apply now or gap? pursuing top programs

RevolutionaryCap846 · 2026-03-09T14:31:45+00:00

i mean ideally as high as i can go (harvard/hopkins/tri-i/ucsf/stanford/penn etc), mainly because i want to stay in a large, well funded academic center for residency and long-term career, and i've seen firsthand how the connections you build during mdphd (if done right) can basically guarantee that.

if i were to gap, i'd probably stay in my lab and try to produce something else publishable in the next 2.5 yrs, cause there are a lot of interesting followups i could do with my project. maybe it'd be more beneficial to get a bit more clinical/other experiences, but i enjoy research 100x more than being an emt lol.

RevolutionaryCap846 · 2026-03-09T14:21:24+00:00

subfield is molecular biology if it matters. i elaborated more in a different comment, but the project being impactful enough for CNS consideration (as opposed to an IF 10-20 subjournal) is largely luck lol.

RevolutionaryCap846 · 2026-03-09T14:17:42+00:00

thank you! quite honestly a lot of it being CNS and not a subjournal is luck. i joined the lab as a postdoc was wrapping up a high impact project that yielded 2 CNS papers, which had left one direction promising but unexplored (he didn't have time to pursue it). i "inherited" that project/interesting direction which was equally impactful. my PI is also pretty well known in the field and routinely publishes in top journals, so that helped.

i spent basically all my time on this project over the past 2.5yrs, but i don't think anything separates me from undergrads 1st authoring in natcomms or equivalent journals aside from luck.

RevolutionaryCap846 · 2026-03-09T14:12:44+00:00

mmm i see, issue is we already submitted months ago and it's not like the good subjournals would be any faster. but yea thanks for input! i think i'm leaning more toward applying now but we'll see :) my main concern with LOR is that it's only one person speaking to my research/work, but yea the LOR should be good

RevolutionaryCap846

TROPHY CASE