Hey—congrats on starting med school this fall. That’s a huge milestone, and the fact that you’re already thinking this intentionally about research tells me you’re bringing real thoughtfulness to the process.
You’re asking a really common but important question: how specific should you be this early on? Here’s the short answer—early research is less about locking in a specialty and more about learning how to think, collaborate, and contribute in a meaningful way.
If you are drawn to gen peds, that alone gives you a wide range of entry points—neonatology, adolescent med, peds cards, heme/onc, or even broader public health angles. It is completely valid to start somewhere general while keeping the door open for more targeted opportunities later.
Let me offer a reframing question that might help:
What would make a research experience feel genuinely worthwhile to you, even if your specialty preference shifts over time? Is it the mentorship, the topic, the patient population, or something else?
If you start by optimizing for growth, support, and skill-building, then you will be in a much stronger position to say yes to more aligned opportunities when they show up in your second or third year.
Also—no one is evaluating you based on whether your M1 project perfectly matches your eventual residency path. What stands out is consistency, reflection, and the ability to tell a clear story about how your thinking evolved. I’ve seen students match into competitive subspecialties with zero initial alignment, simply because they picked strong mentors early and stayed curious throughout.
So yes—if a peds cards project comes along, go for it. But if it does not, something in gen peds or adjacent areas is absolutely a smart and strategic move right now. You are not behind, and you are not going to “waste” time by exploring broadly. You are building a foundation.
Let me know if can help any further. You are asking the right questions—and that’s going to serve you well.
