I know that publications from undergrad don't matter as much to residency applications as those from medical schoool. If I publish a paper during medical school, but it is the culmination of bench work done during a gap year, would it count in the same way a undergrad pub would or the way a medical school pub would? I will be at a different institution for med school than the one I did the research at during the gap year. Aditionally, I'm not quite sure when everyone will have their final pieces together for me to add to the manuscript, so it could be published anywhere from the first couple months of MS1 to the end of that year.
Weigt of paper under these circumstances
- Thread starter alt91119
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I personally think that this is BS. I know somebody who took a gap year doing neurosurgery research BEFORE medical school and ended up with 15 papers. The fact that he only got one during med school didn't stop him from rocking the match (he had below average board scores but matched at a top academic place) and his research CV looks way stronger than someone's who got 5 during medical school. I've asked the residency directors of neurosurg and ENT about this at my school and they both told me that pubs are pubs regardless of when you got them (they mentioned that they often can't even tell if it was done in undergrad because so many people are non-trads or with multiple research years). If you're a non-trad with 10 papers that are 10 years old and you take a gap year without any productivity whatsoever yeah then maybe it wouldn't look good. But if you rocked it in undergrad (or a master's program) and then follow-up with at least something during medical school (letters from specialty-specific research mentors are probably even more important here) then your pubs are going to be a big plus for you regardless of the year that they were published online. Peer-reviewed publications aren't magically worth less the second you step foot in med school.
