At NYU, it has become increasingly common for student to extend their studies for an additional year. More students are “taking a year off” to pursue various other academic interests. By diversifying your education, you have many more options available to yourself in the future. The more common reasons that students take an additional year include performing research and pursuing additional advanced degrees; however, sometimes students have personal or academic reasons or wish to pursue unique clinical and medical opportunities.

Research is the number one reasonthat students extend their medical education. In fact, a few students take two full years to do research. These efforts, short of being part of an MD–PhD program, may make students much more competitive. Some residency programs that look highly on research include:

1. Plastic Surgery

2. Radiology

3. Dermatology

4. ENT

5. Urology

6. Orthopedic Surgery

Most students do basic science research, usually in the laboratory of an NYU faculty member in a field of their interest, which usually correlates with the field into which they plan to go. That being said, there are great rewards for any good research, even if it doesn’t exactly relate to your future field.

It’s important to know what you’re getting into before you get into it. Oftentimes, students do research as part of the Honor’s Program or as an elective first; some will find that research is not for them. Others feel that their work has potential and they decide to extend their work into a full year. This is a good way to gauge your interest and the potential results of investing the time.

Some students, however, chose to apply to the NIH Howard Hughes research fellowship in Bethesda, MD. This is a prestigious research position, and is paid (though, not much). NYU has been very successful in recent years in getting its students into the program. The research is generally basic science work in a wide variety of fields such as immunology, cancer, molecular genetics, etc.

Bottom line:the key to doing research is being successful. This usually means one or more publications as a marker of fruitful work. You must be committed to doing hard work and securing results, otherwise, your year off may be looked at as a waste of time. You generally can apply the time from the year off towards NYU’s Honors Program.

Other students take time to enroll in other academic programs, most commonly, Masters of Public Health (MPH). An MPH is a great adjunct to an MD and will greatly diversify your education. Specific foci include, but are not limited to:

1. International Health

2. Health Policy

3. Epidemiology

While an MPH is looked upon favorably in virtually every specialty, students who get an MPH often go into Medicine and Emergency Medicine. Students are usually those who want to be in academics or do work that extends beyond practicing medicine. Many students are interested in international travel and some wish to pursue jobs in places such as the CDC.

NYU students typically apply to Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Harvard School of Public Health, both very prestigious programs. Other excellent programs are at Johns Hopkins (excellent in international health), Tulane (tropical medicine program), UCLA, UC Berkeley, UNC Chapel Hill, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Most MPH programs are two years long; however, being part of an accredited MD program, you may complete the MPH in just one year, conditional upon graduating medical school.

Grants/scholarships are available for MPH programs:Macy Scholarship for Columbia and the Zuckerman Fellowship for Harvard.