Matched to number 1 (University IM) - AMA

[AlteredScale]

Hello all,

Thought I would contribute to the variety of AMA threads on here.

Some main info to get this started:
Scores - COMLEX Level 1: 600-650, COMLEX Level 2: 500-575 , COMLEX PE: Pass, USMLE: none
Grades - Top 25% pre-clinical, top third clinical, honored IM shelf, passed rest
Research - Took additional year between M2 and M3 to do research, led to 1 first author manuscript, 2 published co-author manuscripts and about 5-6 abstracts to national conferences two of them as presenting author and three of them (coauthor) award winning abstracts at DDW. Spent 4+ months in basic science laboratory at matched institution doing liver research, presented case report at state ACP.

Audition/sub-I - my first month of 4th year was in the lab completing some projects, second month was on a subspecialty service at the same institution, third month was general medicine at another university program in the city.
Other 4th year rotations - 2 rotations on a hospitalist service carrying 4-7 patients with 1-3 admits, interventional cardiology
Letters - 4 total (research mentor, VA faculty from third year IM, two from my number 1 after doing rotation in IM subspecialty)
Deans/MSPE letter - pretty strong but overall pretty generic
IM Chairs Letter - Yes, met twice with them

Application - Applied to around 60 programs based on score cutoffs from FREIDA/% DO in class/any other information I forged from emailing PC 2-3 months prior to application cycle. Mainly midwest but did about 15 to west/PNW and 10 to NE region, about 3-4 them were probably reaches and 10 were backups.
Rejections - 10 formal, communicated rejections
Interviews - 14 invites, attended 12 (5 university, 4 communiversity, 5 community)
Post interview - Received handwritten thank you letters from PD/APD/Faculty from 4 different programs, very personalized, nothing about ranking, other interviewees received these as well.
LOI sent? - Yes, only to my number 1. PD did respond
Ranking - about 50% based on academic career potential, about 50% based on location. I only ranked 11 because one of these programs lost ACGME accreditation (not surprised, this was a very small program that was already on rocky ground but applied due to its convenience in being in the city)
Confidence in matching to my number 1 - 60-75%, there were other students with pretty strong step scores and born/raised here in the city that were very much set on ranking this place #1 as well.

I received 2 questions about my scores the entire interview season: one about why my level 2 dropped, and another as to why I didn't take USMLE. I provided a well thought but simple and concise answer and bother were received positively and the interview moved on.

As a comparison my friend with 230-240 step scores but very similar application otherwise received similar # invites but essentially all of his were university programs with the exception of 3-4 really strong community programs in big cities.

I know there's always a bit of confusion regarding whether IM is doable as a DO applicant with comlex only scores. I am happy to use my experience to hopefully help others in similar situations.

Thanks again

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[Kardio]

Congratulations! Two Questions:

Research - Took additional year between M2 and M3 to do research, led to 1 first author manuscript, 2 published co-author manuscripts and about 5-6 abstracts to national conferences two of them as presenting author and three of them (coauthor) award winning abstracts at DDW. Spent 4+ months in basic science laboratory at matched institution doing liver research, presented case report at state ACP.

What made you decide to do a research year, and do you feel you could have landed where you wanted without it? I haven't heard of IM applicants doing this.

% DO in class

When you were doing your searches, what "%DO" did you use and why?

 

[Coltuna]

First off, thanks for such an in-depth write-up and congrats on matching! As someone who really has no interest/experience in research, I'm wondering how much this may negatively impact my application if I decide to go the IM route. Is there a way to decipher which programs emphasize research less than others? As a general rule, are community programs less research-intensive?

 

[mathnerd88]

First off, thanks for such an in-depth write-up and congrats on matching! As someone who really has no interest/experience in research, I'm wondering how much this may negatively impact my application if I decide to go the IM route. Is there a way to decipher which programs emphasize research less than others? As a general rule, are community programs less research-intensive?

As a general rule, community programs are less research-intensive and do not put as much emphasis on research when inviting applicants for interview.

Research will not negatively impact your application if you have amazing board scores. However, it does help significantly especially at academic places. Also, keep in mind that research is not necessarily the be all end all. There are other things you can do to make your application more competitive, like leadership positions, community service, SSP, gold humanism, etc.

Also, the interview does play a huge role in the ranking process. You can be the perfect med student and have bad manners and still will not match anywhere.

