School Politics

[notlikethat]

Ive seen a couple posts warning about the politics involved in med school/grad school. I was hoping some current students or past students could comment on this. What sort of politics?

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[orrghead16]

Not just med or grad school. Science is completely political. Science is just as much networking as any other career path. Although I wish science was completely based on merits, etc., it simply is not. Some of it is about who you know, who knows you, and so on.

You can have great research, but get dumped because you don't play your political cards right. Likewise, you can get some lousy research published in a high profile journal because you have all the right connections and ins.

I wish it wasn't true, but it is.

 

[j-weezy]

life is political.

it's not just what you know but who you know...

as long as you realize this, you'll be okay - just don't think that you can be a success without help from other people and you'll be fine...

 

[xanthines]

There are basically two rules for politicking: 1. Don't pi$$ anyone off and 2. Kiss everyone's butt.

While concise, these two rules are harder to pull off in practice. Most of the time you can blissfully get away without doing anything (unless you happen to be a jerk). But for those other times... well, it's time to get some chapstick!

-X

 

[QofQuimica]

Ive seen a couple posts warning about the politics involved in med school/grad school. I was hoping some current students or past students could comment on this. What sort of politics?

Pretty much the same politics you've experienced in college, only it's a much smaller, more inbred group once you get to med school. People in positions of power will be watching you all the time. Are you a complainer or troublemaker? Are you a team player? Particularly on the wards, there is a lot of subjectivity in how you are evaluated, and sometimes attendings seem to expect you to read their minds. Xanthines' chapstick quip is glib, but it *is* true that sometimes you just have to grin and bear it in the short term because you can't afford to alienate these people. As for the politics of getting grants and publications, well, I'll let the current grad students wax eloquent about that. My best advice to you is to not date any of your classmates. That is just asking for drama.

 

[delirium81]

I think my younger self envisioned science as this pure pursuit of knowledge and truth, but after I worked in a big lab full-time as a post-bac for a year, I realized the obvious: science involves people. People will be subjective and petty whether they're in congress or a lab. I'm not trying to sound overly cynical, the majority of people I've met in science are good, hard-working people. But, I've definitely seen papers get pushed into publication in big-name journals because the PI happened to be friends with the editor. And I've definitely heard some petty smack talking. The scientific community that studies a specific phenomenon is usually pretty small. If you start talking smack about another person, it'll get back to them. As far as that goes, if you disagree with someone's work, disprove it with experiments, don't make it personal.