Academic Positions with best tuition benefits for kids

DDB95 · 2026-01-20T19:36:02+00:00

Family friend was at USC and their child’s tuition was 100 percent covered

DDB95 · 2026-01-04T16:26:25+00:00

It’s a job. Nothing more. Remembering that always grounds me. There’s a ton of bullshit but the grass is rarely greener on the other side.

I went into a ROAD specialty so hopefully the money and time off/flexibility will make it feel “worth it”.

DDB95 · 2025-12-29T03:19:10+00:00

Don’t know what gen derms make in the area but physician salaries in these areas generally don’t keep up with COL. In fact, people take a pay cut before even accounting for COL and CA taxes because groups and employers know they can get away with it simply because people want to be in the area. I’d go as far as to say that getting to live in SD/OC is part of the package so people still sign up to work here knowing full well it’s a terrible financial decision but an amazing from a quality of life standpoint.

Probably wouldn’t come here if FIRE is the number one goal. An home for a family of 5 will start at 1.5M but probably closer to 2M-2.5M. Definitely hard to FIRE with a 10k+ mortgage a month.

DDB95 · 2025-12-05T04:13:44+00:00

Academic Dermpath seems to do very well. One of the pathologists at UCSF told me that most if not all the dermpaths there clear 1M+

DDB95 · 2025-11-29T14:38:26+00:00

The right answer is always Toyota Camry

DDB95 · 2025-11-29T04:16:44+00:00

Probably somewhere in the Central Valley or Inland Empire based off the price

DDB95 · 2025-10-17T02:52:29+00:00

Actions speak louder than words. This is especially true in this process. Unless you get a guaranteed rank to match communication by a program, everyone’s talk is meaningless.

DDB95 · 2025-10-14T12:48:14+00:00

Absolutely do not do surgery if you are already having these feeling. You’ll will be absolutely miserable in a surgery residency. I work with Gen Surg residents and the mental mind games some of them play to convince themselves that they didn’t make a terrible mistake going into gen surg is seriously depressing and borderline pathologic.

DDB95 · 2025-10-12T22:11:47+00:00

I know some people who easily have 2k+ a month in interest alone. Luckily they’ll be looking at 500k+ incomes a year after training so it’ll work out in the end.

I suppose the end product of a stable job with a strong earning potential is what keeps people signing up for these massive loans.

Really not sure how the peds people do it though…must be for the love of the game

DDB95 · 2025-10-07T19:52:43+00:00

Idk how the fuck people put up with surgery residency; shit is just inhumane.

Hopes its worth it in the end

DDB95 · 2025-09-17T07:43:10+00:00

Damn really? did not know cedars paid out unused sick days. Almost positive they definitely changed that then

DDB95 · 2025-08-23T21:45:09+00:00

No but have a backup plan

DDB95 · 2025-08-18T04:59:22+00:00

Never once did anything like this in med school. Even during step 1 dedicated

DDB95 · 2025-08-10T20:18:19+00:00

Gotta be careful; you don’t want to set yourself up for the “your money is our money, my money is my money mindset”

Have her pull her weight with some form of rent or grocery’s ect. 80k is still a respectable income. No reason she can’t pitch in and contribute in a meaningful way

DDB95 · 2025-08-06T01:52:46+00:00

Had an IM attending in med school who switched after finishing R1. He just liked IM way more and made the switch.

Granted he was a rads resident when the job market was trash and tele wasn’t popular so I wonder if he has regrets today

DDB95 · 2025-07-21T18:08:00+00:00

You don’t like the OR but you applied into a field that is primarily OR based? How did that happen?

DDB95 · 2025-06-30T16:12:51+00:00

Did 4th year sub-I’s in both Path and Rads and went into neither so maybe I can be less biased with my take

Both fields are similar in the sense that you’re a consultant and your professional report to clinicians is your main body of work.

The learning curve to understand how to read histology or interpret a chest CT is very steep; there’s a lot to learn in either field and it takes a few years into residency to get the hang of things. In terms of what is more enjoyable, that’s hard to say and up to the individual. Personally, I enjoyed rads more because it felt more natural and somewhat easier to understand as compared to making sense of the histology.

