Seeking Advice: Is doing this research opportunity smart?

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Chunaldo

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Hi everyone,

I'm a first year almost entering the last summer vacation of my life. For a bit I've wanted to do ortho, and I've already applied to a summer research program at an ortho lab. However, my advisor has approached me to do a research fellowship this summer with her in immunology. My advisor has basically planned the summer for me and expects an abstract and hopefully publication (first author) to come from my time with her lab over the summer. My question is do I need to do ortho related research all throughout my medical school career if I end up applying for ortho residency? If I end up doing taking this immuno research fellowship, will i regret it in the future, assuming I have all the required test grades and likes?

I'm still relatively new to SDN, so please let me know if there's a specific forum I should be posting this is in... Thank you.

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I would say go to whichever lab can promise you the most pubs/abstracts in this summer and in the future. If both options are quite similar, go for ortho. Since ortho is very competitive, you want to really get to know an ortho doc for a good LOR and his/her professional networks. You don't need ortho pubs to go to ortho, any quality research is fine. Maybe later if you decide to do the immuno lab, you can sprinkle in a few easy ortho pubs in your M2/M3 year and you'll still be good.

Depends on your school's resources, but what you can also do is you can even do the immuno lab, and concurrently work on a chart review or case study for an ortho resident or attending. That way you have two projects going on at once, with the ortho one being much more flexible, while you commit full time to the immuno lab.
 
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Hi everyone,

I'm a first year almost entering the last summer vacation of my life. For a bit I've wanted to do ortho, and I've already applied to a summer research program at an ortho lab. However, my advisor has approached me to do a research fellowship this summer with her in immunology. My advisor has basically planned the summer for me and expects an abstract and hopefully publication (first author) to come from my time with her lab over the summer. My question is do I need to do ortho related research all throughout my medical school career if I end up applying for ortho residency? If I end up doing taking this immuno research fellowship, will i regret it in the future, assuming I have all the required test grades and likes?

I'm still relatively new to SDN, so please let me know if there's a specific forum I should be posting this is in... Thank you.

The whole "this is the last summer of your life" thing is overblown. In reality, anyone who's doing something competitive is going to be looking to jumpstart their application. Ortho related research is all ortho will care about. I mean other stuff may be looked at favorable too and add to your total pubs.

Is this Immunology person giving you a deadline to decide? When is it? Do you have any serious Ortho plans in hand? If not, just accept the Immuno gig for now and do Ortho stuff on the side. If a formal Ortho gig pops up drop the Immuno gig. You don't owe her anything.
 
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I would say go to whichever lab can promise you the most pubs/abstracts in this summer and in the future. If both options are quite similar, go for ortho. Since ortho is very competitive, you want to really get to know an ortho doc for a good LOR and his/her professional networks. You don't need ortho pubs to go to ortho, any quality research is fine. Maybe later if you decide to do the immuno lab, you can sprinkle in a few easy ortho pubs in your M2/M3 year and you'll still be good.

Depends on your school's resources, but what you can also do is you can even do the immuno lab, and concurrently work on a chart review or case study for an ortho resident or attending. That way you have two projects going on at once, with the ortho one being much more flexible, while you commit full time to the immuno lab.
This is news to me.
 
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