 

[AlteredScale]

Congratulations! Two Questions:



What made you decide to do a research year, and do you feel you could have landed where you wanted without it? I haven't heard of IM applicants doing this.



When you were doing your searches, what "%DO" did you use and why?

1) I always wanted to do a research year and tbh yeah I think I would have landed where I wanted without it. I did it because I have a really strong interest in staying in academics with a goal of continuing in bench research. I would say that the majority of applicants I met on the interview trail were pursuing some sort of research (not an entire year). EDIT: research year was a intramural fellowship year with our anatomy department. prior to this I had a applied for a NIH-funded research year with the program I ended up matching to however there was a big question as to whether they were going to receive funding that year due to fiscal cuts and I forfeited my application after interviewing there.

2) well for safeties I did 15-20% DO which is pretty high, and these programs were generally pretty community focused and small for my taste. But I chose to pick some of them as safeties. I was in an odd predicament though because my goals didn't fit well with these smaller programs. So I had to make sure they had some sort of research capacity beyond just case reports and small retros.

for everything else I cut it down to 5-15% for the majority of my program selection. Be aware though that a program can be 15% DO's but b a smaller class in general and so that can equate to like...one or two DO's a class which means ur chances there are still slim unless you either have connections to the area/did an audition there/have something that really meets the programs mission.

You also want to look at trends like if the pgy-3 class is half DO's and then the pgy-2 class is 1-2 and then the intern class is none. That may say something and you have to think about if you wanna roll the dice with a program that seems to be choosing more MD's vs DO's. I never went out of my way to email the program and ask why cuz I think that's kind over bearing.

 

[Kardio]

1) I always wanted to do a research year and tbh yeah I think I would have landed where I wanted without it. I did it because I have a really strong interest in staying in academics with a goal of continuing in bench research. I would say that the majority of applicants I met on the interview trail were pursuing some sort of research (not an entire year).

2) well for safeties I did 15-20% DO which is pretty high, and these programs were generally pretty community focused and small for my taste. But I chose to pick some of them as safeties. I was in an odd predicament though because my goals didn't fit well with these smaller programs. So I had to make sure they had some sort of research capacity beyond just case reports and small retros.

for everything else I cut it down to 5-15% for the majority of my program selection. Be aware though that a program can be 15% DO's but b a smaller class in general and so that can equate to like...one or two DO's a class which means ur chances there are still slim unless you either have connections to the area/did an audition there/have something that really meets the programs mission.

You also want to look at trends like if the pgy-3 class is half DO's and then the pgy-2 class is 1-2 and then the intern class is none. That may say something and you have to think about if you wanna roll the dice with a program that seems to be choosing more MD's vs DO's. I never went out of my way to email the program and ask why cuz I think that's kind over bearing.

Great reply. Thank you!

 

[AlteredScale]

First off, thanks for such an in-depth write-up and congrats on matching! As someone who really has no interest/experience in research, I'm wondering how much this may negatively impact my application if I decide to go the IM route. Is there a way to decipher which programs emphasize research less than others? As a general rule, are community programs less research-intensive?

Yes as @mathnerd88 stated, community programs are much less research-intensive and more or less appreciate the experience than having some sort of goal of being a clinician-scientist.

There's a few places you can go about to see how much research is emphasized at a program:
- Main residency website: Since every program has ACGME requirements for scholarly output, a good amount of programs will have their activity posted up. Take a look at the publications. Are they mainly abstracts? What kind of conferences are they going to (state, regional, national).
- FRIEDA: programs will list additional information stating if research is required
- University vs community: as stated, university programs for the most part will emphasize this more
- In-house fellowships: if the division has a ton of these, probably are going to have a bigger emphasis on research
- I would say that the top 50 IM programs based on doximity will expect good research experiences with some sort of output in the way of pubs.

Again, a large part of programs will probably not expect to be some sort of research expert, but would appreciate the experience. Like I said, almost every interview dinner I attended, every applicant had some sort of research experience and if not, were pretty invested in something else like free clinics or public health or something.

 

[NVO]

Like I said, almost every interview dinner I attended, every applicant had some sort of research experience and if not, were pretty invested in something else like free clinics or public health or something.

