Can applicants successfully match without doing research prior to medical school?

[sunealoneal]

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I'm an M-1 who has never done any research in college, and am a DO student.

According to Charting Outcomes 2014, the "mean number of abstracts, presentations, and publications" for people who matched was 12.2. Unmatched, 5.5.

Is this something that can be started from scratch in the summer of M-1? Do many successful applicants have to take a year off for research? I'm only in my first year, but I want to form a general framework for what I should do for these next few years.

 

[couchkick]

what you did in high school or college doesn't matter unless it is something extra-ordinary. You can sucessfully do research in medical school without previous experience. Find a good mentor who supports you and is invested in your success and you should be fine. You are an MS1 so starting this early will put you in a good place if you are productive. Utility of research year is unknown. I know people who have done it and some who haven't and it hasn't necessarily translated to better or worst interview invites. Work on your grades, do well on step (240s or higher), do aways and you'll be fine.

 

[sunealoneal]

Awesome, that's very encouraging to hear. I have a few friends who got their Master's degrees and did research, so I was a bit worried.

There is a "Commission on Cancer" approved center in my area that I'm contacting this week, hopefully I can make a good connection!

 

[2014XRT]

It can be harder from what I have heard for DO students to have access to radiation oncology projects unless they take a year off to spend time at a department. I'm guessing your school doesn't have a program, are there any MD schools nearby with a rad onc department? I would start there for high yield projects.

 

[Aphtalyfe]

It's already very hard for DO students to match in radiation oncology. Crush your boards. Honor as many rotations as possible. Try to get at least one radiation oncology paper published.

 

[SRC1987]

Getting involved with a department your summer between first and second year will be key for research. Volunteer as much time as they will take and try to get involved creating a database or other HY projects.

Look to see if there are DO residents in your area and see if they will help guide you as a student. Also, if there's any 3/4 yrs at your school hoping to match Rad Onc.

 

[couchkick]

A few programs in the midwest and South currently have DOs as residents, that I know of.

 

[itom37]

I don't think it matters that you have no research prior to M1. While most people doing rad onc certainly have legit conference presentations and publications, they also have a bunch of posters at local or in house conferences, presentations to their department or on away rotations, etc. to fluff up that number. Notice they lump "publication" with "presentation" which is kinda goofy. If you're into rad onc, all you can do is your best. So get into research now, and if you end up with a board score that isn't going to make up for some deficiencies, think about a research year. I think there's this mythology that everyone in competitive speciality X has 260+, 5 First Author Nature pubs, AOA, Honors in everything, from a top 5 school. I even hear it from the advisors at my school... telling people they are in trouble for matching b/c they don't have a board score 10 pts higher than the field average. That's just obviously wrong. Charting outcomes of the match data should inform you that people do not all have these things and match.

Rad Onc is a super researchy field, but there are super non-researchy programs. People get into this field with no first authorships, 220's, no honors. You limit yourself to a certain caliber and type of program, but you can still match.

The DO thing... I guess it's being discussed already, but I expect this will be an issue for you. DO's take COMLEX or something, right? I'd take USMLE boards too so you're on level playing field.