Summer after first year by residency

[cryhavoc]

So, let us say you are a B student in medical school. You are too poor to go travel overseas and research bores you to tears.

Everyone says you have to use your last summer productively to pad your resume. But you just want to relax with family, do some volunteering in the community and maybe study a bit.

Is this adequate for the following residencies: Neurology, Psychiatry, Internal medicine and Emergency medicine.

Which of these will not doing something amazing over the summer hurt one's chances at? Which does it not matter what you do over the summer?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[IH8ColdWeath3r]

So, let us say you are a B student in medical school. You are too poor to go travel overseas and research bores you to tears.

Everyone says you have to use your last summer productively to pad your resume. But you just want to relax with family, do some volunteering in the community and maybe study a bit.

Is this adequate for the following residencies: Neurology, Psychiatry, Internal medicine and Emergency medicine.

Which of these will not doing something amazing over the summer hurt one's chances at? Which does it not matter what you do over the summer?

You can't be serious.

 

[Brorthopedic]

As long as you crush your boards and have decent interpersonal skills, you'll be more than fine for those specialties

 

[cryhavoc]

You can't be serious.

I'm confused. You can't be serious could be addressing several parts of my post. As I'm entirely ignorant on the topic, I'm thinking:

Negative:
1) A B student has no chance at specializing.
2) You have to do research your last summer.

Positive:
3) I'm being neurotic, and can get away with volunteering alone.

Please speak plainly. I've been told so many different things on the topic by fellow students from "I'm sitting next to the pool, no big deal" to "if you don't do XYZ, your only shot is family medicine".

Thanks. As I'm interested in all of those specialties and haven't decided yet, I included them, as I know some are more competitive than other.

 

[cryhavoc]

As long as you crush your boards and have decent interpersonal skills, you'll be more than fine for those specialties

I was under the impression that one needed average to slightly above average board scores to do IM or psychiatry. So is a meaningful summer really the tipping point enough that you'd have to crush boards?

Honestly, I'd love to travel somewhere for a few weeks and help out but I seem to be $2000-3000 dollars short in my budget to do anything of the sort, and everyone in my family is just as poor as me.

I'm very nervous about doing the wrong thing with my time in school and need guidance. But I also would like to spend time with family. I have several relatives who are very old and I would really like to spend time with them this summer. I'm very close to my family and haven't seen any of them except for major holidays. But I also don't want to ruin my chances by not having an amazing summer resume.

 

[Brorthopedic]

I was under the impression that one needed average to slightly above average board scores to do IM or psychiatry. So is a meaningful summer really the tipping point enough that you'd have to crush boards?

Honestly, I'd love to travel somewhere for a few weeks and help out but I seem to be $2000-3000 dollars short in my budget to do anything of the sort, and everyone in my family is just as poor as me.

I'm very nervous about doing the wrong thing with my time in school and need guidance. But I also would like to spend time with family. I have several relatives who are very old and I would really like to spend time with them this summer. I'm very close to my family and haven't seen any of them except for major holidays. But I also don't want to ruin my chances by not having an amazing summer resume.

You don't really need research for Psych or IM, an average board score will be fine. Unless of course you're trying to land an IM residency at a strong academic institution (with strong fellowship opportunities), then you'll need a high board score and possibly research.

A strong board score and no research will almost always beat out a sub-avg board score and research. Obviously this doesn't apply to competitive specialties where everyone applying has a strong board score, then the differentiating factor would be research/LORs/etc.

 

[cryhavoc]

Thank you so much. I will do my best regardless at boards, continue to volunteer because I like it, etc. but knowing how things actually work gives me some peace of mind. I will probably volunteer a lot in my hometown this summer and use the free time to spend time with grandparents and various family that I've been missing.

 

[IH8ColdWeath3r]

Although Emergency Medicine is getting pretty competitive, I wouldn't say that neurology, psych, and IM are super competitive. They are very middle of the road in terms of "competitiveness". I would say that psych is on the uptick as more people have shown interest in going into psych, but wouldn't put it in the category of competitive.

When you say competitive, I think of things like Optho, Ortho, Urology, Derm, etc. Everything else is very much within reach, especially the things you listed. Also, research is in no way an issue. With a decent board score and good clinical grades, you can land interviews at great institutions...I'm talking large academic centers with fellowship opportunities. I know three good friends of mine, all DO, two who had mediocre board scores and with below average board scores who interviewed at some reputable programs and they all got 10+ interviews this cycle. None had research nor stellar pre-clinical grades.

Point being, enjoy your last summer before a slew of board exams begin. Take time to relax, binge watch a couple of shows. Doing X volunteer activity, or a month or two of anatomy TA over the summer, or a brief summer research stint isn't going to be the deal breaker in regards to matching, or "ending up in family med" (I feel bad our family med colleagues always have to hear this dribble all the time). Getting into residency has much more to do with your clinical grades and how you interact with others during away rotations and interviews than what you do over a 2 month summer.

 

[IslandStyle808]

I've read the forums for years and you pretty much build up enough of a sample size to know what helps with residency and what doesn't. What I have seen is that the only things that helps for the summer is research, if you don't like it then go on a vacation. There is nothing that will be significant enough in the summer to do that will help your residency application, besides research. If you like volunteering then do it, but don't think this will give you a dramatic boost to your application for residency.