As advise to the upcoming applicants, you guys really gotta have SOMETHING to talk about. Get involved in anything that interests you.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Hello all,

Thought I would contribute to the variety of AMA threads on here.

Some main info to get this started:
Scores - COMLEX Level 1: 600-650, COMLEX Level 2: 500-575 , COMLEX PE: Pass, USMLE: none
Grades - Top 25% pre-clinical, top third clinical, honored IM shelf, passed rest
Research - Took additional year between M2 and M3 to do research, led to 1 first author manuscript, 2 published co-author manuscripts and about 5-6 abstracts to national conferences two of them as presenting author and three of them (coauthor) award winning abstracts at DDW. Spent 4+ months in basic science laboratory at matched institution doing liver research, presented case report at state ACP.

Audition/sub-I - my first month of 4th year was in the lab completing some projects, second month was on a subspecialty service at the same institution, third month was general medicine at another university program in the city.
Other 4th year rotations - 2 rotations on a hospitalist service carrying 4-7 patients with 1-3 admits, interventional cardiology
Letters - 4 total (research mentor, VA faculty from third year IM, two from my number 1 after doing sub-I in subspecialty)
Deans/MSPE letter - pretty strong, pretty generic
IM Chairs Letter - Yes, met twice with them

Application - Applied to around 60 programs based on score cutoffs from FREIDA/% DO in class/any other information I forged from emailing PC 2-3 months prior to application cycle. Mainly midwest but did about 15 to west/PNW and 10 to NE region, about 3-4 them were probably reaches and 10 were backups.
Rejections - 10 formal, communicated rejections
Interviews - 14 invites, attended 12 (5 university, 4 communiversity, 5 community)
Post interview - Received handwritten thank you letters from PD/APD/Faculty from 4 different programs, very personalized, nothing about ranking, other interviewees received these as well.
LOI sent? - Yes, only to my number 1. PD did respond
Ranking - about 50% based on academic career potential, about 50% based on location. I only ranked 11 because one of these programs lost ACGME accreditation (not surprised, this was a very small program that was already on rocky ground but applied due to its convenience in being in the city)
Confidence in matching to my number 1 - 60-75%, there were other students with pretty strong step scores and born/raised here in the city that were very much set on ranking this place #1 as well.

I received 2 questions about my scores the entire interview season: one about why my level 2 dropped, and another as to why I didn't take USMLE. I provided a well thought but simple and concise answer and bother were received positively and the interview moved on.

As a comparison my friend with 230-240 step scores but very similar application otherwise received similar # invites but essentially all of his were university programs with the exception of 3-4 really strong community programs in big cities.

I know there's always a bit of confusion regarding whether IM is doable as a DO applicant with comlex only scores. I am happy to use my experience to hopefully help others in similar situations.

Thanks again

Just here to say, I was SO happy when I saw the title of this thread and that you were the poster. You have given me so much advice over the last 2 years, both publicly and through PM, and I was hoping you would end up happy with your match. Congratulations! Thanks for everything

 

[AlteredScale]

As advise to the upcoming applicants, you guys really gotta have SOMETHING to talk about. Get involved in anything that interests you.

Agreed. Everyone had a story of sorts and in general had some sort of interest in what they wanted to do and it wasn't like "I wanna do this fellowship" but more of "I wanna work with underserved its" and had experiences to prove that.

Why didn’t you take the usmle?

I tried to delay my exam and the reschedule website glitched out, had to call to set it up and they said the next date they could set me up was another month out. I couldn't study for another month and hold my retention (had already been in dedicated for about 8 weeks at that point). My next practice test my score started dropping a little and I got worried I'd end up scoring low so decided against it.

My general advice is that until there's a unified test, I suggest that all should come into medical school with the goal of taking usmle step 1 and 2 (written). Many many many programs require it and it makes life harder when it comes to applying for residency especially if you are wanting to do a specialty that isn't a primary care specialty.

The reason I'd never say for someone to just take comlex even if they are set on a PC specialty is that you can have a change of heart in medical school. Now you have to essentially go back and retake a test and trying to study for step 1 in third year is really difficult. It's possible but it's way harder to find time.

Just here to say, I was SO happy when I saw the title of this thread and that you were the poster. You have given me so much advice over the last 2 years, both publicly and through PM, and I was hoping you would end up happy with your match. Congratulations! Thanks for everything

Thank you! I really appreciate the kind words I hope to see your successes in the match in the near future as well.

