Suggestions about finishing early?

[fantasty]

So... I hadn't actually thought of this before. We've been told that there is a window of good times to return to the wards after we defend our dissertation (I forget exactly, but I think it's Feb to May at our school). My PI and I have been working on my timeline, and he'd like me to defend by Dec (grant issues, etc). If I actually pull this off, I could be back on the wards the first week in Jan 2006, and I'm fairly sure I could fit in the rest of my required clerkships in by the end of 2006. (I'd still have to find time for Step II, etc, but the alignment of our scheduling blocks seems to work out well).

So, if this happened (big IF - it would really require me to never visit this site again and bust my @ss the rest of 2005 )... what would you do with the extra time? I doubt the MSTP wants to pay for me to have vacation time. I could take some electives but I doubt there are that many things I'd want to take for fun. I could try to go outside of the match. I know one guy who acted as an adjunct prof and taught a class for one semester. And, I've heard of people doing a chunk of their post-doc prior to residency (but 6 months doesn't seem like enough time to complete much, and it would be hard to leave it in the middle).

As for going outside the match, how does one even approach that subject with residency programs?

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[beary]

Hi dante,

Congrats on the possibility of getting done early! I don't know how important your grant issues are, but I think things would be a lot easier for you if you just finished up in February 2006. The MSTP won't pay for you to have more than a month of vacation, and they will even only pay for limited electives.

If you want to defend in December, what about staying on a post-doc right away for four months and then going back to clinics in April? That isn't enough time to get a lot done, but it would just be a straight continuation of your project and would probably be easier than jumping back in after being gone for a year.

I know AndyM here went back to the lab for several months as a post-doc after finishing med school since he finished off cycle so I am sure he can share more insight about that vs. going outside of the match.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

I know AndyM here went back to the lab for several months as a post-doc after finishing med school since he finished off cycle so I am sure he can share more insight about that vs. going outside of the match.

beary is right. i defended in april of 2003 and i finished all of my med school requirements in october 2004. november was my vacation month which MSTP paid for but after that i was unemployed. i ended up doing postdoctoral research back in my PhD thesis lab and that amounted in a substantial pay raise. my boss was totally cool with it and i hope your boss will be cool with it too because it's a sure-fire way to make some cash before you start residency.

as for going outside of the match, i don't know how that works. pathology used to be a field where people routinely found positions outside of the match. but this is becoming less and less common these days. i had to apply through the match to get my pathology position.