What do I do with Interviews received... but no research matches...?

[Doodledreams]

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I've received interview offers for four excellent MD/PhD programs. However, I have a serious problem. I explicitly stated my research experience and interests in my application. The schools that are powerhouses in the research I'm interested in were not interested in me. On the other hand the schools that have given me interviews literally don't have anybody working in the research I'm interested in and want to invest my life in.

I've looked around for 'similar' interests, but it's kind of like I'm just fishing to find someone who has some key word that matches something I've worked in. I feel like beggars can't be choosers. The schools have excellent MD programs, and their research programs in other fields are great, and it would be an honor to be in any of them. I'm going to be interviewing at the end of this month, and I want to be able to convey my interest without this internal sense of disappointment.

Any thoughts?

 

[Krupke]

When you say "interests," what do you mean? Are you talking about a specific disease or specific field (like crystallography, stem cells work, vaccine design, etc)?

 

[Krupke]

But I've met plenty of PIs whose current research is in vastly different fields than their PhD work (like my PI). You might need to do some more work in the future to get to your field and catch up (assuming you don't find something new you love), but you can do it.

Keep yourself excited going into the interviews by knowing that you will be able to get to move on in the career you want

 

[URHere]

I understand where you're coming from, but a PhD isn't really about becoming an expert in the same field where you hope to have an R01 (especially not for MD/PhD folks who will have big gaps in their research training/publication records). A PhD is about learning how to think and present data like a scientist. It's about learning to write grants and sell your ideas so that someone is willing to fund them. Collecting as many relevant skills as you can along the way is a perk.

Ultimately, you need to find something about these schools that interests you and will help you achieve the goals I've listed above. Do your programs really excel in any areas of research? If so, is there a way you could argue that those areas would help you build a more diverse skill-set related to your area of interest? For example, if you have your heart set on cancer biology and one of your programs has a big pharmacology and drug development focus, you could talk about how this would make you a better cancer researcher down the line. Similarly, if most of the students have F30 awards and the school teaches grant-writing, you could get excited about something like that. Do you like teaching? Some programs emphasize that. You get the point.

Also, most people change their research interests down the line. I went from being a behavioral neuroscientist to being a medicinal chemist with a strong biophysics focus during my PhD. The same could happen to you, so keep an open mind.

 

[Rainbow Zebra]

If you can't be with the ones you love, love the ones you are with (you have interest in you). Really, what choice do you have??

 

[Goro]

Do you want to go to med school or not? Why did you apply to schools that don't have research venues that you like?

What if you do get into a program, and then find out that every PI working in the subject area you like is an dingus???

You have to go into this with an open mind.

My own PhD work used a mouse model. If you had told me going into school that I was going to be a mouse scientist I would have had said "You're crazy!!"

I've received interview offers for four excellent MD/PhD programs. However, I have a serious problem. I explicitly stated my research experience and interests in my application. The schools that are powerhouses in the research I'm interested in were not interested in me. On the other hand the schools that have given me interviews literally don't have anybody working in the research I'm interested in and want to invest my life in.

I've looked around for 'similar' interests, but it's kind of like I'm just fishing to find someone who has some key word that matches something I've worked in. I feel like beggars can't be choosers. The schools have excellent MD programs, and their research programs in other fields are great, and it would be an honor to be in any of them. I'm going to be interviewing at the end of this month, and I want to be able to convey my interest without this internal sense of disappointment.

Any thoughts?

 

[NotWayneBrady]

Do you want to go to med school or not? Why did you apply to schools that don't have research venues that you like?

What if you do get into a program, and then find out that every PI working in the subject area you like is an dingus???

You have to go into this with an open mind.

My own PhD work used a mouse model. If you had told me going into school that I was going to be a mouse scientist I would have had said "You're crazy!!"

Spoiler: Warning: Minor Derail

I find it hilarious to picture a cat getting a PhD working in a mouse model.

 

[JustAPhD]

First and foremost, congrats! That's no small feat.

I'll agree with the above posters. Your PhD thesis does not lock you into a determined topic or even field.
What's your research interest?