 

[2021Doctor]

Hello all,

Thought I would contribute to the variety of AMA threads on here.

Some main info to get this started:
Scores - COMLEX Level 1: 600-650, COMLEX Level 2: 500-575 , COMLEX PE: Pass, USMLE: none
Grades - Top 25% pre-clinical, top third clinical, honored IM shelf, passed rest
Research - Took additional year between M2 and M3 to do research, led to 1 first author manuscript, 2 published co-author manuscripts and about 5-6 abstracts to national conferences two of them as presenting author and three of them (coauthor) award winning abstracts at DDW. Spent 4+ months in basic science laboratory at matched institution doing liver research, presented case report at state ACP.

Audition/sub-I - my first month of 4th year was in the lab completing some projects, second month was on a subspecialty service at the same institution, third month was general medicine at another university program in the city.
Other 4th year rotations - 2 rotations on a hospitalist service carrying 4-7 patients with 1-3 admits, interventional cardiology
Letters - 4 total (research mentor, VA faculty from third year IM, two from my number 1 after doing rotation in IM subspecialty)
Deans/MSPE letter - pretty strong but overall pretty generic
IM Chairs Letter - Yes, met twice with them

Application - Applied to around 60 programs based on score cutoffs from FREIDA/% DO in class/any other information I forged from emailing PC 2-3 months prior to application cycle. Mainly midwest but did about 15 to west/PNW and 10 to NE region, about 3-4 them were probably reaches and 10 were backups.
Rejections - 10 formal, communicated rejections
Interviews - 14 invites, attended 12 (5 university, 4 communiversity, 5 community)
Post interview - Received handwritten thank you letters from PD/APD/Faculty from 4 different programs, very personalized, nothing about ranking, other interviewees received these as well.
LOI sent? - Yes, only to my number 1. PD did respond
Ranking - about 50% based on academic career potential, about 50% based on location. I only ranked 11 because one of these programs lost ACGME accreditation (not surprised, this was a very small program that was already on rocky ground but applied due to its convenience in being in the city)
Confidence in matching to my number 1 - 60-75%, there were other students with pretty strong step scores and born/raised here in the city that were very much set on ranking this place #1 as well.

I received 2 questions about my scores the entire interview season: one about why my level 2 dropped, and another as to why I didn't take USMLE. I provided a well thought but simple and concise answer and bother were received positively and the interview moved on.

As a comparison my friend with 230-240 step scores but very similar application otherwise received similar # invites but essentially all of his were university programs with the exception of 3-4 really strong community programs in big cities.

I know there's always a bit of confusion regarding whether IM is doable as a DO applicant with comlex only scores. I am happy to use my experience to hopefully help others in similar situations.

Thanks again

Good luck in residency.

 

[AlteredScale]

Good luck in residency.

Thank you!

 

[iforget2]

Would you say your class rank played a significant role in receiving interviews? I'm also interested in IM but likely in the 3rd/4th quartile.

 

[AlteredScale]

Would you say your class rank played a significant role in receiving interviews? I'm also interested in IM but likely in the 3rd/4th quartile.

It was never talked about on my interviews but it was on my MSPE. I would defer this to say there is some importance to class rank based on the NRMP program directors survey.

 

[deleted831695]

You give me hope that my current research year in random stuff between M2 and M3 has some value lmao.

Although my yield this year is going to be less than yours and not much :/ (*knock on wood* 1 first co-author but listed second, 1 second author, and 1 random co-author), though at least I have pubs/posters I did before med school.

You did solid in your gap year. Nice job. Getting this stuff published and/or sent to conferences is annoying af.

 

[AlteredScale]

You give me hope that my current research year in random stuff between M2 and M3 has some value lmao.

Although my yield this year is going to be less than yours and not much :/ (*knock on wood* 1 first co-author but listed second, 1 second author, and 1 random co-author), though at least I have pubs/posters I did before med school.

You did solid in your gap year. Nice job. Getting this stuff published and/or sent to conferences is annoying af.

I am sure the impact of your pubs will probably just as strong if not strong than mine if you had solid mentorship. I got very very lucky with finding research mentors to help me out and let me participate in research projects and a good amount of what I did during my research year was outside the formal fellowship and with neighboring institutions.

