nortomaso said:
Is anyone here genuinely interested in an academic career? I am hoping to one day be able to spend half my time doing patient care and the other doing clinical research/teaching. As I begin to shop around for a residency (MSIV), it seems that it is difficult to find the right balance of clinical and research training. Some programs (e.g. Stanford) give the impression that too much time is dedicated to research at the expense of clinical training, whereas others (e.g MGH) leave one to believe that there will be no time for developing interests due to the intensity of clinical responsibilities.
Any thoughts?
Truthfully, there is NO easy way to find the "right balance". Someone will ALWAYS be there to tell you that you need to do more of one or the other to do it right. If you're serious about this, you really need to talk to residents (and recent alumni/junior faculty) who are doing research at the institutions which look interesting to you. Above all, find a program which is flexible enough to allow you to find the "right balance" FOR YOU. This will be different, depending on your specific clinical interests, whether your research interests are clinical vs. more basic in nature, and whether you intend to have a family and a life. Do these institutions have specific mentorship/guidance/FUNDING for residents exploring a research career? Are there others like you there? To be honest, most major academic programs will have some emphasis on research for residents. Only a few have specific tracks to identify and prepare those few who will continue on to faculty jobs, run their own labs, get their own grants, etc....
A few places worth starting with (the usual suspects, as you can see...):
East: Yale, Columbia, Hopkins.
South: Emory
Midwest: Wash U, Michigan, Iowa?
West: Stanford, Washington, UCLA, UCSD
In a class by itself (or so they claim): Pitt
There are probably others I'm missing on this list which could end up being right for you, especially if you hooked up with the right faculty mentor--there are great people at less notorious institutions: Maryland, Iowa, Minnesota, OHSU, Wayne State, Cincinatti....
Good luck!
