How many of your M1/M2's are involved in research during med school?

[RynoTheGuy]

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I was heavily involved in genetics research during undergrad (name on publications, etc.) but during med-school (currently MS2) I haven't found the time, nor the interest - I've just enjoyed going through med-school without stressing about padding my CV.

I worked with a professor over the summer on starting up a brain injury clinic (I wrote his entire business proposal), but that's about it. I know some of my classmates have posters, presentations, etc. but I've got nothing in that regard. I was curious as to how common this is and if I'm apart of the majority or minority. What says the hive?

 

[tiedyeddog]

I think it depends on the school. If I were to guess I'd say a higher percentage of people at higher ranked schools end up doing research. At my school we were told about 80 percent do some kind of research but if I were to guess I'd say most of those people don't get any pubs out of it and most of it is done in clinical research.

Many of the upperclassman I know didn't do research until third year and it was either combing charts for data or case reports, which are both easy to do. Don't stress out about it unless you think you want a competitive speciality. Even then, many people do match without publications.

And FYI, if you want more hard data about how much research people have check charting the outcomes. It lists by speciality average pubs and research experiences. Just google it if you don't know what that is.

 

[chronicidal]

if you want more hard data about how much research people have check charting the outcomes.

The mean number of "abstracts, presentations, and publications" for US fourth-year medical students who matched through the NRMP is 3.2. High by specialty: radiation oncology (8.3). Low: family medicine (1.6).

The mean number of "research experiences" is 2.3. High: radiation oncology (4.2). Low: family medicine (1.4).

OP, when evaluating whether you are in the minority or majority compared to these numbers, remember that undergrad experiences/publications count.