<p>Hello everyone (but particularly the other student/parent regulars @kristin5792, @WayOutWestMom, @kal123, @MiamiDAP, @somemom, @entomom, @mcat2, @mom2collegekids, @texaspg, @curmudgeon and anyone else I may have forgotten)</p>
<p>I'm officially going to quit CC by the end of the week. I've been visiting this site for the past 9 years and it's time to hang up the gloves. I've spent a lot of hours on here and as I reach the halfway point of my MD/PhD training, it's time to remove some unneeded distractions. I've only been frequenting the pre-med forum since I started my MD/PhD training and I have to say it's been a great community to be a part of. I have definitely enjoyed the many spirited conversations we've had. I know I can't quit cold turkey so I'll still be posting into the week but by next weekend I'll definitely cease to post or answer PMs. Thank you all for a great experience.</p>
<p>It’s been a pleasure having you participate on this board. Your knowledge, willingness to help and sense of humor will be missed! Very best of luck with your training and please come back and give us updates occasionally.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the time and thought you’ve put into helping answer questions for me and other posters on this board. I’ve appreciated your insights and humor! We’ll miss you, but wish you the best in your future endeavors!</p>
<p>Hope you will change your mind in the future. Your posts have been very informative. Best of luck with your studies, residency and career. You will be missed!</p>
<p>I will miss you! Thank you so much for all the help and very valuable information. Hope you will come back later to let us know how you are doing. </p>
<p>Best wishes!</p>
<p>I also want to take this chance to thank all moms, dads and whoever!</p>
<p>Good luck IWBB in all your future endeavors! You were the lead on re-directing all those inquiring about pre-med to the stickies! Now we will have hundreds of questions, the same one “which school”, over and over AND over.</p>
<p>As MD/PhD, you have a research focus. Does it mean that after you graduate, most likely you will choose that as your speciality? Also do you need to have Step1/2/3, March Matching for residency as regular MD student? Do you need residency at all? If you do, will your residency be shorter than regular MD for the same speciality since you already spent 3-4 yrs on research?</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all the advices and info. Cannot express how much I appreciate.</p>
Do you mean research or the field that my research is in? The majority of MD/PhD graduates perform research and I would imagine the majority specialize in a clinical field similar to their research but it’s certainly not a requirement.
If I plan to be a board certified physician, I need all of them. To graduate medical school I need Step 1 and Step 2 even if I had no desire to go into practice.
Nope, if you do a residency, it’s the same one. Residency is for clinical training so the PhD doesn’t really transfer at all. There are research track residencies that trim 1 year of residency in exchange for 1 year of research funding but those are open to MDs as well.</p>
<p>Now me personally? I don’t know - I still have a few years left but at this point I think I will do a residency and potentially fellowship so that I can be board certified and because I want that clinical knowledge but I don’t plan to pursue the traditional tenure track professor or academic medicine position - instead I’ll be looking towards “alternative” (alternative in quotes since these days, tenure track positions are actually a small minority) careers in industry/consulting/nonprofits.</p>