Logos' said:
Yes I see a need for this forum. I posted the following over in the path forum and did not get much feedback (except for Andy).
I echo your sentiment Logos'. It's funny that the thread you mention ended up just being a conversation between me and you
🙂.
The issue regarding the path forum is that the majority of the veterans (PGY-1's and up) who post in that forum are either not sure where they stand regarding academics vs. community practice or mainly plan to do mainly clinical and community stuff. I certainly respect that and because of this, I suspected there wouldn't be too many responses on that particular thread.
On the other hand, people like Logos', myself, and many of you fellow mudphuds are more interested in a research career. Perhaps, we would be more interested in a short-track kind of residency coupled with a postdoc/research fellowship option. Plainly put, some of us don't wanna devote much focus on the clinical side and some clinicians will balk at us and as us, "Then why are you doing a residency." But that's another issue and has been covered in other threads.
Given that, I will reiterate that I also strongly feel that this forum is needed; not that it would supercede the path forum or other clinically oriented forums in any way but instead serve to complement them (especially important for us mudphud types).
Also, I do have the gut feelings that there is a general conception of what the rough rankings may be. The reasons why they don't become so readily posted on the path forum may be because pathology is multi-dimensional and different criteria can be used to come up with different lists. On that note, path top-tier lists, on general criteria alone, can't be simplified to a "Top 5", "Top 10", or "Top 20." Also, people may shy away from being too opinionated because we certainly don't want to offend anyone who don't go to the so-called top tier institutions.
However, if one is looking at academics/research and the fostering of future physician-SCIENTISTS as the major criterion, I am almost certain that there is a "Top 25". Hell, I'd be willing to venture that there is a clear Top 10 and a clear #1 and #2! And this IS an important issue because I believe that track record is of some importance especially if you're going into academics.
Logos' said:
In the end many of us over in path will probably post our rank list and maybe there will be some consensus among the mudphuds in our group, but I doubt it.
Yeah, people will have to wait until March though
🙂. When all is said and done, I will not hesitate to post my rank list. As for now, this is hard since I have interviews scheduled but haven't gone to any yet. I do have a clear impression of what my top 5 list; however, there will surely be some shuffling around within that list as the interview season progresses.