Research Inconsistent with PS

[thedude777]

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I'm an M1 so I'm not applying to residencies for some time, but I was just wondering whether it matters to residencies whether your research lines up with your personal statement. If I end up talking about an interest in a specific area of the specialty I want to go into but most of my research is in the same specialty but different areas, would this matter?

Although I know there's a chance it could still change, I entered medical school interested in psychiatry and after shadowing psychiatrists at my school, I am pretty set on it. Being interested in addiction is kind of what got me into psychiatry in the first place, so it's probably something that I would want to mention in my personal statement for "Why Psychiatry" and also discuss as a potential future sub-specialization. However, my school doesn't really have much research in addiction that I could find so I've mainly been focusing on other areas of psychiatry. I apologize as I know this question might be a bit neurotic and I'm probably overthinking, but this is just something I've kind of been concerned about recently and I just wanted to confirm whether this would really matter or not. Thanks!

 

[Oedipa Maas]

I'm an M1 so I'm not applying to residencies for some time, but I was just wondering whether it matters to residencies whether your research lines up with your personal statement. If I end up talking about an interest in a specific area of the specialty I want to go into but most of my research is in the same specialty but different areas, would this matter?

Although I know there's a chance it could still change, I entered medical school interested in psychiatry and after shadowing psychiatrists at my school, I am pretty set on it. Being interested in addiction is kind of what got me into psychiatry in the first place, so it's probably something that I would want to mention in my personal statement for "Why Psychiatry" and also discuss as a potential future sub-specialization. However, my school doesn't really have much research in addiction that I could find so I've mainly been focusing on other areas of psychiatry. I apologize as I know this question might be a bit neurotic and I'm probably overthinking, but this is just something I've kind of been concerned about recently and I just wanted to confirm whether this would really matter or not. Thanks!

You’re fine. I matched psych with research in surgery. If the story you are going with in your PS is addiction, stay with it. Don’t try to convolute and dilute the theme by adding every psych related thing you have done, they will see it on your CV/experiences section anyway. If your research fits into the PS, it fits. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

 

[thedude777]

Thank you for the advice!

 

[Tenk]

Addiction has ties to almost every specialty and physicians themselves. You’re fine.

 

[thedude777]

Thanks!

 

[Dr G Oogle]

Research is research. Caveat is if you did like years of ortho research and then are applying to obgyn or gen surgery without explaining transition and a board score of 220, then it just looks like a fall back