Heme/onc advice for a student

[discombobulated]

Hi, I'm a 7th year MD/PhD student thinking about pursuing IM then heme/onc. I did cancer research during both college and grad school, although my first author papers are in pretty mediocre journals. My application is otherwise good (top 10 school, 250+ steps, honors in medicine, etc).

I'm still interested in both basic and clinical research. Should I apply exclusively to short track programs, or mix in a few categorical programs and potentially do an extra year of IM? Is it harder to match into short track programs?

I'm also aware that research is hard, and I may lose interest or not get grants. If I choose to become 100% clinical down the line (either hospital employed or PP), would the fact that I short tracked limit my opportunities? In general, is it easy to transition from academia to PP?

Thanks everyone.

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[gutonc]

I was in your shoes and applied almost exclusively Research Pathway, with the exception of places that didn't have a formal one in place (but that did support it). A few places didn't offer me a Research Pathway interview but did flip it to the general IM pool, so I suspect most places are similar.

As for the future, don't worry about it. I too got discouraged after a dozen or so rejected grant proposals and went FT clinical. I'm now the director of my community based "academ-ish" group.