need suggestions for M1 summer

[newstart90]

Hi guys, was wondering if you can help to offer some advice for the upcoming M1 summer year. I am not sure what sort of commitment I should put into this brief 2 months period.

I think our schools offer a good variety choices for summer but the degree of research is limited and a good number of previous M2s went to other cities for either research or externship. I sent out applications to externships and contacted some research labs in the city area. Still waiting for the externships but individual research lab (bench basic science works) are happy to offer a flexible summer research position.

I was also recently offered to lead a global health medical trip back to my home country. It sounds like an exciting new opportunity for me as this is my first time leading a medical trip outside US. This trip takes 4 weeks.

We also have a whole summer anatomy teaching fellowships which will take up the entire summer

I personally do not have any preference for any specialty yet, possibly leaning for surgery, sub surgical specialties, and internal med sub specialties. Hoping to match to east coast.

Now here for the tricky part:

The labs are associated with big university hospitals which are nice. But in the past I have found it is very, very hard to get bench work publications on time, 2 year on average. The bigger the name, the longer it takes. I did get posters and recommendation letters at the end, but the actual publication came out after my medical school interview. Some never got published.

I could also look for some off site clinical research position and try to negotiate like a half and half deal: half global health trip and half research for the summer. But would that leave me too exhausted for the stressful M2 year?

I noticed the NRMP PD survey place a moderately high emphasis on leadership demonstrations. Would you think the trip leader counts as a leadership skills?

Thanks all for the help!

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[afib123]

pick the competitive speciality in your list of specialities in mind and do research in it

 

[newstart90]

pick the competitive speciality is in your list of specialities in mind and do research in it

What happen if you ended up interested in a different field than the one researched in?

 

[afib123]

What happen if you ended up interested in a different field than the one researched in?

If that field you end up choosing is less competitive than the field where you did research in, most times it is OK. For example, if someone wanted to orthopedic surgery and did research in that and switched to IM, that research will still be a nice bonus to your resume at most IM programs (maybe not the top 10).
But if you flip it the other way and do IM research but decide to do ortho then that will likely hurt you as most subspecialties want to see research in their fields (I think it's kind of pointeless but that's the game)
Now if you do ortho research but want to do derm then the ortho research probably won't help as much as it will help you in IM as derm probably wants to see derm specific research

 

[Boola Boy]

Travel

 

[newstart90]

If that field you end up choosing is less competitive than the field where you did research in, most times it is OK. For example, if someone wanted to orthopedic surgery and did research in that and switched to IM, that research will still be a nice bonus to your resume at most IM programs (maybe not the top 10).
But if you flip it the other way and do IM research but decide to do ortho then that will likely hurt you as most subspecialties want to see research in their fields (I think it's kind of pointeless but that's the game)
Now if you do ortho research but want to do derm then the ortho research probably won't help as much as it will help you in IM as derm probably wants to see derm specific research

Thanks for the suggestions.
What do you think PD' opinions on the "Name" of institution?

Since I have had several frustrating experiences with high name recognition medical center lab (mostly bench work) which either was too busy with their other projects, or hesitant to have it published "too early". On the other hand, I had a nice experience working with a team in a pure clinical setting at the start of medical school. The publication there are much more streamlined and transparent.

 

[afib123]

Thanks for the suggestions.
What do you think PD' opinions on the "Name" of institution?

Since I have had several frustrating experiences with high name recognition medical center lab (mostly bench work) which either was too busy with their other projects, or hesitant to have it published "too early". On the other hand, I had a nice experience working with a team in a pure clinical setting at the start of medical school. The publication there are much more streamlined and transparent.

Publications over everything for most programs. Name matters if you can get publications from there as their letter will have more weight.
But I think having pubs beats everything. A good letter from a normal institution will be OK as well in addition to their pubs

 

[newstart90]

Publications over everything for most programs. Name matters if you can get publications from there as their letter will have more weight.
But I think having pubs beats everything. A good letter from a normal institution will be OK as well in addition to their pubs

how realistic do you think that research been continued into M2 year? I am debating on basic science or clinical. Basic science yield higher return but require much longer time input. Clinical is you do it and it is done

 

[newstart90]

Travel

Do you mean the global health trip?

 

[afib123]

how realistic do you think that research been continued into M2 year? I am debating on basic science or clinical. Basic science yield higher return but require much longer time input. Clinical is you do it and it is done

Depends on you and what your goals are. I squeezed in a little research but that's because I had high goals for step 1 and didn't think of anything else.

 

[ndafife]

Thanks for the suggestions.
What do you think PD' opinions on the "Name" of institution?

Since I have had several frustrating experiences with high name recognition medical center lab (mostly bench work) which either was too busy with their other projects, or hesitant to have it published "too early". On the other hand, I had a nice experience working with a team in a pure clinical setting at the start of medical school. The publication there are much more streamlined and transparent.

Productivity >>>>> Name.

A PD is going to flip through your application and see that you have a "research experience" at "Institution X" and then keep reading. They may or may not even remember by the time they finish reading your app. If you get a good LOR that is one thing, but 8 weeks of research between M1 and M2 years (with that researcher likely having more students the next two summers) really isn't likely to yield all that strong of a letter.

Go where you can publish and develop relationships and that is going to be much easier at your home institution where you have more opportunity to continue to work with your researchers beyond the 8 weeks of your M1 summer

 

[newstart90]

Productivity >>>>> Name.

A PD is going to flip through your application and see that you have a "research experience" at "Institution X" and then keep reading. They may or may not even remember by the time they finish reading your app. If you get a good LOR that is one thing, but 8 weeks of research between M1 and M2 years (with that researcher likely having more students the next two summers) really isn't likely to yield all that strong of a letter.

Go where you can publish and develop relationships and that is going to be much easier at your home institution where you have more opportunity to continue to work with your researchers beyond the 8 weeks of your M1 summer

Thanks for the suggestions!

I have to be honest our home institution research does not have many that I am interested in. The closest clinical research we have are neuro and micro immunology.

This is just a wild guess. What would be the weight of research outside US?

 

[newstart90]

Depends on you and what your goals are. I squeezed in a little research but that's because I hasn't high goals for step 1 and didn't think of anything else.

Got it. I plan on ending all extracurricular and research right around October. Our school is pushing the idea that Step is much more important

 

[ndafife]

What would be the weight of research outside US?

Productivity >>>>> Name.

A PD is going to flip through your application and see that you have a "research experience" at "International Institution X" and then keep reading. They may or may not even remember by the time they finish reading your app. If you get a good LOR that is one thing, but 8 weeks of research between M1 and M2 years (with that researcher likely having more students the next two summers) really isn't likely to yield all that strong of a letter. And even if it is a strong letter, the PD may not be that familiar with the person from the international institution.

Go where you can publish and develop relationships and that is going to be much easier at your home institution where you have more opportunity to continue to work with your researchers beyond the 8 weeks of your M1 summer

 

[Boola Boy]

Do you mean the global health trip?

No, I meant travel just for the sake of traveling. Not for the sake of making yourself more competitive for residency applications. It was somewhat of a sarcastic response to your questions because I've been going through a quarter-life crisis lately!

But explicitly, I meant "travel" in the sense that you just take a break and get off the achievement treadmill for a little while. You may be going for a more competitive specialty, though, in which case summer research may be beneficial to you. Me, the specialty field I want is not that competitive, so I'm not tryna spend my summer doing research....rather just chill at the beach with friends and make memories.