Hi all!
So I’ve just been admitted to Princeton early! Wow! It’s surreal and honestly a dream-come-true!
But now that I have all this free time for thinking while all of my friends are stressing over their RD college apps, I’ve been thinking (way too much) about what I actually want to DO at/after Princeton! And I know that I have a lot of time and blah blah, but trust me, I didn’t get into Princeton by totally going with the flow lol.
So my question is this: do doctors have time to do research? And I don’t mean MDPhDs who do like 80% research and 20% clinical rounds in hospitals. I mean is it possible to find a career in which you can do mostly clinical medicine but still participate in research? Is it possible to do the 80-20, but with a private practice rather than a hospital? What are the job options for MDPhDs? I am finding that my three HUGE passions-- medicine, genetic research, and, get this, MUSIC-- are conflicting a ton! I can’t figure out how to reasonably combine these things into my life for either the next four years, or my career.
My uncle always says, “you can have anything, but you can’t have everything.” I know this is true, but I’m trying to figure out how to come as close to my “everything” as possible.
Thanks for any feedback or ideas! They’re much appreciated to a confused little high school senior 