Best of luck to you!!

 

[DrStephenStrange]

First of all, congrats on matching your top University IM program.
I have a couple questions though:

1) How likely is it to land a good university IM with minimal research and no other ECs (assuming I do well on boards)?
My background: I have had a very brief experience with research during summer between M1 and M2. We haven't gotten anything out yet (local conference poster presentation was canceled recently due to COVID-19), and I have close to zero volunteering and other ECs, no SSP, and class rank is probably 2nd/3rd quartile. My hope is to get a couple case reports done during M3, and hopefully my PI will get more data during the summer, so we can go present at a national conference before residency apps are out.

2) What would you say were the average step scores for applicants at the University or comm-university where you interviewed at?

3) Do you think University programs in the Midwest are more doable than let's say anywhere on the east-coast and south?

4) Any other advice for a budding M3 on how to conquer to upcoming year and the match?

 

[AlteredScale]

1) How likely is it to land a good university IM with minimal research and no other ECs (assuming I do well on boards)?
My background: I have had a very brief experience with research during summer between M1 and M2. We haven't gotten anything out yet (local conference poster presentation was canceled recently due to COVID-19), and I have close to zero volunteering and other ECs, no SSP, and class rank is probably 2nd/3rd quartile. My hope is to get a couple case reports done during M3, and hopefully my PI will get more data during the summer, so we can go present at a national conference before residency apps are out.

Well like I had mentioned above, the people I was sitting at the interview dinner with had some sort of thing that stood out on their application. If you enjoy research then stick with that and continue on with ur PI. What you'll get for output is probably going too e fine.

You really should find something else to do though. Some sort of hobby and/or volunteer with a community kitchen end of summer when all of this dies down. I wasn't SSP and my class rank was fine. But I also volunteered with the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation which was something I did in undergrad when I was working in an IBD wet lab.

You need something to help you stand out more so than good board scores, there are loads and load of people who will have the same if not better board scores than you and then some. I know a fair share of applicants from my school with pretty damn phenomenal scores and just a mediocre application all around and they either didn't get a lot of interviews or matched a place they were "meh" about on their ROL.

2) What would you say were the average step scores for applicants at the University or comm-university where you interviewed at?

This was never talked about between interviewees (thank god) but I would say in general 220-240 for step 1, 230-250 for step 2. 550-600 for level 1, and 600+ for level 2. this is based off of what I got looking back at FRIEDA but this could change.

3) Do you think University programs in the Midwest are more doable than let's say anywhere on the east-coast and south?

For DO's midwest uni is (save for Case Uni Hospitals, Michigan, Vandy, WashU, UChicago, Northwestern, Mayo) more easily obtainable than the west. The west coast is nuts and but I've seen people interview and go to places like Loma Linda, UC Irvine, UC Davis, OHSU. Most of the time, DO's end up matching to community programs in the west. I had one university affiliated interview (UCSF-Fresno) and the rest were community programs.

The east and south have uni programs that will look/interview/accept DO's. Just use FREIDA and select the appropriate region to see percent DO's. If it's not listed go to their main website and take a gander. If their roster doesn't have any DOs and its's all USMD or IMG/FMG it's safe to say that program won't take you in and I wouldn't waste my money throwing an application there.

4) Any other advice for a budding M3 on how to conquer to upcoming year and the match?

I would say enjoy M3 as much as possible, learn as much as possible as well. Don't give 50% on rotations you don't like because everything counts on ur MSPE and also there's clinical pearls to be learned in these other specialties that are beneficial as an internist and you come to respect all these areas so much more beyond just hearsay that you learn in M1/M2 and social boards like SDN and reddit.

You also want to start planning. What are your goals? Do you want to do fellowship? Do you care to stay in academia or do you wanna get outta there to work in the community setting? Are you going to be one of those "California-only" applicants or will be okay applying all over?

Choose your third year electives wisely. Mine were IM subspecialties at university hospital and research months. My research months weren't just to hang out they were actually spent writing up manuscripts or analyzing data. You gotta be productive and if things are slow you have to find other research mentors that have projects waiting to be done.

Hopefully this answered some of your questions but feel free to ask anything else. I'm not doing anything right now haha.

Thanks for the congrats!

