Undergrad research on residency application

[MadRadLad]

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I was wondering how much this plays a role. I'll be an MS1 in a few days. In undergrad, I was a psych major and worked for 4 years at a cognitive psych lab. I got a few poster presentations and a talk out of it, and developed/ran my own experiment as an Honors thesis.

It's not exactly psychiatry research, but it did lead to my current interest in psychiatry/neuroscience (which I understand isn't a given that i'd go for psychiatry or neurology).

Is this something I can mention on ERAS? I expect research done in medical school will be weighted way higher, but could something like this help in demonstrating interest in the field? Also my med school doesn't have a psychiatry residency so wonder I may not be able to do as much research in the field, as i've heard students often can get more research opportunities with residents and faculty in those departments.

 

[slappy]

Yes, you will definitely mention it, and it'll most certainly help.

 

[MadRadLad]

Yes, you will definitely mention it, and it'll most certainly help.

Thank you

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

It would be hard to imagine a selection committee that would see your research as an undergrad and chastise you for including it. Med school research is obviously better, but your work was relevant to your interest in psychiatry and in my opinion this beats categorizing the frequency of different kinds of kidney stones, or looking at the types of wear seen on artificial joints. Unless of course, you want to pioneer your way into psycho-litho-urology or something.

 

[MadRadLad]

It would be hard to imagine a selection committee that would see your research as an undergrad and chastise you for including it. Med school research is obviously better, but your work was relevant to your interest in psychiatry and in my opinion this beats categorizing the frequency of different kinds of kidney stones, or looking at the types of wear seen on artificial joints. Unless of course, you want to pioneer your way into psycho-litho-urology or something.

Yea I didn't mean that it would be a bad thing to include, but I just wasn't sure if they would count it with any real weight. Although i'll have to consider psycho-litho-urology now that you mention it....

 

[psychattending]

I was wondering how much this plays a role. I'll be an MS1 in a few days. In undergrad, I was a psych major and worked for 4 years at a cognitive psych lab. I got a few poster presentations and a talk out of it, and developed/ran my own experiment as an Honors thesis.

It's not exactly psychiatry research, but it did lead to my current interest in psychiatry/neuroscience (which I understand isn't a given that i'd go for psychiatry or neurology).

Is this something I can mention on ERAS? I expect research done in medical school will be weighted way higher, but could something like this help in demonstrating interest in the field? Also my med school doesn't have a psychiatry residency so wonder I may not be able to do as much research in the field, as i've heard students often can get more research opportunities with residents and faculty in those departments.

You doing research as an undergrad will have minimal impact - one way or the other - on your application. I really do not expect you to know what you want to do when you are an undergrad. I will care much more about what you decide to do once you begin to see patients in your third year and how you perform in medical school.

 

[MadRadLad]

You doing research as an undergrad will have minimal impact - one way or the other - on your application. I really do not expect you to know what you want to do when you are an undergrad. I will care much more about what you decide to do once you begin to see patients in your third year and how you perform in medical school.

Appreciate the input. I figured that everything in med school is what actually matters, just wanted to see if undergrad research had any effect. Thank you!