PsychNOS said:
Psychiatry and OB/Gyn are not considered "primary care" contrary to what Neuronix said.
You got me there, psychiatry is not primary care. For example:
http://www.memorialhc.org/ummhc/hospitals/med_center/find/pc/pcspec.cfm
lists family medicine, geriatrics,
gynecology, internal medicine,
OB/GYN, and peds (which I forgot).
There are plenty of people at Penn who do not do research, but are involved in other activities like community service, international health, etc.
I absolutely agree with this and I think it's great. Still the idea from an admissions perspective (what I understand of it anyways) is that we will produce physicans who will become the leaders in whatever they decide to do. If we're talking about international health, we're looking for policy makers who are interested in or have MPHs or other advanced degrees. Another thing my classmates seem very interested in doing is going abroad and either starting an international organization or working for one. If we're talking about community service, we're looking for those who have demonstrated an interest and continue to have an interest in primary care to serve the needy directly, not just have a private practice career (not that these are incompatable of course).
You shouldn't think about career options in terms of academics vs. private practice when choosing a medical school. This decision does not really come into play until late into your residency.
I disagree in most cases. This is important for everything from picking a specialty, deciding what to do with your extracirriculars, and deciding which residencies to which you want to apply. If you want to go into academics, you should start looking for those top academic residencies when you get into medical school and start getting experience in research in your field of interest. Further, some residencies are very geared towards producing either academics or private practice (community) physicians. Especially in the subspecialty fields with few spots, the specialties are very academic. You want to make sure you pick the right specialty and the right residency programs to which you will apply, and academic vs. private practice will help you make that decision.
Of course this advice of considering what you want to do and preparing for it early doesn't apply for everyone. Some are more laid back about deciding for careers than others, and it still works out for them, provided they weren't too laid back when they took the Step I. In things like Internal Medicine, you don't necessarily have to know in advance what you want to do. But, for things like the op suggested: ortho, cardiology with a competitive residency and research very helpful for that fellowship, specialist surgery, etc, it's very helpful.
My point is still that you should consider your medical school based on how good of a match you are for that school. Chicago is definately better than Philadelphia IMO (bit more expensive, much larger, colder for longer), and Northwestern is going to give you just as good of a preparation for what you want to do. What Penn has to offer above many other schools is those opportunities I mentioned before. If you take those aren't so important for you and there's nothing compelling about Philadelphia or fin aid, I don't see any reason to hang out on the waitlist.
One caveat is that research and patient care are NOT mutually exclusive. Clinical research is very patient oriented, and most physicans I know that conduct clinical research take care of patients as well. Even with basic science it is possible to be a basic scientist and still take care of patients. So, I'm not a "medical student against the actual practice of medicine"...
