Research year between MS3 and MS4

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eleventy

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Hey all,

I'm currently an MS2 super interested in psych - been doing a lot of shadowing in several fields and psych appeals to me both as a subject and for lifestyle reasons - and find psych research fascinating. I know this is planning far in advance and things may definitely change, but do people DO research years in psych between MS3 and MS4? I know a lot of my classmates who are aiming for more competitive specialties like derm/ortho are considering doing one (Step 1 score pending, of course) and there are lots of T32 opportunities available to them, but this seems way less common in psych. Would a research year between MS3/MS4 be a waste of time?

Thanks.

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It is not at all normal or necessary. Don't let this board fool you with the, uh, exuberance of some of its boosters. Psych is not and is never going to be derm or ortho.
 
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By far the most important things are 1a) your step 1 score and 1b) where you went to medical school (whichever one at a given program is valued higher depends on the program/PD). Med school (read: 3rd year clerkship) performance comes next but is valued less because more and more schools are doing pass/fail and there is no way to standardize performances across different medical schools.

Research matters (meaning, it will clearly set you in a different category in terms of competitiveness) if 1) you have a PhD or 2) your have multiple first author publications with an impressive mentor, etc. With some rare exceptions a one year experience will not give you this. So yes, I agree with the above that a year long research fellowship is not going to guarantee you any significant leg up. Destroying Step 1 (which not a lot of people going into psych do), would likely make you much more competitive (though nothing is ever guaranteed- you could still get shafted on interviews because that's how this thing works).

If you match in a strong academic program with infrastructure and faculty support, you can begin your research career as a resident (particularly after intern year because even the most rigorous programs are still not that bad).
 
If you do a research year, it should be because you really want the time to do research / develop a new skillset / are burned out after third year / etc. But as far as psych goes, with only rare exceptions should it be done to improve your competitiveness/chances of matching.
 
nothing is a waste of time if you want to do it. if you apply to research tracks and are intending to have a research career then it is not a bad idea to do a research year. I would actually be more inclined to suggest doing a research year between 2nd and 3rd year in which case as it takes time to complete work, write up papers, and for those papers to be published. If you are talking about doing a research year simply to give you a leg up, well as mentioned psych is not derm, it is not a requirement to match and likely won't help all that much. but if you are interested in seeing whether an academic career is for you, or whether you want a research career or are intended in doing a research track residency then it would be a good idea, particularly if you can get funding (NIH, Doris Duke, HHMI etc) to do so. but USMLE scores, clerkship grades, and your medical school of origin are all much more important.
 
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If you think it'll help you match into residency, it probably won't when compared to more salient factors (step 1 score, LORs, etc.).

If you love research and want to make that part of your career, then I think a year between MS3 and MS4 would probably be the best time to do it. I would even venture as far as to say if you're unsure about research and want to discover that you want to make that part of your career, then do it. But remember that you're exchanging this year for a year later on of being a psychiatrist developing your practice and earning money on top of that.
 
If the research is something you are passionate about and see as part of your career, go for it. But if only to impress for admissions then agree with the rest that its not necessary or worth your time. If you want an easier project, work on a review paper as you will learn a lot in doing it and have a publication to show for your efforts. Another smart thing to do is work towards a poster you can submit to the APA annual meeting. But bottom line if you do what you love it will show and that is all you need.
 
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Even if you are interested in research, I would NOT waste my time with a research year between 3rd and 4th year. It will do very, very little to advance your career as a researcher. Your one year spent would be far more useful as a post-doc (ie NIH T-32 research fellow) after residency, or something similar. By the time you finish residency, you will know A) whether you truly want to do research as a career (majority of people don't really know this in med school), B) what institution you would like to start your research career at (there are a lot of politics involved in medicine; you can't guarantee that you will have a research career waiting for you at the site of your residency), C) what field you want to focus on.

I was confident I wanted to do private practice throughout med school, was less confident about this during residency, and now am very confident that I want nothing to do with a full time private practice career. Things rapidly change in the course of medical school, residency and fellowship; and much of it depends on your experiences (i.e, moonlighting experiences, whether you had positive/influential interactions with clinical and/or research faculty at your residency or fellowship, etc). Save the year for once you finish your residency/fellowship; you will thank me later.
 
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