MD Current M3, Gap year between M2-M3, how will it affect residency

[medstudent84350]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a little more insight into my situation. I am a current M3 and I took a year off between my M2 and M3 years in order to 1. study more for Step 1 (my anxiety really got the best of me) and 2. do research in derm (the speciality I am interested in). My school admin were completely fine with me doing so and so I took the year off. My Step 1 score turned out well at a 262, I'm not sure if I could have done that without the year off (I used an extra month or two to study for Step before I took it). I've been thinking a lot about how this might look for residencies. I understand that seeing that it took an extra year for me to get my degree may be seen as a red flag. I was wondering, given my scores and the research I did during the year off as well, what you guys think about how this might be perceived by residencies. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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[Giovanotto]

I don't know much of anything, but from the perspective of an OM2, it looks like you really put that extra year to good use, and I could see it help rather than hurt you.

 

[DBV]

How much did you publish

 

[Osteoth]

How much did you publish

This. From what I can gather as long as you can show you weren't just sitting on a beach doing nothing it's not really a big deal. Much more common especially among the more competitive specialties.

 

[Foot Fetish]

I think a research year is super common for derm. The people reading your app probably won't bat an eye at that in and of itself. However, in the very unlikely scenario that they have to pick between you and a person who has the same step scores, grades, research, letters, etc but who managed to do it all without taking an extra year, they would probably go for the other guy. That shouldn't really be a surprise as it stands to reason that doing the same amount of stuff in less time is more impressive.

 

[medstudent84350]

Thank you! And I have 3 that have been accepted for publication and a fourth that is still in the process of being worked on! Thanks for your responses.