Taking a research year

[serpinc1]

Hello everyone.

I would very much like to get some opinions on the matter of taking a research year during medical school.

I am a current OMS1 and I am continuing doing research from my Masters project along with my first year classes. I am finding it quite difficult to manage time between both commitments and fear it may get worse into the fall where the course load at my institution is higher.

I completed my Masters in Biochemistry (bioinformatics specifically) and was writing an algorithm for a publication where I would be first author (likely in a higher impact journal). In addition, I was offered to head statistical analysis for an upcoming clinical trial which will be published this year as well.

I don't want to lose the opportunity to complete these projects that I am very passionate about, but at the same time, I would be essentially be delaying graduation from medical school by a year. I understand there are opportunities to do research after graduation as well, but I feel I would miss the boat on some of these potential first author publications that I have already invested a lot of work into.

As of now, I feel I would regret the opportunity of not completing these projects and making a productive research year which would also involve international conference presentations. However, I feel as though insight from others who are perhaps free of any personal biases will help me make an informed decision.

I should add that I would also be getting paid during the research year. Additionally, my school does not have summers off, so this voids the opportunity of engaging in this research during that time.

I look forward to hearing your advice and experiences on this matter.

Thank you

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[sab3156]

Go for it if it's genuinely something you want to do. It sounds like a great opportunity and a great way to bolster your CV with high impact publications and probably an amazing way to network if there are big name physicians in whatever fields at these conferences.

 

[SurgDoc95]

I'd take a long hard look at whether or not these studies you're working on are going to net you many serious publications. Taking an entire year off of medical school means losing out on a year of attending's salary (200k+ for most fields). If you're interested heavily in academic medicine or something uber competitive it may be worth your time, but still something that needs to be carefully thought out. While you may be getting paid to do the research is it a substantial amount which cancels out the potential loss of the year of attending's salary? Sounds like a very good problem to have to be honest so congrats on your hard work so far!

Last point, give yourself a few months of classes to see how you are doing academically before committing to a research year.