Advice needed on 3rd year elective

[Domerr]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hey guys,

I need some advice on choosing a 3rd year elective (1 month period).

I have heard that doing an elective in the field of interest and getting a LOR is the best approach. However, I don’t know which specialty I want to apply to yet. I have also though about doing a research elective. I have an ongoing research project that can potentially lead to a publication. The problem is, the research is with the neurosurgery department, and I am 90% sure that I will not be applying to that field.

So I guess my options are clinical elective +/- LOR or research elective +/- publication.

Any advice?

 

[Siverhideo1985]

Hey guys,

I need some advice on choosing a 3rd year elective (1 month period).

I have heard that doing an elective in the field of interest and getting a LOR is the best approach. However, I don’t know which specialty I want to apply to yet. I have also though about doing a research elective. I have an ongoing research project that can potentially lead to a publication. The problem is, the research is with the neurosurgery department, and I am 90% sure that I will not be applying to that field.

So I guess my options are clinical elective +/- LOR or research elective +/- publication.

Any advice?

How long have you worked on this research project? Would 4 weeks of research on your project get you that much closer to a publication?

If you don't think so then I'd go with a clinical elective that you think might interest you.

 

[Domerr]

How long have you worked on this research project? Would 4 weeks of research on your project get you that much closer to a publication?

If you don't think so then I'd go with a clinical elective that you think might interest you.

I've worked on it during the summer of my first year. I already have most of the raw data needed to type a paper. One month should be enough to collect the rest of the data. The main problem lies on the fact that I'm no longer interested in the field (I'll most likely be applying to completely unrelated fields).

 

[Siverhideo1985]

I've worked on it during the summer of my first year. I already have most of the raw data needed to type a paper. One month should be enough to collect the rest of the data. The main problem lies on the fact that I'm no longer interested in the field (I'll most likely be applying to completely unrelated fields).

Hmmm...what fields are you thinking about? If its something like internal med or peds then I'd say it doesn't matter what the research is in, it only matters that you did some research.

If you have an idea of what field you want to go into you could just talk to the residency director (if you have one at your institution) or a department head/chair what they think would be the best course of action. You could provide them with more info about your application than you probably feel comfortable sharing on SDN which might also influence whether a research/publication elective would benefit you more or a strong letter of recommendation that you might get from doing an elective in your field of choice.

 

[Domerr]

Hmmm...what fields are you thinking about? If its something like internal med or peds then I'd say it doesn't matter what the research is in, it only matters that you did some research.

If you have an idea of what field you want to go into you could just talk to the residency director (if you have one at your institution) or a department head/chair what they think would be the best course of action. You could provide them with more info about your application than you probably feel comfortable sharing on SDN which might also influence whether a research/publication elective would benefit you more or a strong letter of recommendation that you might get from doing an elective in your field of choice.

The main problem in my case is that I'm not sure which specialty I want to apply to yet. What I do know, however, is that I won't be applying to any of the surgical specialties. I've talked to my school adviser, and he recommended me to take the research over the clinical elective. But many students have told me that he gives bad advice a lot of times...