This is a little bit of a long post but bear with me here.
I am currently on a one year LOA b/w my 2nd and 3rd year. I initially had to take this year off due to health issues. Fortunately after months at the Mayo Clinic and hard work I recovered well and am healthy enough to return for my rotations. The caveat here is that I would really like to take another year off to solely focus on research and business development.
During my 2 years at MD school I got heavily involved in 'leadership' type roles and was really drawn to it. I was the AAMC rep for my class so I was involved in student government and I also sat on the board of a fairly prominent medically-related non-profit organization. The several positions I held allowed me to develop several research projects at my institution and a few others. Although I had to take a LOA because of my health, I was still able to put in the time to continue to managing the research I started. Luckily I had a team I was able to delegate everything to during the several months I spent at Mayo. The past several months I've put a lot more energy into expanding and have started turning what was a few research projects into a company.
There are too many details to explain it all, but the point is my 2 years in MD school made me realize I am not particularly interested in clinical medicine and think I would succeed in more entrepreneurial endeavors. The business I've been trying to develop is sort of a 'psychiatric technology' company.
Taking this year off would be very productive for me--not only would I be able to expand my business but would receive several publications related to psychiatry and technology. If it was up to me I would not attend residency and simply receive my MD and run my business. My backup plan is to enter a psychiatry residency and spend as much time outside of my clinical duties trying to grow my business and expanding research. Obviously psychiatry isn't the most competitive residency, so that isn't something I'm particularly worried about. But I'm not sure if it is my institution will allow me to take another year off, or how that would reflect on my residency applications. I have not spoke with the dean of my institution yet as I wanted to get some insight before.
Is taking another year off for research following a medical LOA possible? Will this affect my residency application at all (mostly location I my concern) if I am fairly productive during this year? Do business activities such as mine reflect well on a residency application or are they more interested in the general Step 1, research, & LORs?
Thank you for taking the time to read this!
I am currently on a one year LOA b/w my 2nd and 3rd year. I initially had to take this year off due to health issues. Fortunately after months at the Mayo Clinic and hard work I recovered well and am healthy enough to return for my rotations. The caveat here is that I would really like to take another year off to solely focus on research and business development.
During my 2 years at MD school I got heavily involved in 'leadership' type roles and was really drawn to it. I was the AAMC rep for my class so I was involved in student government and I also sat on the board of a fairly prominent medically-related non-profit organization. The several positions I held allowed me to develop several research projects at my institution and a few others. Although I had to take a LOA because of my health, I was still able to put in the time to continue to managing the research I started. Luckily I had a team I was able to delegate everything to during the several months I spent at Mayo. The past several months I've put a lot more energy into expanding and have started turning what was a few research projects into a company.
There are too many details to explain it all, but the point is my 2 years in MD school made me realize I am not particularly interested in clinical medicine and think I would succeed in more entrepreneurial endeavors. The business I've been trying to develop is sort of a 'psychiatric technology' company.
Taking this year off would be very productive for me--not only would I be able to expand my business but would receive several publications related to psychiatry and technology. If it was up to me I would not attend residency and simply receive my MD and run my business. My backup plan is to enter a psychiatry residency and spend as much time outside of my clinical duties trying to grow my business and expanding research. Obviously psychiatry isn't the most competitive residency, so that isn't something I'm particularly worried about. But I'm not sure if it is my institution will allow me to take another year off, or how that would reflect on my residency applications. I have not spoke with the dean of my institution yet as I wanted to get some insight before.
Is taking another year off for research following a medical LOA possible? Will this affect my residency application at all (mostly location I my concern) if I am fairly productive during this year? Do business activities such as mine reflect well on a residency application or are they more interested in the general Step 1, research, & LORs?
Thank you for taking the time to read this!
