Masters in Philosophy As Central Aim of Research Year

Started by en_al_zo
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en_al_zo

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Hi all,

Forgive my ignorance in having to ask a question, but I would appreciate if anyone has insight to my query. I am an MS3 who has been committed to Neurosurgery for a long time. I am grateful that school and research efforts have gone well and I believe I will not have issues matching. I am pursuant of Neurosurgery primarily because of the tremendous philosophical underpinnings of the specialty and the opportunity to interact with the most interesting/bizarre phenomenon in the known universe - the human brain.

In thinking about my future residency and preparations for academic neurosurgery, I would love to receive additional formal training in philosophy and ethics. I believe that training could assist me in my academic pursuits and would carve out dedicated time to develop my fund of knowledge and produce a number of papers within the field from a different more abstract lens. While most residents focus hard on research during their protected year, I know some folks get MBA’s, and I know one person who did a White House internship. My question is whether anyone has heard of, or think any program director would approve of, a request to pursue academic, formal, philosophical training during that research year?

Thanks all,
M