In medical school, is it possible to do research DURING the school year?

[ratchetpremed]

I was wondering whether current medical students could comment on the feasibility and (un)commonness of doing research throughout the year as a medical student (not just summer)!
I've heard that students don't have time throughout the academic year to do any substantial research, but I am curious as to how medical students placing into top residencies have multiple publications/research projects if they only do research in the summer between first and second year!
thank you!!!

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[Aerus]

It's definitely possible. I know people personally who can attest to that. It's just time management. Plus, it's not like you'll be studying 24/7 in medical school.

 

[Ismet]

Yes, a lot of people in my class do research during the school year. We don't have very much required class time, so that allows people to be flexible with their schedules. Obviously there's no time to do research during 3rd and 4th year rotations unless you take research months, which pretty much everyone here does because we are required to do research.

 

[tantacles]

I was wondering whether current medical students could comment on the feasibility and (un)commonness of doing research throughout the year as a medical student (not just summer)!
I've heard that students don't have time throughout the academic year to do any substantial research, but I am curious as to how medical students placing into top residencies have multiple publications/research projects if they only do research in the summer between first and second year!
thank you!!!

Many people do research at my school during the year. I can't say whether these people aim to land top residencies or not.

 

[rodmichael82]

Yes there's a lot of time for research even during the year.

 

[Goro]

Very much so, especially if you're really good at time mgt. A number of my students do research; things like western blots, ELISAs and PCR are very amenable to student work given the down times they entail and mulitple start/stop points.

I was wondering whether current medical students could comment on the feasibility and (un)commonness of doing research throughout the year as a medical student (not just summer)!
I've heard that students don't have time throughout the academic year to do any substantial research, but I am curious as to how medical students placing into top residencies have multiple publications/research projects if they only do research in the summer between first and second year!
thank you!!!

 

[Nesir]

I was wondering whether current medical students could comment on the feasibility and (un)commonness of doing research throughout the year as a medical student (not just summer)!
I've heard that students don't have time throughout the academic year to do any substantial research, but I am curious as to how medical students placing into top residencies have multiple publications/research projects if they only do research in the summer between first and second year!
thank you!!!

I'll give this one a shot.

I'm currently a 4th year medical student (and ironically sitting at a conference I presented my research at today).

I did do research pretty much from the beginning. I knew I wanted to go into a semi-competitive field - I knew I wanted to go into academics - I knew I wanted to go to the "best" (which means research is important).

I started 3 projects in my first year with the same lab. They were all bench research in the field of BME - I have a biochem degree with 0 engineering experience. 2 of the projects I assisted on as the post-doc and doctoral student lead and one of the minor projects of the lab I led. I worked the summer of my 1st-2nd year, throughout the semesters of my second year, and during a dedicated research block in my third year. I received 2 grants and 2 publications because of my work on those projects.

At the start of my third year, when I had decided which field to go into, I took up some clinical research. I did chart reviews for 2 projects (1 was a terrible disaster and I didn't put on my residency application) and 1 that I presented today and I am writing up as 1st author for the best journal in the field.

It wasn't easy and I knew it was something that I needed to dedicate a lot of time. I would often times spend my "off time" at home at night and on the weekends doing chart reviews, writing abstracts, papers, or just reading the esoteric stuff you need to know to be proficient in a field. It took sacrifice. BUT, there is a pay off - during this application cycle I am looking at my rank list and the top 10 programs are all highly rated academic institutions - matching to any of them would help me a lot with my career.

I would be happy to answer any specific questions you have.

 

[Lya]

I'll give this one a shot.

I'm currently a 4th year medical student (and ironically sitting at a conference I presented my research at today).

I did do research pretty much from the beginning. I knew I wanted to go into a semi-competitive field - I knew I wanted to go into academics - I knew I wanted to go to the "best" (which means research is important).

I started 3 projects in my first year with the same lab. They were all bench research in the field of BME - I have a biochem degree with 0 engineering experience. 2 of the projects I assisted on as the post-doc and doctoral student lead and one of the minor projects of the lab I led. I worked the summer of my 1st-2nd year, throughout the semesters of my second year, and during a dedicated research block in my third year. I received 2 grants and 2 publications because of my work on those projects.

At the start of my third year, when I had decided which field to go into, I took up some clinical research. I did chart reviews for 2 projects (1 was a terrible disaster and I didn't put on my residency application) and 1 that I presented today and I am writing up as 1st author for the best journal in the field.

It wasn't easy and I knew it was something that I needed to dedicate a lot of time. I would often times spend my "off time" at home at night and on the weekends doing chart reviews, writing abstracts, papers, or just reading the esoteric stuff you need to know to be proficient in a field. It took sacrifice. BUT, there is a pay off - during this application cycle I am looking at my rank list and the top 10 programs are all highly rated academic institutions - matching to any of them would help me a lot with my career.

