That's being a little dramatic. Most people start doing some research in preclinicals. The average count for competive specialties is 8 research things. My one research project from MS1 summer lead to 4 research things for ERAS. I'm helping with 3 projects now, which will all at the very least produce an abstract. Already at 8 there. And 8 is average, so many people will have less
In 3rd yr, you can give up your weekends to do research. Step 1 is normally done by 3rd yr, and hopefully youbtried your best no matter what you thought you wanted to do. Networking with faculty is easy to do- set up an appointment with them or do a rotation in the field (which you should be doing anyway to confirm you actually like the field)
You're clearly missing the massive disadvantage that late deciders have when it comes to matching competitive specialties.
The average is most certainly not 8 research things.
Neurosurgery- 18 research items for matched
Rad Onc- 16
Derm- 15
Plastics - 14
Ortho - 12
ENT - 10
Also PDs in these fields specifically want relevant research, not some BS "summer research" project in some random other field with a bunch of similar posters with no applicability, like 90% of students have. I think I've only ever met one person who actually had a meaningful project, and the results won't even be published if at all for another 3-4 years. Not saying there aren't good summer research projects, but I have yet to meet anyone who actually had meaningful or impressive summer research. For most people it's just a way to get easy elective credit from the school.
Also many 3rd year rotations requires at least 1 weekend day and you need to study for the shelf, so weekends aren't full of free time for tons of research. Don't forget it takes months to get papers through the submission process.
Most importantly, deciding on a competitive specialty late just looks worse than all your peers who were on top of things since day 1. How in the world did you magically decide to be a plastic surgeon the day you got your Step 1 score, but you had no interest before? If you really loved plastic surgery, why weren't you involved beforehand? It just doesn't look as good. PDs aren't dumb and they can tell the difference between true dedication to a field and people who get a 250+ on step 1 and decide on a competitive specialty just because it's the cool thing to do.
Just to clarify, before you miss my point entirely:
I'm not saying that people can't match who decide on competitive specialties at the beginning of third year. What I am saying is that these people will be at a disadvantage, and will have to work much harder to even be equivalent to the students who built their CV for a competitive specialty from day one.
Why do you think ~50% of derm applicants are taking research years? It's likely because many decided on the field late and need that extra time to get their application up to par. (Not the only reason for research years, but definitely a big factor) The vast majority of people applying to the competitive specialties either have been application building for 3 years or take research years. When you get to third year, you'll see just how crazy it is and why so few people have the time and resources to build a good application. You'll never have more free time than MS1 and the first half of MS2, so be sure to use it wisely.
tldr; deciding on competitive specialties during 3rd year is a disadvantage, but you can match if you work really hard. It's not impossible, just more difficult.
