Two Year "Gap" in Medical School

[Perfect Hair Day]

Aloha Folks

I have a half-hypothetical question and would love some meaningful input on this.

I am in a 5 year MD/MBA program, in which following the 3rd year of medical school I take a year off to do a 1-year accelerated MBA w/ an emphasis on health sector management.

Recently, an opportunity has a arisen to conduct research in EM for one year on a full-time basis, paid, and guaranteed first authorship for a number of projects. (It's something akin to a department research coordinator, working on multiple different projects with a number of PIs in the department.) Incidentally, this opportunity is at one of my top choice programs as it is close to home.

I would love to be able to do research for a whole year, get paid for it, and be closer to home for a while before I apply to residency, knowing that my application may not help me get close to home (home is a competitive location) as I have a red flag.

This would essentially leave me with a two-year gap before I enter my 4th year of school. Given how this time would be accounted for, will this be perceived as a red flag? I understand that research is not critical for applying to EM, but I think EM research is awesome.

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[surely]

Aloha Folks

I have a half-hypothetical question and would love some meaningful input on this.

I am in a 5 year MD/MBA program, in which following the 3rd year of medical school I take a year off to do a 1-year accelerated MBA w/ an emphasis on health sector management.

Recently, an opportunity has a arisen to conduct research in EM for one year on a full-time basis, paid, and guaranteed first authorship for a number of projects. (It's something akin to a department research coordinator, working on multiple different projects with a number of PIs in the department.) Incidentally, this opportunity is at one of my top choice programs as it is close to home.

I would love to be able to do research for a whole year, get paid for it, and be closer to home for a while before I apply to residency, knowing that my application may not help me get close to home (home is a competitive location) as I have a red flag.

This would essentially leave me with a two-year gap before I enter my 4th year of school. Given how this time would be accounted for, will this be perceived as a red flag? I understand that research is not critical for applying to EM, but I think EM research is awesome.

(Disclaimer, am an MS4 going through the residency application process right now.)

This research year sounds like something you genuinely really want to do. If that's true, I say do it, it is very unlikely to hurt your chances of matching!

Research years between second and third year can sometimes look like an "I needed extra time for Step 1" red flag. If your research year is between third and fourth year, that's not an issue.

This research year may not help you get into competitive programs, though, unless the rest of your application/stats is solid enough to warrant an interview from those places (aside from your red flag). And I guess there's a potential concern that programs with less emphasis on research might see your publications and think "this research-loving guy might not be happy here/would be a better fit elsewhere."

Also consider the time investment... If you're interested in a research-heavy career, the more traditional option would be to get involved in projects during 3rd year or your MBA year that continue into 4th year, then target research-heavy 4-year EM residencies. Hell, you can even forgo the research part during your third year/MBA year of medical school and still make it into research-heavy 4 year EM residencies. Same number of years as your plan, but you walk out having graduated from Program X, and you can more easily move into an academic job that prefers 4-year grads.

I know I went beyond the question you asked, but I hope it was a little helpful anyway.

 

[Perfect Hair Day]

(Disclaimer, am an MS4 going through the residency application process right now.)

This research year sounds like something you genuinely really want to do. If that's true, I say do it, it is very unlikely to hurt your chances of matching!

Research years between second and third year can sometimes look like an "I needed extra time for Step 1" red flag. If your research year is between third and fourth year, that's not an issue.

This research year may not help you get into competitive programs, though, unless the rest of your application/stats is solid enough to warrant an interview from those places (aside from your red flag). And I guess there's a potential concern that programs with less emphasis on research might see your publications and think "this research-loving guy might not be happy here/would be a better fit elsewhere."

Also consider the time investment... If you're interested in a research-heavy career, the more traditional option would be to get involved in projects during 3rd year or your MBA year that continue into 4th year, then target research-heavy 4-year EM residencies. Hell, you can even forgo the research part during your third year/MBA year of medical school and still make it into research-heavy 4 year EM residencies. Same number of years as your plan, but you walk out having graduated from Program X, and you can more easily move into an academic job that prefers 4-year grads.

I know I went beyond the question you asked, but I hope it was a little helpful anyway.

Well, sure, I should mention that I'm currently in my MBA courses, and that I've already completed my 3rd year; I was able to churn out one project (two presentations) in EM during third year, but not much more than that. I think this is a very cool opportunity to be able to do (if I'm offered the position!) but as a side-effect I would hope it could help mitigate the red flag (professionalism); I'm not expecting this to help secure interviews at the more competitive places, and I'd be just as happy getting out in the community anyway. At the very least I would hope it could help my odds at that institutions EM residency (1 year of close collaboration w/ ED faculty vs. 1 month rotation?).

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to respond. I'll probably take the job if it is offered to me