question about research

[secretasianman]

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does doing research in anesthesiology give you an edge in terms of matching into an anes. residency? in other words, is it essential if one wants to be considered a "competitive" applicant? or is any other science research okay?

 

[ThinkFast007]

does doing research in anesthesiology give you an edge in terms of matching into an anes. residency? in other words, is it essential if one wants to be considered a "competitive" applicant? or is any other science research okay?

MS4 here.....

I can give you what's been stated on this forum 100000's of times. Doing research in just about ANYTHING will 'help'.

Having said that and having finished all my interviews I can say this. NONE of my anesthesiology interviewers asked me ANYTHING about research. They didnt ask me ABOUT my research. Then again, I can say that for a great majority of my interviews I think the ppl interviewing me were looking at the stuff for the first time.

I'm sure if you are planning on going to a 'big name' rsearch school then the answer to your q is YES. But, from what I've experienced I woudl have to say that research doesnt really make one 'better' or worse. Board scores and grades and POSSIBLY Extracurriculars mk or brk you. I think for the most part anesthesiologists just want to know that you are competent and that you are not some alien (ie you can get along with ppl, etc).

good luck!

 

[fishtolive]

got one line of questions about my (non-anesthesia by the way) research projects (at mgh and columbia interviews):

them: so, did you enjoy the research you did?

me: yes.

them: great. how'd you get involved?

me: *insert bs here*

them: great

i'd almost argue doing something different than anesthesia anyway. for one, there are other interesting things out there and maybe early in schooling you were not so smart as to know anesthesia was for you (my story). sorta nice to feel you've had different experiences.

the added benefit is that if they do ask about it on iterviews they will:

a)be interested to hear about something other than postop n/v and therefore be sincere in their questions rather than pimp you and

b)you can say anything (within reason) and they can't catch you because technically, you know more than they do.

it's win win. just don't waste your own time with basic science/lab work garbage. unless that's your gig.

 

[secretasianman]

thx guys, that helps a lot 🙂.

 

[aredoubleyou]

the added benefit is that if they do ask about it on iterviews they will:

a)be interested to hear about something other than postop n/v and therefore be sincere in their questions rather than pimp you and

b)you can say anything (within reason) and they can't catch you because technically, you know more than they do.

That is the spoken Truth! Do research just to say you did it...plus it does help with a few places seemingly

 

[fuzzy_wuzzy]

No research is not needed even for the big name programs. While they would like you to do research cause it gives their school more prestige, the fact is that most graduates from big names are going into private practice cause the market is so lucrative. I'd concentrate on grades and esp boards. Top programs have a cut off for boards, stanford's i think was 236. Once you get into the interview, be sure to be enthusiastic have something to talk about other than anesthesia. For me that was about living overseas, photography, hiking and the outdoors in general.
good luck

 

[aredoubleyou]

No research is not needed even for the big name programs. While they would like you to do research cause it gives their school more prestige, the fact is that most graduates from big names are going into private practice cause the market is so lucrative. I'd concentrate on grades and esp boards. Top programs have a cut off for boards, stanford's i think was 236. Once you get into the interview, be sure to be enthusiastic have something to talk about other than anesthesia. For me that was about living overseas, photography, hiking and the outdoors in general.
good luck

Boards cutt-off of 236??? C'mon now...

 

[Trisomy13]

Boards cutt-off of 236??? C'mon now...

Seriously. I had some top interviews and my Step 1 was surely below any cutoff that is in place. I am convinced that my research experience (10+ publications, although mostly 2nd-3rd author) helped get my foot in the door at some places. none of it was anesthesia related. the idea is to have an understanding of the process of research. whether i would thrive in those programs is another story.

 

[iron]

In the Stanford Gas Pipeline newsletter, Dr. Pearl wrote the avg board score was 236. Granted, higher than the majority of programs can claim.

Research does give us something interesting to talk about. Programs like applicants who are motivated, organized, driven enough to do research (or other extensive extracurriculars) in addition to med school. I believe Trisomy 13 and I had a conversation about his research....

 

[Trisomy13]

In the Stanford Gas Pipeline newsletter, Dr. Pearl wrote the avg board score was 236. Granted, higher than the majority of programs can claim.

Research does give us something interesting to talk about. Programs like applicants who are motivated, organized, driven enough to do research (or other extensive extracurriculars) in addition to med school. I believe Trisomy 13 and I had a conversation about his research....

If you are at Stanford, we definitely did not have a conversation about anything. 😉

As far as research in general is concerned, I think it adds that extra dimension to an application, and appeals to a program looking to groom academic anesthesiologists, and we certainly need more of those.

If we did have a conversation, I'm sure I enjoyed it, because I can't say that I had any unpleasant interviews, which surprised me somewhat. I had heard some horror stories about pimping at some programs, but I thought the whole interview season was interesting, if not utterly exhausting.