Research as a Med Student

[bigchoader]

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Couple of Q's,

I am applying to med schools now for 2008 and I am thinking about doing research in my year off, I have a couple of questions about research as a med student.

1. When do med students do research.

2. Is having research experience a plus in trying to get into a well funded lab? In other words, is matching in a research lab of your choice (if that is even how it works) a competitive process (ie. because of grants and funding of a lab).

3. What is the purpose of med students doing research, from the students point of view? ie will it have an effect on residency matchings?

4. Do you do research as an intern? As a resident?

If I want to be proactive at becoming a successful med student in the future, will doing research now be condusive to this or a non-factor.

Thanks

 

[genX]

usually done during 1st and 2nd year although some people do take dedicated time off for research. Usually done by most students to make some connections in the fields they are interested in going into, helps build a better CV and also looks good for residency apps and gives you something interesting to talk about on the interview trail for residency.

 

[Law2Doc]

Couple of Q's,

I am applying to med schools now for 2008 and I am thinking about doing research in my year off, I have a couple of questions about research as a med student.

1. When do med students do research.

2. Is having research experience a plus in trying to get into a well funded lab? In other words, is matching in a research lab of your choice (if that is even how it works) a competitive process (ie. because of grants and funding of a lab).

3. What is the purpose of med students doing research, from the students point of view? ie will it have an effect on residency matchings?

4. Do you do research as an intern? As a resident?

If I want to be proactive at becoming a successful med student in the future, will doing research now be condusive to this or a non-factor.

Thanks

When you get to med school, see how your classes go. If you find you have extra time, you can find yourself a research project. Lots of people will spend the summer between first and second year researching. Some percentage of people will take off a year (usually after second year) to do research. There is no matching into labs and it is not a particularly competitive process. Your school probably has an office of student research that can direct you to possible PIs, and you send them your CV and get in touch with them and see if they have need for a researcher or a project you can jump on. (It's much easier to get research gigs as a med student than as an undergrad). Some of the more competitive residencies like to see research as a med student -- publications always look good on the CV.
I know residents who were doing research where I was, so yes, some residents in certain specialties continue to do research. A lot of residency programs expect you to do some research and present at national organization conventions -- makes the program look good. I'm sure publications continue to have import if you seek fellowships, or plan to go into academic medicine as well.

 

[Yehosh]

Couple of Q's,

I am applying to med schools now for 2008 and I am thinking about doing research in my year off, I have a couple of questions about research as a med student.

1. When do med students do research.

2. Is having research experience a plus in trying to get into a well funded lab? In other words, is matching in a research lab of your choice (if that is even how it works) a competitive process (ie. because of grants and funding of a lab).

3. What is the purpose of med students doing research, from the students point of view? ie will it have an effect on residency matchings?

4. Do you do research as an intern? As a resident?

If I want to be proactive at becoming a successful med student in the future, will doing research now be condusive to this or a non-factor.

Thanks

keep in mind that I'm only going into M1 this fall, so my answer may not be as qualified as one from someone already applying for residencies

1) It really depends on the school and the curriculum. But most schools I interviewed at give you time off between M1 and M2 and sometimes after M2. Once you start your clerkship phase and electives, there isn't that much time off for research.

2) From personal experience, getting into med school really helps land interesting research jobs. If you get into a med school that is research intensive and indicate your enrollment when you send you resume to lab/research director, it helps. If you're not enrolled yet and are applying, I'd say the most important thing would be experience related to that specific field. For example, if you've taken a lot of wet lab courses, I'm sure that'll help. If you did your undergrad in physics or biophysics, it'll be easy to find something in radiology and so on...

3) Good question. I'm currently trying to accomplish the following in my summer research job
a) Get exposed to this discipline of medicine (Diagnostic Radiology) so that I may have a better idea if this is something I want to pursue in the future
b) Add a strong research experience to my CV
c) Do something that interests me and utilizes my skills/experience

If I do end up applying to a residency in this field or something related to my work such as Cardio, it'll definitly make my application more competitive, so the answer is yes, it does affect residency matchings. If I apply for lets say... Derm, then I doubt it'll be of much help.

4) Not sure how this works for others, but I applied to do this as a volunteer although the research director was kind enough to provide me with minimal monetary compensation. If I do research next summer after M1, I plan on doing it through a studentship with funding.

 

[Law2Doc]

1) It really depends on the school and the curriculum. But most schools I interviewed at give you time off between M1 and M2 and sometimes after M2. Once you start your clerkship phase and electives, there isn't that much time off for research.

Just one caveat -- if you hope to publish, odds are much higher if you can give more time than just a 10-12 week summer. Particularly so if it's bench work. So if this is all the time you can spare and your desired residency expects research, you may have to consider taking a year off to do so. After M2 at most schools you will be studying for Step 1 and so most people won't do research during this summer (unless they are taking a year off).

 

[Yehosh]

a very good point which is why I'm debating between 2 studentship programs my school offers for M1-M2 students. The first one is a summer research studentship between M1 and M2 and the second one is 12 months where you spend the first 4 planning your research (jan-apr in M1) for 2-5 hrs a week, then the summer is fulltime and the last 4 months during M2 are used to complete the project and prepare any publications and/or presentations.

I'm not too happy about doing research while I have classes (too worried I'd pile too much on my plate) but I think the 12 months studentship has much more potential. I still don't even know for what field I want to apply to (thinking something in IM)

anyways Choader, I hope this kind of gives you a better idea of when/how med students can fit in research.

 

[TexasRose]

There are lots of ways to fit research into med school. A good bit of it depends on how your curriculum and schedule are set up. My school had lectures in the mornings with some afternoon group meetings during the preclinical years. This made it easier for some people to put in time in a lab or on a project at that time. We only had a 4 week summer between M1 & M2, so not much to work with there. However, our clinical years are more spread out than the traditional plan, so there's time in M3 & M4 to do some research.

Additionally, many schools have programs that allow you to extend med school for a year in order to do a dedicated research year, etc.

 

[Law2Doc]

Additionally, many schools have programs that allow you to extend med school for a year in order to do a dedicated research year, etc.

I'm pretty sure you can do this at most, if not all, med schools.

 

[SeminoleFan3]

Some med schools allow incoming first year students to get involved. For example, UK sent out an email to all incoming med students with a list of labs that were willing to take incoming students.

 

[Yehosh]

yeah, I know GW often does that for some students