Couple of questions

[ICanDoAllThings]

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Just have a couple questions for the derm residents/attendings. I graduated undergrad back in 2009 and have been doing research at a medical school since. It is non-derm related but currently have 3 co-auther (2nd/3rd author) pubs in some pretty solid journals and should have two more over the next year or so. I am starting medical school in the fall and am definitely keeping my options open but am very interested in derm. Will this research help me or will I need to continue to do research in medical school that is more derm related to be competitive? Do programs care only if you did derm research or do they just want to see that you have done research and have an understanding of it? I realize Steps/Clinical grades are extremely important but I am just wondering what else I should be aiming to improve on during medical school..

Any other advice for someone who is about to begin medical school and is very interested in your field?

Thanks!

 

[DermPlease]

Just have a couple questions for the derm residents/attendings. I graduated undergrad back in 2009 and have been doing research at a medical school since. It is non-derm related but currently have 3 co-auther (2nd/3rd author) pubs in some pretty solid journals and should have two more over the next year or so. I am starting medical school in the fall and am definitely keeping my options open but am very interested in derm. Will this research help me or will I need to continue to do research in medical school that is more derm related to be competitive? Do programs care only if you did derm research or do they just want to see that you have done research and have an understanding of it? I realize Steps/Clinical grades are extremely important but I am just wondering what else I should be aiming to improve on during medical school..

Any other advice for someone who is about to begin medical school and is very interested in your field?

Thanks!

Any research helps. I know for a fact that one of the competitive derm programs just count the number of publications that an applicant has to set an interview filter. In my opinion, I think some programs and PDs don't even see the difference between case reports and basic science research articles. You are bound to deal with strict clinicians when applying to residency programs and they tend not to care about the quality, but quantity. Having said that, it is totally dependent on the individual reviewing your application. Some clinicians do see that a pub in Science/Nature/Cell is like the bomb, if they do research themselves.

So in summary, your 3 pubs will definitely help. But if you are serious about derm, switch over to more derm-related research when you get to med school. Get some legit derm pubs under your belt and pad your resume with several case reports. Then, you should be golden!

 

[dermathalon]

Any research helps. I know for a fact that one of the competitive derm programs just count the number of publications that an applicant has to set an interview filter. In my opinion, I think some programs and PDs don't even see the difference between case reports and basic science research articles. You are bound to deal with strict clinicians when applying to residency programs and they tend not to care about the quality, but quantity. Having said that, it is totally dependent on the individual reviewing your application. Some clinicians do see that a pub in Science/Nature/Cell is like the bomb, if they do research themselves.

So in summary, your 3 pubs will definitely help. But if you are serious about derm, switch over to more derm-related research when you get to med school. Get some legit derm pubs under your belt and pad your resume with several case reports. Then, you should be golden!

Agree.

 

[ICanDoAllThings]

Agree.

Thanks guys. Do they just look at amount of pubs or does it make a big difference if they aren't first author?

 

[DermPlease]

Thanks guys. Do they just look at amount of pubs or does it make a big difference if they aren't first author?

Most program directors that I met with literally glanced at my resume and quickly counted the number of pubs and went, "Okay, you have good research."

 

[ICanDoAllThings]

Most program directors that I met with literally glanced at my resume and quickly counted the number of pubs and went, "Okay, you have good research."

That is almost comical. Thanks for the info guys!

 

[laxman310]

It makes sense. By the time you get the interview what distinguishes you from the next applicant is your ability to interact. Basically at the interview you have a 5% chance of improving your standing (i.e. if you really connect with an attending) and a much higher chance of hurting yourself. People just want to know that they can look you in the eye and talk to you normally.