What should I be doing in the first 6 months of medical school to set myself up for a competitive match

[CatDad26]

Wondering things like how soon should I be starting research?
What groups should I be joining?
Should I jump immediately into shadowing?
etc etc

Starting August 2022 at either BUSM or Sinai and looking to match ENT or Plastics

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[bGMx]

I would say all of the above. Shadowing for sure though, not only in your specialty of interest but also in the opposite of your specialty of interest so that you can see what you don't know you might like.

 

[2020NonTrad]

Make sure you get your studying techniques down and don't take on too much until you are familiar with how much you can handle. Taking on a project or jumping into group leadership that early will probably have minimal impact on an application, but doing poorly in a class could be a major negative impact on an application.

 

[aldol16]

Set yourself up academically. Step 1 may be P/F for you but Step 1 sets a good foundation for Step 2. Medicine tends to be cumulative such that those who build a strong foundation academically early on tend to do better later on as well. Step 2 will be the primary determinant for competitive specialties in the years to come (in terms of comparing applicants anyway).

Get into research and networking with those departments as soon as you are able without sacrificing academics. Better to get started earlier so you should try to figure out which one of those specialties you're more into. Shadow surgeons and see what you're more interested in. Then do research in that specialty. Alternatively could do research in both specialties until you decide but you're halving your productivity. Network, network, network. Could not emphasize that enough for competitive specialties.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

1st semester just do you. Get used to medical school while getting accustomed to your study habits and how you learn best. You don't want to over extend yourself right away and get overwhelmed. I've seen it happy to too many people... Once you feel good about all of this and you have a solid plan for tackling medical school then pursue outside connections which are either through research or shadowing. Research being more important.