 

[fldoctorgirl]

You really should find something else to do though. Some sort of hobby and/or volunteer with a community kitchen end of summer when all of this dies down. I wasn't SSP and my class rank was fine. But I also volunteered with the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation which was something I did in undergrad when I was working in an IBD wet lab.

Can you expand on this a bit more? I've always heard the general SDN advice not to waste too much time with volunteering and other ECs because "this isn't undergrad". But you seem to take the position that it's important?

Research is not my thing, at least not bench research. I'm not opposed to getting involved in some clinical, case-report type research in M3, but who knows if it'll come my way. I'm also not gung-ho about going to an academic program per say, because I'm 95% sure I just want to be either a hospitalist or outpatient IM doctor; for me, location (getting to go back home) is the most important thing. I know we go to the same school, so...I was involved in the free clinic as a student doc for a year and was also on the e-board of a club where we launched a pretty cool program that should be part of the school for the foreseeable future (don't want to get to into the details for anonymity). I am in the 2nd quartile with a huge upward trend-- anatomy isn't my thing, so I was just at the average or below average in most courses M1 and got pretty much all A's M2. I'm just not sure if any of this fits the bill that you're talking about when it comes to having a "thing". Can you expand more on that, and do you have any tips for how to get more involved with stuff like volunteering as an M3 if we're going to be pretty busy with rotations?

 

[Gropey_Monk123]

Congrats on matching to your #1

Could you give some advice for students wanting to do a research year (who should do it / why you should do it and some general tips you think would be helpful) and for applying/getting research in general?

How did you decide on IM?

 

[NVO]

Can you expand on this a bit more? I've always heard the general SDN advice not to waste too much time with volunteering and other ECs because "this isn't undergrad". But you seem to take the position that it's important?

Research is not my thing, at least not bench research. I'm not opposed to getting involved in some clinical, case-report type research in M3, but who knows if it'll come my way. I'm also not gung-ho about going to an academic program per say, because I'm 95% sure I just want to be either a hospitalist or outpatient IM doctor; for me, location (getting to go back home) is the most important thing. I know we go to the same school, so...I was involved in the free clinic as a student doc for a year and was also on the e-board of a club where we launched a pretty cool program that should be part of the school for the foreseeable future (don't want to get to into the details for anonymity). I am in the 2nd quartile with a huge upward trend-- anatomy isn't my thing, so I was just at the average or below average in most courses M1 and got pretty much all A's M2. I'm just not sure if any of this fits the bill that you're talking about when it comes to having a "thing". Can you expand more on that, and do you have any tips for how to get more involved with stuff like volunteering as an M3 if we're going to be pretty busy with rotations?

It honestly doesn't have to be "wasting time" with volunteering or ECs. I have a non-medical related hobby that I've been involved with for several years and it was a big talking point for a large portion of my interviews. It just rough seeing people that have no ECs also have NO hobbies or interests at all. Presents them as a very 2-dimensional applicant. But I'll let the OP speak on this!

 

[PC89]

Can you expand on this a bit more? I've always heard the general SDN advice not to waste too much time with volunteering and other ECs because "this isn't undergrad". But you seem to take the position that it's important?

Research is not my thing, at least not bench research. I'm not opposed to getting involved in some clinical, case-report type research in M3, but who knows if it'll come my way. I'm also not gung-ho about going to an academic program per say, because I'm 95% sure I just want to be either a hospitalist or outpatient IM doctor; for me, location (getting to go back home) is the most important thing. I know we go to the same school, so...I was involved in the free clinic as a student doc for a year and was also on the e-board of a club where we launched a pretty cool program that should be part of the school for the foreseeable future (don't want to get to into the details for anonymity). I am in the 2nd quartile with a huge upward trend-- anatomy isn't my thing, so I was just at the average or below average in most courses M1 and got pretty much all A's M2. I'm just not sure if any of this fits the bill that you're talking about when it comes to having a "thing". Can you expand more on that, and do you have any tips for how to get more involved with stuff like volunteering as an M3 if we're going to be pretty busy with rotations?

Do what you like; padding yourself with volunteer activities just to shore up your resume is fake af. Try to do something outside of medical school that you enjoy but don't just fill your resume like a bingo game. If you had to focus on something I guess it would be research but even then I wouldn't do it if you have no interest.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

It honestly doesn't have to be "wasting time" with volunteering or ECs. I have a non-medical related hobby that I've been involved with for several years and it was a big talking point for a large portion of my interviews. It just rough seeing people that have no ECs also have NO hobbies or interests at all. Presents them as a very 2-dimensional applicant. But I'll let the OP speak on this!

