Would it negatively impact my chances of matching into Internal Medicine residency programs at "prestigious" programs (e.g., Mayo) if I take a one-year medical leave of absence for parental leave starting the beginning of my M3 clinical rotations due to the birth of our first child last week and associated complications for her and my wife?
Based on revised estimates, it now appears that if I stick to the standard timeline for M3-M4, I would have to compromise and wind up being mediocre (according to my own internal standards) at being a father/husband, a physician in training, and an investigator. It occurred to me, why do that if I don't have to? What if I just dilated the timeline to give myself a relatively realistic fighting chance at doing all three reasonably well?
Of course, the primary reason why not would be if it would negatively impact my chances of matching into the kind of residency I would like to get into. I am technically undecided, but I am pretty sure I will go into Internal Medicine. However, I have a unique twist on this situation in that I am an independent researcher/investigator without a PI, and I need to eventually gain permission to apply for clinical trial funding. I am working on multiple redundant strategies to get myself into a position to do that ASAP, but I do not know which one(s) will work. A couple of dear friends from my pre-med days just got into residencies at Mayo, and they told me that Mayo people told them in their interviews that they would set them up with a mentor who would co-sign funding applications for clinical trials of their own design for them if they wanted. I was shocked by this, because, in my experience, academia is a rigidly hierarchical class-based system that is extremely hostile towards non-PhDs and non-PIs attempting to do independent research designed by anyone other than a current PI (as opposed to being another pair of "good hands" to help carry out the experiments designed by a PI). Therefore, one of my strategies has become to attempt to get into Mayo's IM residency program and/or programs with similar atypical attitudes towards non-PI designed research. Thus the need for this preliminary safety check to gauge the likelihood that taking a medical leave of absence could compromise this strategy.
In practice, doing this might wind up meaning that I space out my rotations over two years instead of one, for example taking 2-3 months off, then doing a rotation, then taking another couple months off, then another rotation, etc.
I welcome thoughts, experiences, and opinions from anyone and everyone, including but not limited to @GoSpursGo, @NotAProgDirector, and @margarine. Thanks in advance!
Based on revised estimates, it now appears that if I stick to the standard timeline for M3-M4, I would have to compromise and wind up being mediocre (according to my own internal standards) at being a father/husband, a physician in training, and an investigator. It occurred to me, why do that if I don't have to? What if I just dilated the timeline to give myself a relatively realistic fighting chance at doing all three reasonably well?
Of course, the primary reason why not would be if it would negatively impact my chances of matching into the kind of residency I would like to get into. I am technically undecided, but I am pretty sure I will go into Internal Medicine. However, I have a unique twist on this situation in that I am an independent researcher/investigator without a PI, and I need to eventually gain permission to apply for clinical trial funding. I am working on multiple redundant strategies to get myself into a position to do that ASAP, but I do not know which one(s) will work. A couple of dear friends from my pre-med days just got into residencies at Mayo, and they told me that Mayo people told them in their interviews that they would set them up with a mentor who would co-sign funding applications for clinical trials of their own design for them if they wanted. I was shocked by this, because, in my experience, academia is a rigidly hierarchical class-based system that is extremely hostile towards non-PhDs and non-PIs attempting to do independent research designed by anyone other than a current PI (as opposed to being another pair of "good hands" to help carry out the experiments designed by a PI). Therefore, one of my strategies has become to attempt to get into Mayo's IM residency program and/or programs with similar atypical attitudes towards non-PI designed research. Thus the need for this preliminary safety check to gauge the likelihood that taking a medical leave of absence could compromise this strategy.
In practice, doing this might wind up meaning that I space out my rotations over two years instead of one, for example taking 2-3 months off, then doing a rotation, then taking another couple months off, then another rotation, etc.
I welcome thoughts, experiences, and opinions from anyone and everyone, including but not limited to @GoSpursGo, @NotAProgDirector, and @margarine. Thanks in advance!