I would be happy to answer any specific questions you have.

It will highly depend on school years and projects, but can you break down how much you work on research per week? (Say, for the first two years, Saturdays are for catching up with classes, Sundays are 50:50 between reading/writing/analyzing for research and reading about the materials for upcoming week. <10 hours a week at the beginning of the first year, but as you find your groove and depending on exams and labs, try to spend 1-2 hours per weekday on research and gradually increase time commitment during weekends towards research. For the third year, depending on exams, spend half of your spare time on research and studying/reading, etc.)

 

[darkjedi]

Absolutely, in fact at many research heavy schools, you are actually required to do some sort of research in order to graduate. If you want to publish, you will have many opportunities to, likely in a wide selection of fields/specialities as well.

 

[Nesir]

It will highly depend on school years and projects, but can you break down how much you work on research per week? (Say, for the first two years, Saturdays are for catching up with classes, Sundays are 50:50 between reading/writing/analyzing for research and reading about the materials for upcoming week. <10 hours a week at the beginning of the first year, but as you find your groove and depending on exams and labs, try to spend 1-2 hours per weekday on research and gradually increase time commitment during weekends towards research. For the third year, depending on exams, spend half of your spare time on research and studying/reading, etc.)

Incredibly variable based on a number of things. First, your research is often times bottlenecked by someone not getting back to you (a PI, the IRB, random animal protection agencies, etc). BUUUUUT if I had to quantify:

I wouldn't work on my projects daily. During the semester or third year for that matter, I would spend a week every month or so and just use ALL of my free time to get to the next step of the project. Once my end was done, send it to the PI, other researchers, review committees, etc and then sit on my butt and not look at it until one of the above got back to me (often times a few weeks). You then have quite a few weeks where you can do nothing but study, drink, party, watch netflix or whatever.

If averaged out over the course of 3 years all of my research probably came to, I don't know, maybe 5 hours/wk? You just have to be selective with those weeks that you do work and get things done early so that when something goes wrong that isn't in your control (an IRB refusing to pass a project) you are not slammed for time on deadlines.

 

[demosthenes102]

I was wondering whether current medical students could comment on the feasibility and (un)commonness of doing research throughout the year as a medical student (not just summer)!
I've heard that students don't have time throughout the academic year to do any substantial research, but I am curious as to how medical students placing into top residencies have multiple publications/research projects if they only do research in the summer between first and second year!
thank you!!!

From my understanding, it's definitely possible to do research throughout the year with proper time management. Some students also take a fifth year in medical school to do full-time research, and some medical schools (correct me if I'm wrong) make that fifth year tuition free.

 

[Leoz M Jiliums]

Very much so, especially if you're really good at time mgt. A number of my students do research; things like western blots, ELISAs and PCR are very amenable to student work given the down times they entail and mulitple start/stop points.

What if you don't like that stuff? I really hated working with cells in my undergrad.

Are most yearly projects basic science research?

 

[Goro]

Let's see, in thinking about what some of my colleagues do, I suppose there's always somebody who needs a plasmid purified, some biochemical assays done, or bacteria or yeast to grow up. Can't speak for my clinical collagues, alas.

What if you don't like that stuff? I really hated working with cells in my undergrad.

Are most yearly projects basic science research?

 

[Ismet]

What if you don't like that stuff? I really hated working with cells in my undergrad.

Are most yearly projects basic science research?

It might depend on the school and the variety of opportunities available, but no, you are not limited to basic science research.

 

[Nesir]

What if you don't like that stuff? I really hated working with cells in my undergrad.

Are most yearly projects basic science research?

Almost all programs let you do what you want. Most of the people I work with choose to do clinical work (usually retrospective studies) because there is a higher chance of getting a first author out of it.

I did a mixture of both some clinical work with Alzhiemer's disease and some basic science work looking at Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

A note : the tuition free statement is a little misleading. You're loans still acure interest and at least at my place they have an "enrolment fee" which is usually a couple thousand.

 

[CyberMaxx]

Not to derail the thread , but I have a related question. I was under the impression that most med students did clinical research rather than basic science. However, it seems like a lot of the med students commenting on this thread do basic science. Would you say clinical or basic science research is more common in med school?

 

[gyngyn]

Not to derail the thread , but I have a related question. I was under the impression that most med students did clinical research rather than basic science. However, it seems like a lot of the med students commenting on this thread do basic science. Would you say clinical or basic science research is more common in med school?

Hypothesis-driven research is expected out of every student in our school. It breaks down pretty evenly between bench research and clinical/QI/med ed.

 

[xcvdx]

. I worked the summer of my 1st-2nd year, throughout the semesters of my second year, and during a dedicated research block in my third year.