Do what you like; padding yourself with volunteer activities just to shore up your resume is fake af. Try to do something outside of medical school that you enjoy but don't just fill your resume like a bingo game. If you had to focus on something I guess it would be research but even then I wouldn't do it if you have no interest.

Thanks guys. I definitely have non-medical hobbies that I plan on including in my app, but I don't pursue any "official" ECs through them..it's more just stuff I like to do in my free time. I'm worried about not having enough on paper things.

 

[AlteredScale]

I'm worried about not having enough on paper things.

Residency application isn't about having enough EC's. It's just about doing something and being able to have a decent conversation about it. As mentioned above, it doesn't have to be an official thing like volunteering or leadership but just doing something that you like to do. For me that was guitar, cooking, and video games and I listed all of these things on my app and essentially every interview there was a discussion of these hobbies in some way, shape, or form.

Research is not my thing, at least not bench research. I'm not opposed to getting involved in some clinical, case-report type research in M3, but who knows if it'll come my way. I'm also not gung-ho about going to an academic program per say, because I'm 95% sure I just want to be either a hospitalist or outpatient IM doctor; for me, location (getting to go back home) is the most important thing. I know we go to the same school, so...I was involved in the free clinic as a student doc for a year and was also on the e-board of a club where we launched a pretty cool program that should be part of the school for the foreseeable future (don't want to get to into the details for anonymity). I am in the 2nd quartile with a huge upward trend-- anatomy isn't my thing, so I was just at the average or below average in most courses M1 and got pretty much all A's M2. I'm just not sure if any of this fits the bill that you're talking about when it comes to having a "thing". Can you expand more on that, and do you have any tips for how to get more involved with stuff like volunteering as an M3 if we're going to be pretty busy with rotations?

If research isn't your thing then I wouldn't try and go out of your way to do it. I'm just saying this from my perspective and experience that even community IM programs have an ACGME requirement for scholarly activity and at the community programs I interviewed at, a good majority of the applicants had some sort of research project they worked on.

If you liked the free clinic maybe you can do an elective working in one of the clinics around downtown here. Or if you end up doing a research month to "catch up" you can also see if you can volunteer in the clinic you worked at as well.

Congrats on matching to your #1

Could you give some advice for students wanting to do a research year (who should do it / why you should do it and some general tips you think would be helpful) and for applying/getting research in general?

How did you decide on IM?

So I got advice from a student who is now a resident who ended up doing a pretty prestigious research year that the only good reason to do an entire year is because you enjoy research and want to continue to develop your skills as a researcher. Medical school doesn't really allow for a lot of time to do this, especially DO medical schools where curriculums are typically traditional 2 year and research is scant outside the realm of OMM research.

I would say the best thing is to start talking with people who are doing the research year currently, contacting and finding research mentors early one who would be open to taking you for the year and have the funding to do so. Start developing your CV now with research experiences and pubs at the front page. My fellowship required us to create a research proposal prior to the interview and so we had to have a really good hypothesis and understand the background well and was also asked on how I would go about investigating that hypothesis using different research modalities. Mind you, essentially all of my interviewers except 1 were PhD's so they were kinda tough on me regarding the design so make sure you really look into this.

 

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Would you say that high board scores make up for no research. Like say someone got a 250+ step 1 and 670+ level 1 would they be forgiven for lack of research even at mid-tier University programs. It stinks that the best way to get into competitive fellowships is to get University IM for which research is important

 

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Would you say that high board scores make up for no research. Like say someone got a 250+ step 1 and 670+ level 1 would they be forgiven for lack of research even at mid-tier University programs. It stinks that the best way to get into competitive fellowships is to get University IM for which research is important

Sure. I know a ton of applicants with really minimal research that got interviews at great places with scores like that. Like I said, you don't NEED a ton of research to get into a mid-tier uni program (the PD survey states research is ranked pretty low even when it comes to post interview ranking). But, it seems to me research has become an unspoken expectation from meeting the other interviewees. And perhaps there's more self selection to do research in IM because almost everyone is wanting to do subspecialty where research actually does matter.