5th year Masters or research year program?

[annasofttofu]

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I'm considering doing a 5th year to improve my chances to get into residency programs with an emphasis on research.

Is it better to do a master's degree or a research year program?

I figure a master's degree has more actual teaching/learning involved, and also comes with a thesis. You also get the degree afterwards, which seems nice. I'm confident that I want to do computational research, so I'm thinking about doing a MS in BME.

A research year program would be probably more focused on research output and would also be oriented towards a specific specialty. That sounds good for a residency application, but it's difficult to weigh against the degree.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

You generally need an engineering undergrad degree to do BME so that could be a limiting factor for you.

 

[Dral]

In general I think a research year gives you the opportunity to be more focused on the specialty you are interested in pursuing while a masters degree is going to be a bit more generic to programs when they review your app. You can do some specialty specific research during a masters program, but in general, the research year will probably look a bit better to programs.

If you are a decent applicant already who just wants a bit of a boost to their app and learn some things they may use in the future, then the masters might be good.

If your main goal is to really improve your app and your chances, the specialty specific research, networking, and letters you get from doing the research year might be a better choice.

 

[RangerBob]

I don't think most residency programs really care about non-MD degrees unless you're going to a research powerhouse and want to do research in that particular area.

...in which case it's probably better to just focus and do research in that particular area.

 

[eyeeye_captain]

If I remember correctly you were interested in competitive specialties. The connections and specific research in a field will be significantly more helpful to get a residency than another degree.