 

[Ismet]

Not to derail the thread , but I have a related question. I was under the impression that most med students did clinical research rather than basic science. However, it seems like a lot of the med students commenting on this thread do basic science. Would you say clinical or basic science research is more common in med school?

I think it might be slightly biased towards clinical research, but then again I don't know what every single person in my 145-person class is doing for their project. My research is in medical education, and there's a good chunk of people doing stuff that isn't typical basic science or clinical.

 

[plumhill]

Would top residency programs prefer basic science or clinical research, as opposed to education/humanities/ethics/etc?

 

[darkjedi]

Would top residency programs prefer basic science or clinical research, as opposed to education/humanities/ethics/etc?

Top residency programs would most prefer research done in their respective fields, whether it's basic or clinical. Clinical research tends to be easier to get involved into and publish research for a med student however.

 

[snowys435]

what about public health or policy related research?

 

[Lya]

what about public health or policy related research?

I am interested in health policy and outcomes research as well, and from what I've heard thus far, research in these areas is certainly better than no research at all. However, as darkjedi stated above, it will be the most beneficial if the research is directly related in a certain field that you want to get matched to.

 

[snowys435]

I am interested in health policy and outcomes research as well, and from what I've heard thus far, research in these areas is certainly better than no research at all. However, as darkjedi stated above, it will be the most beneficial if the research is directly related in a certain field that you want to get matched to.

what if you're interested in global/ public health generally? I'm not really sure what residency is appropriate if you dont have any particular inclinations (which I don't). and lets say you do. what if you're interested in a particular field but then later on want to do public health policy work. how would you choose your research? Would it be more beneficial to do research related directly to that residency or do the public health research?

 

[Ismet]

what if you're interested in global/ public health generally? I'm not really sure what residency is appropriate if you dont have any particular inclinations (which I don't). and lets say you do. what if you're interested in a particular field but then later on want to do public health policy work. how would you choose your research? Would it be more beneficial to do research related directly to that residency or do the public health research?

I believe there are actually some global health residency programs out there. IM or FM would probably also be appropriate for global/public health. If you're not interested in a top residency, it's not as important to do your research in that field. For example, I'm mainly interested in peds or EM, which aren't very competitive, so research of any kind would be beneficial. It's for the very competitive specialties like derm, ortho, rads, etc that you want to try to do research in that field.

 

[plumhill]

I believe there are actually some global health residency programs out there. IM or FM would probably also be appropriate for global/public health. If you're not interested in a top residency, it's not as important to do your research in that field. For example, I'm mainly interested in peds or EM, which aren't very competitive, so research of any kind would be beneficial. It's for the very competitive specialties like derm, ortho, rads, etc that you want to try to do research in that field.

But that basically requires you to know what you want to specialize in when you walk in the door so that you can get into a lab your first year, right? Also above I was talking generally about top programs (such as MGH, UCSF, etc) rather than the most competitive specialties. Do top schools/hospital systems prefer a certain kind of research for them to rank you higher in their rank order list?

 

[mvenus929]

Obviously there's no time to do research during 3rd and 4th year rotations unless you take research months, which pretty much everyone here does because we are required to do research.

Not true. My roommate did basically her entire research project in the two months before her research block while she was on other rotations. It's possible to do it, just not desirable. But people get research done in residency, where they're working much longer hours... They just make it a priority and find time to do the work.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

The answer is it all depends.

It depends on the individual. To successfully get research done during the academic year, it requires someone who is good at compartmentalizing their time and being efficient. It also generally requires someone like Nesir, who has a good background to walk into a basic science lab and be productive quickly.

It depends on the lab. You need a mentor who is understanding of the fluctuations of a med student's schedule, is willing to cut you some slack when things get busy school-wise, and is looking at the project's productivity over the long haul.

It depends on the school. Some schedules are more conducive to productive research than others.

It depends a tiny bit on luck. Finding the right project, at the right time. Having the pieces come together. Getting in touch with the right mentors.

Some people can do it. Others flounder. My very incomplete advice if you are serious about research is:
(1) Establish first and foremost that you can succeed academically. Don't dive into a big lab project first semester of M1 year, only to subsequently fail anatomy.
(2) Find a mentor with a track record of mentoring medical students. Ideally, an MD with a lab. They understand the differing challenges that an MD student faces rather than a straight grad student.
(3) Don't overextend yourself. Learn to say no every once in a while. Having one or two active projects that you work on during the academic year may be feasible. Trying to simultaneously balance three experiments, do a chart review, and finish up that review article your PI asked you to do, while on your surgery clerkship - probably not a good idea.

When it comes time for residency applications, what we care the most about, for better or worse, is the results. If you've been working in a lab for three years, including a summer and a dedicated research month or two, and you have no pubs or significant presentations out of that, it's a big strike. So you need to be very deliberate about finding a project and mentor that will get you somewhere.