of that time to travel as I could have. Now that I'm a bit older and have had the opportunity to travel a bit more, I realize how important it is to me to travel as much as I can while I'm still young (hence, why I would rather not wait until I'm an attending and 30+ yrs old to travel).
I know this might not be the best place to find people who share a similar opinion–a lot of us I'm sure are chasing for competitive specialties and are taking research years to lock in that ortho/derm residency. I, on the other hand, would like to take a research year to do some light research and spend the rest exploring Latin American countries. I know this isn't the 'smartest' career move in the sense that I delay attending income by a year, but I'm fortunate to not be taking on too many med school loans and my school is generally willing to give a stipend for a research, and I wouldn't need much if I could do a research year in a target location. I know people say to wait for M4, but honestly something I've realized is that we often delay gratification to an extreme, and I feel like there's nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy life while in medical school. Thanks for any advice and I'm certainly open to feedback.
TL DR: Med school student going through quarter-life crisis would like to know feasibility of research year abroad for fun–not gunning for a competitive specialty at all.
So a bit of background, I'm currently an M1 and I KNOW I don't want to do a competitive specialty. As of recent I realized that while I do love a lot of things about medicine, I can't commit to the long path of delayed gratification often required by most surgical specialties. This realization and for my own personal reasons, I'm quite sure I would want to pursue either psychiatry (heavily leaning) or EM, both specialties that aren't very competitive, and I am also coming from a t20.
On to the reason for the post; has anyone heard of anyone taking a research year between M3/M4 abroad, more specifically Latin America? Honestly I don't need much productivity from my research year, I'd really just want to meet the minimum requirements to not have it reflect poorly on me, so as long as it has a neutral (or slightly positive) effect, I'm happy. The main reason for asking this is because growing up I never traveled, and in undergrad I certainly might have overdone it on the premed grind and feel like I didn't take as much advantage of that time to travel as I could have. Now that I'm a bit older and have had the opportunity to travel a bit more, I realize how important it is to me to travel as much as I can while I'm still young (hence, why I would rather not wait until I'm an attending and 30+ yrs old to travel).
I know this might not be the best place to find people who share a similar opinion–a lot of us I'm sure are chasing for competitive specialties and are taking research years to lock in that ortho/derm residency. I, on the other hand, would like to take a research year to do some light research and spend the rest exploring Latin American countries. I know this isn't the 'smartest' career move in the sense that I delay attending income by a year, but I'm fortunate to not be taking on too many med school loans and my school is generally willing to give a stipend for a research, and I wouldn't need much if I could do a research year in a target location. I know people say to wait for M4, but honestly something I've realized is that we often delay gratification to an extreme, and I feel like there's nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy life while in medical school. Thanks for any advice and I'm certainly open to feedback.
TL DR: Med school student going through quarter-life crisis would like to know feasibility of research year abroad for fun–not gunning for a competitive specialty at all.
