When is a good time to get involved in research?

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At present, I am interested in a competitive IM sub-specialty.

I am currently a rising M2 and I am thinking that getting involved in a clinical research project during this year would be imprudent?

When would be the best time to begin getting involved in research, giving me enough time to amass a successful CV?

M3, M4, first year of residency?

Moreover, how many research projects should I get involved in? Understanding that quality > quantity?

Originally Posted by commonwealth ki

At present, I am interested in a competitive IM sub-specialty.

I am currently a rising M2 and I am thinking that getting involved in a clinical research project during this year would be imprudent?

When would be the best time to begin getting involved in research, giving me enough time to amass a successful CV?

M3, M4, first year of residency?

Moreover, how many research projects should I get involved in? Understanding that quality > quantity?

Are you at a school with deemphasized pre-clinical grades? For me, I started in my first semester and have continued to do it until now half way though what would be considered "2nd year". I plan to continue to do so for the next 6 months until my rotations start. I felt comfortable doing this because of the fact that we had no grades or rankings so I wasn't uber stressed about scoring 2 standard deviations above every test or anything like that. I also got involved in clinical stuff that was flexible in when I did it. I would often come home for lunch/dinner or a break and spend 30 minutes here and there doing chart review online. I maybe put in 10-15 hours a week in this manner and it let me do a significant amount of research.

That being said, review articles are the quickest way to get something in writing. Ask any lab if they need someone to review articles or write a piece of the paper. Relatively low cost in terms of time. If you are thinking highly competitive location you could always take a 5th year to do Doris Duke or something.

I'm not too worried about pre-clinical grades but rather studying for Step 1. 10-15 hours seems like too much for me. But I could definitely do that during the easier clerkships in 3rd and 4th year.

MS4 is generally best time once you are done with Step 2 and applications. That way it is continuous and you can concentrate on it.

Originally Posted by radiodoc99

MS4 is generally best time once you are done with Step 2 and applications. That way it is continuous and you can concentrate on it.

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You can do it during second year if you really budget your time. You can also do it during 3rd and 4th year, though in 4th year it's much easier as you can do it full time as an elective. I'd get on it ASAP though if you want to get something done and talk about it on your applications.

Well, the break between 1st and 2nd year is ideal. That way you have a good amount of time (depending) and then hopefully you can publish etc. BEFORE you go for interviews. People that miss that boat usually try and find something easy (like an interesting case study) to just type up and put their name on. If you're doing M2 and M3 right, you probably won't have that much free time for good, quality research (unless you have the uncanny ability to destroy all tests after a single pass of the information), but again, where there's a will there's a way.

i'm also a rising MS2. we're on P/F and I plan on starting research when the school year starts... can't be THAT bad, especially if you enter into the lab under the premise that if it all becomes too unmanageable, then you'll have to leave.