MS1 summer plans: research or clinical immersion?

[deleted980662]

hi SDN. i'm an MS1 trying to figure out my summer plans and could use a little guidance.

at my institution, rising second years are required to spend their summer doing a research project or participating in a rural clinical immersion. for research, we have a directory of potential mentors with descriptions of their current research projects, and we can reach out to them and organize a plan together. the rural immersion is basically a mini-preceptorship that involves developing a community needs assessment and improvement plan.

research is generally considered to be harder and is the more "competitive" of the two options in terms of residency applications, but both of them typically culminate in poster presentations – it seems like a relatively small minority of research students achieve authorship on a manuscript.

with that being said, does it make a significant difference which one i choose? my pre-med research background was not very strong and i think i would feel more comfortable doing the clinical immersion, but i want to fully maximize my chances at a competitive residency program. is there a "community health" angle for which the rural experience is a bonus? or am i better off finding a research project that interests me?

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[NotaCop]

Research

 

[Ho0v-man]

Option 1: research

Option 2: also research

you said you were thinking about something else but it sounded too pointless to be an option. Sadly, no one will care about the other things. Competitive fields/programs don’t care about rural immersion. They care about research and maybe the LOR you’ll get from a research mentor.

 

[NotaCop]

Option 1: research

Option 2: also research

you said you were thinking about something else but it sounded too pointless to be an option. Sadly, no one will care about the other things. Competitive fields/programs don’t care about rural immersion. They care about research and maybe the LOR you’ll get from a research mentor.

this is exactly what I was too lazy to type out

 

[plshelpvanxious]

Maybe find a research project that involves clinical exposure. Or if you are interested in rural med, do the immersion and turn it into a research project.

You don't need always to do research to match, but it can help. It's your last summer so you should do something you'll enjoy. If you want the clinical immersion experience, then do it.