What specialty?

[Hurricane]

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For the graduating MD/PhDs who are applying for residency... what specialty? Just curious.

As for me, I'm going into Psychiatry, and then hopefully on to a Child fellowship (but not Triple Board).

 

[Gfunk6]

Radiation Oncology (if I can get it)

 

[geekgirl]

general surgery. likely onc/endo after that.

 

[2010]

Psychiatry also, we should compare notes on interviews and stuff!!

 

[Hurricane]

Psychiatry also, we should compare notes on interviews and stuff!!

I just saw your post on the Psych board - we are interviewing at a lot of the same places! 🙂 So far, I'm doing Wash U, Cincinnati, Emory, Vanderbilt and UNC (and hopefully Duke) before Christmas, and UTSW, Baylor, MUSC and UW after.

What bad things have your heard about Vanderbilt? I've heard vague badness, but then I've also heard that their new chair is a child psychiatrist, and into research...

 

[2010]

I just saw your post on the Psych board - we are interviewing at a lot of the same places! 🙂 So far, I'm doing Wash U, Cincinnati, Emory, Vanderbilt and UNC (and hopefully Duke) before Christmas, and UTSW, Baylor, MUSC and UW after.

What bad things have your heard about Vanderbilt? I've heard vague badness, but then I've also heard that their new chair is a child psychiatrist, and into research...

Im doing washU at the end of the week, then emory, madison, UNC, UW. In Jan, I have U PENN, vandy, UTSW. I'm sure our paths will cross at somepoint in the future given our similar interests. Still waiting for Pitt, herd anything??

Keep in touch with interview experiences

 

[kassie]

Ophthalmology...

 

[Hurricane]

Im doing washU at the end of the week, then emory, madison, UNC, UW. In Jan, I have U PENN, vandy, UTSW. I'm sure our paths will cross at somepoint in the future given our similar interests. Still waiting for Pitt, herd anything??

Keep in touch with interview experiences

Didn't apply to Pitt - mostly kept to the south and west coast. My hubby and I are fed up with snow.

Good luck with interviews 🙂

 

[oasis786]

As a follow-up question to which speciality you're all heading towards, I'd be interested to hear how relevant your thesis research is/was to that field.

Did the research guide the choice of specialty?
Did the specialty you thought you wanted guide the research you chose?
Or neither?

 

[beary]

Going into path.

My research really had nothing to do with path, but I found that I enjoyed being at the scope and that was what originally got me thinking about path.

 

[geekgirl]

As a follow-up question to which speciality you're all heading towards, I'd be interested to hear how relevant your thesis research is/was to that field.

Did the research guide the choice of specialty?
Did the specialty you thought you wanted guide the research you chose?
Or neither?

my path was quite circumstantial. chose my research (on adult stem cells/tissue engineering) because i liked my boss and the project.
chose surgery because i liked being in the OR and operating.
thankfully, tissue engineering is very applicable to surgery. and stem cells are applicable to most fields.

so i say pick what you like (both clinically and lab-wise) and see where there is cross over. the skills learned in lab can be applied quite broadly. i have a good friend (MD/PhD) who did "ortho" research and went into rad onc. like me, the pathway she studied (although in the context of cartilage) is an oncogenic pathway. so her work could be applied to an entirely different system.

but my thinking is that WE (not our thesis projects) are the product of our PhDs. and we can focus our minds on any interest we have with the skill sets we learn.
but perhaps, that's just my perspective......

 

[Hurricane]

As a follow-up question to which speciality you're all heading towards, I'd be interested to hear how relevant your thesis research is/was to that field.

Did the research guide the choice of specialty?
Did the specialty you thought you wanted guide the research you chose?
Or neither?

I knew I was interested in neuroscience going in, and entertained various neuro related specialties from the start: neurology, psych, neuropath, etc. So I joined the Neuroscience graduate program and started on a very molecular and electrophysiological oriented project studying opioid receptors. I hated it. Then I discovered systems/behavioral neuroscience and switched projects, and I loved it. Because of my interests in behavioral neuroscience, I was leaning towards psych when I finished grad school, and my third year rotation clinched it.

As far as thesis work goes, I think that the process is more important than the specific subject matter. The purpose of the PhD is for us to learn how to be scientists, not to simply generate data about whatever molecule. Like geekgirl said, we can use the skills we learn in whatever field we choose down the road. But it is also important to pick a research project that interests you, and an advisor that you work well with, because otherwise the next 3-4 years will be miserable. And who wants to be miserable?

 

[2010]

I think your right, the proscess is more important than the data, but interestingly, there are several of us going into field directly related to our research none the less...

I think, if your are very interested or excited by an are of research, you will be drawn to a clinically related area. The outliers, in my opinion is surgery (but as stated by another) we can apply almosrt any are of research to surgery.

Another issue you might want to think about is time. Some areas like Psych and anesthesia, medicine- lend themselves to being research friendly time wise. Others, like surgery do not. I cant imagine spending 1 day a week in the OR, and 4 days in the lab, hard to keep up your skills.

 

[Hurricane]

I think your right, the proscess is more important than the data, but interestingly, there are several of us going into field directly related to our research none the less...

Going into the same field, but not necessarily the same research area. For example, my graduate training gave me a foundation in systems and behavioral neuroscience, and I plan to use those skills as a researcher in the field of psychiatry. But I probably won't continue to study sexual behavior in the male rat. Not that there's anything wrong with sexual behavior in the male rat. The little guys can be very entertaining... 😉