Doing a research year with no prior research experience?

[yungspleen]

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Hey everyone, I'm going into my 3rd year of med school and want to do a research year between 3rd and 4th years. I'm really not sure what to expect when trying to find a research position. I haven't really done any research before and I probably won't have time during 3rd year. Will I be able to find a mentor for a research year or would they be turned off by my lack of research. I've heard that it isn't that difficult to find a research mentor for a year but I'm not sure how accurate this is. The field I'm interested in requires a decent amount of research so I will definitely try and do a year off. If anyone had a similar experience where they didn't have experience before their research year please share. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

 

[Oso]

I would just email people in the department you’re interested in and say you have no experience but want to do a dedicated research year so you can be a competitive applicant in that specialty.

 

[doc05]

Hey everyone, I'm going into my 3rd year of med school and want to do a research year between 3rd and 4th years. I'm really not sure what to expect when trying to find a research position. I haven't really done any research before and I probably won't have time during 3rd year. Will I be able to find a mentor for a research year or would they be turned off by my lack of research. I've heard that it isn't that difficult to find a research mentor for a year but I'm not sure how accurate this is. The field I'm interested in requires a decent amount of research so I will definitely try and do a year off. If anyone had a similar experience where they didn't have experience before their research year please share. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Why are you doing a research year? What is your plan? Goal?

 

[WhittyPsyche]

Hey everyone, I'm going into my 3rd year of med school and want to do a research year between 3rd and 4th years. I'm really not sure what to expect when trying to find a research position. I haven't really done any research before and I probably won't have time during 3rd year. Will I be able to find a mentor for a research year or would they be turned off by my lack of research. I've heard that it isn't that difficult to find a research mentor for a year but I'm not sure how accurate this is. The field I'm interested in requires a decent amount of research so I will definitely try and do a year off. If anyone had a similar experience where they didn't have experience before their research year please share. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Are you hoping for a funded year? Or can commit full-time and take care of living expenses from other sources?


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[yungspleen]

Are you hoping for a funded year? Or can commit full-time and take care of living expenses from other sources?

I was hoping for a funded year. Would lack of research make that unlikely?

If I need too, I could commit full-time without funding. Ideally I'd live at home in this scenario.

 

[WhittyPsyche]

I was hoping for a funded year. Would lack of research make that unlikely?

If I need too, I could commit full-time without funding. Ideally I'd live at home in this scenario.

The big national fellowships (HHMI, Doris Duke, AOA, NIH) will definitely be a long shot with no prior experience. But if you are just about to start third year, if possible you should get into the lab this summer and work through the fall and winter.

The big guys are due in Jan, (AOA nominations typically happen in Dec). If you want to have a strong application by then, you would need to have a good mentor in mind, good letters from 2-3 people in the field of interest/whom you have worked with prior. These are very competitive so having no experience you need to make yourself more desirable by the time you submit that proposal.

The other option is intramural funding, check with your school to see if they have any options for that. At my school, most get funded, and the process is far less intense and don’t require you to already be a research buff. Last option is connecting with a lab that is willing to provide a stipend for an RA, but that may be hard to come by without prior experience and will require a lot of footwork on your part. Not impossible.


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[doc05]

I was hoping for a funded year. Would lack of research make that unlikely?

If I need too, I could commit full-time without funding. Ideally I'd live at home in this scenario.

What is the point of all this? There's no specialty match that requires this nonsense. No experience and no funding... sounds like a huge waste of time.

 

[WhittyPsyche]

What is the point of all this? There's no specialty match that requires this nonsense. No experience and no funding... sounds like a huge waste of time.

That’s not entirely true. With OP being an M3, if he wants any competitive subspecialty (NSG, Ortho, Derm, ENT) he is going to have to take a research year because he is already behind the curve. He may have found interest in the aforementioned fields, academics in general, or maybe even “prestige”, and is now late to the game.


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[mistafab]

Do you think a year of research is all of a sudden going to make an applicant ‘worthy’ in those fields if they have had zero experience in research beforehand?

That’s not entirely true. With OP being an M3, if he wants any competitive subspecialty (NSG, Ortho, Derm, ENT) he is going to have to take a research year because he is already behind the curve. He may have found interest in the aforementioned fields, academics in general, or maybe even “prestige”, and is now late to the game.


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[Oso]

Do you think a year of research is all of a sudden going to make an applicant ‘worthy’ in those fields if they have had zero experience in research beforehand?

Absolutely yes, if they can make it a productive year and get a few pubs out of it.

 

[WhittyPsyche]

Do you think a year of research is all of a sudden going to make an applicant ‘worthy’ in those fields if they have had zero experience in research beforehand?

“Worthy”? Who said anything about being worthy?

OP asked for advice on getting a research year, whether or not he should have done X or demonstrated Y before is now a moot point. He has to do what he can to improve his candidacy, which his best best in the aforementioned fields is to take a research year and demonstrate productivity and commitment from now on. Again, a very common strategy for those who were late to game.

What are your suggestions? Do you think NOT taking the research year is helpful in any way?


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[mistafab]

Okay good. I think we really don’t talk about that on SDN so if an attending or PD could chime in as well that would be excellent.

 

[WhittyPsyche]

Okay good. I think we really don’t talk about that on SDN so if an attending or PD could chime in as well that would be excellent.

If you look at the WAMC threads in the resident forums for any competitive field you will see that advice given exhaustively by residents and attendings for students with little to no research.


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[Dwan]

Okay good. I think we really don’t talk about that on SDN so if an attending or PD could chime in as well that would be excellent.

Research is huge in those fields. There are many who get into top places in competitive fields even with average step scores due to research.

 

[yungspleen]

There's no specialty match that requires this nonsense.

Lol you've been out of medical school for too long if you think that.

Thank you everyone for the advice!

 

[Treebeard]

Do you think a year of research is all of a sudden going to make an applicant ‘worthy’ in those fields if they have had zero experience in research beforehand?

Literally yes. Have you ever met a derm or ENT resident? Most of the ones I know killed it on step 1 and then all of a sudden discovered their passion for skin or whatever, so they started cranking out papers as quickly as possible.