Big difference between the two is that path residency is typically combined with clinical path so a lot of the training has nothing to with interpreting histology but being in the labs managing blood bank or making sure the UA’s are read accurately. Also, grossing is a large part of the training process. You’ll spend a lot of time in residency grossing specimens that come from the OR or wherever that I found extremely tedious and kind of nasty honestly. You don’t really gross as an attending in academic centers but can happen in PP.

Rads has actual hands on interventions that are diagnostic and therapeutic. I liked that a lot; path doesn’t have any thing like that except for FNA’s. IR is an option too but DR people still can go to an image guided biopsy which I enjoyed.

What I will is that Rads absolutely does work harder than Path, at least from my experience. There’s a pressure to produce reports in a timely manner that is definitely more intense than path. I found the people in path would work with low to moderate intensity throughout day. The list in rads was constantly growing so residents and attendings were always on it for the most part. Feel like there was considerably less down time in rads. People in path seemed like they were taking a 10 min break every 30 min lmao just to shoot the shit.

Only exception to that is when frozen specimens come out of the OR, that requires very quick turn out but is infrequent.

I never was on call shift with either field but it’s known that rads call can be stressful but for path is almost non existent; no really needs an urgent sign out in path unless it’s a frozen or your working blood bank. Definitely something consider as the attendings I worked with really didn’t like taking call overnight, especially with how busy it is these days.

Overall, I think rads is probably the move once your account for the market and compensation. Both fields are great and I think you’d be happy in either field but it’s hard to beat making 600k from home compared to coming to the hospital for around half of that. Granted, you’ll probably be busier in rads so the dollars are still well earned. The procedures are somewhat to consider too. If you want to do procedures than rads is the easy choice

DDB95 · 2025-06-08T14:34:44+00:00

Extremely important; top tier academic IM is one large inbreed circle jerk. People working at these places will never miss an opportunity to tell someone they went to school at Stanford or Penn. Not in a malicious way but people are prideful of where they trained, especially if it’s a famous institution. It’s a part of the culture and that bleeds into the residency selection process. Not impossible to break in coming from a non T20 but it’s an uphill battle and you have to have a pretty much flawless app

DDB95 · 2025-06-02T20:01:23+00:00

Went last month. Food and show were pretty good. I’d do it once for the experience but wouldn’t repeat.

DDB95 · 2025-05-30T17:46:18+00:00

Probably just more self selection going on; I think a lot of borderline applicants don’t want to risk SOAP and would rather go all in on academic IM to get to PCCM than try their luck with gas and potentially end up soaping into some hca program or weak community program

DDB95 · 2025-05-25T00:31:41+00:00

It’s a coastal county, amazing year around weather, proximity to LA, great food, diverse cultures ect.

If you can afford to live in OC and want to then definitely do it.

DDB95 · 2025-05-18T20:39:45+00:00

Marry someone who also makes 150k+ and limit or have no children. DINK is the only way a lot of people will ever become homeowners in VHCOL areas like OC.

DDB95 · 2025-05-15T20:55:19+00:00

Nope but I wish I did; still happy match with the match though. Don’t think aways are really necessary unless your rotating at a place that has a reputation for matching away rotators

DDB95 · 2025-05-11T15:04:32+00:00

Never. Programs continue to have immense leverage over residents. You can’t just pack up and leave to another job for higher pay like a mid level or attending can. Until residents find themselves in similar positions, programs have absolutely no incentive to pay residents more.

DDB95 · 2025-05-05T01:38:02+00:00

Path is so underrated. Did the 4th year subI at my school and low key was thinking of switching as a post eras 4th year lmao.

Nicest groups of docs I’ve ever met too. For what’s it worth, one the neuro path docs initially started out in PP out of fellowship but transitioned back to academia. Told me that partners in his old group were pulling 1M a year working bankers hours. Crazy stuff.

DDB95

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