Year off during med school

[Numba1Plumma]

To get down to it, Im at a med school without a home rad onc program and am interested in the field. If I do decide to pursue, I would like to take a year off from med school (starting 3rd year next week) to do research. I was wondering what sort of programs most people pursue in their year off who intend to apply for rad onc. Do most people do howard hughes and find an advisor with rad onc specific research, are their year long programs specific for rad onc through astro, etc. Nothing is really going on at my home institution so Ill have to find something away.

Thanks for the advice!

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[laserbeams]

I looked into different "year-out" research opportunities early in my third year of med school. HHMI Medical Research Fellows program looks great but there are only 60 spots. Unfortunately, the Doris Duke program isn't operating domestically anymore. Other avenues to consider include NIH and CDC fellowships, or finding an independent investigator who agrees to take you on. As you might imagine, a big part of this is funding; if you need a stipend for your research time, your best bet will be large, structured programs.

If you're doing a research year to boost your chances for a successful match (as opposed to doing it for the sake of the simply enjoying research), I would suggest that you just work hard on aways. A research year can be very helpful but certainly not required. Other shorter options include a one- or two-month research elective (ideally at a big-name place with a strong mentor), non-radiation oncology research at your home institution, or the Emory Radiation Oncology Medical Student Research Scholarship.

Best of luck!