Research for residency?

[singularity2012]

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Hey guys,

I'm class of 2013 and was hoping I could get some insight from current med students.

I did 2.5 years of research in college, which resulted in a second-author publication. Having recently graduated, I am currently doing research for the year prior to entering med school, and my first-author manuscript was just accepted for publication.

Frankly, I detest research and would not want to do it as a physician unless the situation demanded it. I could list many reasons for this, but I don't want to turn this post into a novel. Let's just say that I'm this close to gouging out my eyeballs out with a 20ul pipettor. If I never step foot in lab (not counting class-related labs) at all in med school, will this affect my candidacy for competitive residencies (i.e. derm)? Does it matter that my research experience would be 4-6 years outdated by the time I enter the match process? In a nutshell, I've stuck with it for so long because I wanted to "get it over with" before med school.

 

[Scean]

Hey guys,

I'm class of 2013 and was hoping I could get some insight from current med students.

I did 2.5 years of research in college, which resulted in a second-author publication. Having recently graduated, I am currently doing research for the year prior to entering med school, and my first-author manuscript was just accepted for publication.

Frankly, I detest research and would not want to do it as a physician unless the situation demanded it. I could list many reasons for this, but I don't want to turn this post into a novel. Let's just say that I'm this close to gouging out my eyeballs out with a 20ul pipettor. If I never step foot in lab (not counting class-related labs) at all in med school, will this affect my candidacy for competitive residencies (i.e. derm)? Does it matter that my research experience would be 4-6 years outdated by the time I enter the match process? In a nutshell, I've stuck with it for so long because I wanted to "get it over with" before med school.

Are any of the pubs directly related to dermatology or in derm journals? I would think that could make a big difference.....

 

[TupacalipseT96]

Hey guys,

I'm class of 2013 and was hoping I could get some insight from current med students.

I did 2.5 years of research in college, which resulted in a second-author publication. Having recently graduated, I am currently doing research for the year prior to entering med school, and my first-author manuscript was just accepted for publication.

Frankly, I detest research and would not want to do it as a physician unless the situation demanded it. I could list many reasons for this, but I don't want to turn this post into a novel. Let's just say that I'm this close to gouging out my eyeballs out with a 20ul pipettor. If I never step foot in lab (not counting class-related labs) at all in med school, will this affect my candidacy for competitive residencies (i.e. derm)? Does it matter that my research experience would be 4-6 years outdated by the time I enter the match process? In a nutshell, I've stuck with it for so long because I wanted to "get it over with" before med school.

I'd like to hear other input about this too.
I'm in a similar situation (minus the awesome pubs - I managed to do research 25yrs/week for 2 years for terrible PI's).

I might suggest you find some sort of clinical research gig in med school. It would be a change of pace. And that way, you can still get a recent pub without having to ever touch another pipette or Western again.

Though I was reluctant to do clinical stuff until now, it seems like the better of two evils. And if you already have demonstrated merit in basic science research, the "con's" of clinical research as it relates to competitive residency applications probably become insignificant.

 

[Vonsmack]

If you are looking at those uber-competetive specialties (derm), you will probably have to do some more research in med school. It really all depends on the rest of your app- if your scores/grades/LORs are through the roof then maybe you could get by without. If you look at match statistics, those that matched in derm on average had >1 research experiences. Those experiences are probably mostly in med school and derm related.

Kudos for first author though, not many med students can say that. No research in med school may tell residencies that you don't like it (true) and that you won't want to dedicate time to research in residency (bad).