General Thoughts on importance of Research during Med school?

[eatsleepmed]

I am pretty new to this topic so any advice/thoughts would be greatly appreciated..

I know some residencies are more competitive than others so its better to have these research/publications to pad your CV. Can anyone elaborate on this? Also, what are the most important things that make you a better applicant, and is research a make-or-break for matching?

Also, how do you guys feel about research during school? Would it be better to only do it during the summer or breaks?

Thanks in advance!

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[Smokemont]

This is discussed extensively on this forum if you would like to search. Research will make you more competitive and for some specialties it seems to be pretty much required (rad onc) to match. In general, you could arguably list the most important factors in being a competitive applicant for the match as:

1. step 1 score
2. 3rd yr clerkships
3. LORs

 

[CaptainSSO]

For some specialties it is not necessarily right to characterize doing research as "better" than not doing research--it is in fact essentially an unwritten requirement, i.e., everyone will have done it. For others it is not too big of a deal, but is needed if you are aiming for a highly ranked academic program.

For example, if you want to match psychiatry, you don't need it, but if you want to match neurosurgery, you damn well better have done research (preferably at least tangentially related to neurosurgery, but this is less important than the fact that you did research period). Or, if you want to match psychiatry at Harvard you would need research.

Doing research during school is up to you. It is my understanding that most people don't do it during the year during the preclinical years (at least I don't know anyone who did unless they already were working on a project they had started before getting accepted), but research during the year is definitely an option during the clinical years, particularly if it is something like a case study and not bench research. The summer after M1 is also a fantastic time to do research, because it is really your last, solid, uninterrupted period of time to focus solely on research, and you can even get an abstract out of bench research if you remain focused (I personally am doing bench research right now, but most of my friends are doing clinical research).

 

[mmmcdowe]

This is discussed extensively on this forum if you would like to search. Research will make you more competitive and for some specialties it seems to be pretty much required (rad onc) to match. In general, you could arguably list the most important factors in being a competitive applicant for the match as:

1. step 1 score
2. 3rd yr clerkships
3. LORs

For research heavy specialties I would put research either before or after 3rd year clerkships (there is program by program preference).

 

[SpecterGT260]

Look at the nrmp data on residency matches. Research/specialty is a sub analysis.