What to do in the summer after M1?!? Please help!

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surfdevl02

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This question is for everyone but mostly for those who have matched....does doing research or an internship the summer after your M1 year greatly increase your competitiveness for residency programs your 4th year or is it just something gunners do? My heart tells me to just go work as a camp counselor this summer and enjoy the lake and outdoors but seeing that i love orthopedics, i'm afraid that a "wasted" summer will make me less competitive for such a coveted spot. When interviewing applicants do they place a lot of emphasis on how you spent your summers??? Sorry, i'm really not neurotic, just a bit confused with the summer coming so soon! Thanks everyone...

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hey gunner, what's up?

i bet you've already pre-read for ihc selective this wed, too... :D

sorry to hijack your thread, but i couldn't pass up this opportunity to antagonize you.

you may all carry on now.
 
I'd do research. My school required a preceptorship (like an internship) with a primary care doc, but I also went ahead and worked on two research projects. Happy I did, since I've since presented them at conferences, made posters and both are in the process of being published.

WELL worth it, IMHO, if you're considering a competitive residency.
 
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Is there a sports doc or a primary care doc at the camp? Perhaps you can shadow that doc? - somehow relate it to sports?

if not, just split the summer in half. You'll burn out if you work all through the summer then go straight to second year. It's your only free summer for a while.

My school has a research requirement - so many of us actually got work study grants for doing research during that summer -> then went on vacation with that money.

You can also find research projects in nice tropical locations - like Hawaii, florida, or california. So you get a vacation and research at the same time. My sister did a month of research at Stanford. She loved the experience. It may be a bit late for many of the applications though - you would need to use your network to find a good project.
 
surfdevl02 said:
This question is for everyone but mostly for those who have matched....does doing research or an internship the summer after your M1 year greatly increase your competitiveness for residency programs your 4th year or is it just something gunners do? My heart tells me to just go work as a camp counselor this summer and enjoy the lake and outdoors but seeing that i love orthopedics, i'm afraid that a "wasted" summer will make me less competitive for such a coveted spot. When interviewing applicants do they place a lot of emphasis on how you spent your summers??? Sorry, i'm really not neurotic, just a bit confused with the summer coming so soon! Thanks everyone...

If you are seriously considering orthopedic surgery, doing a summer research project would be a great idea. But don't forget to ace Step 1, oh.. and how good were your MCAT scores? SAT scores? How many times were you "student of the month"? Just kidding. But in actuality, from what I've heard through MS4s is that due to the high quality of applicant, ortho residencies are needing more and more to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff, so to speak. Doing research, getting published, and presenting a poster in the field would all strengthen your app., not to mention hopefully get you a letter of rec. My school offers a medical student training program that awards training grants to MS1s during their "summer off" to conduct an original research project with faculty. At the time I thought I wanted to go into Oto (I must have been crazy), so I did my research project in that field and it was a great experience none the less. Now I am all the more wiser. Important to note that my research did not consume my entire summer, which was a concern of mine. I ended up taking half of the summer off to get married and go on a honeymoon. :D
 
dude. shut up. get married. get laid.
 
My advice for summer is do absolutely positively NOTHING! Nothing school related: travel, have fun, get a life for the summer cause you ain't never gonna have one again!
 
I think you should take your girlfriend on a nice romantic trip. You would get to relax and she would love it!
 
yeah, i heard the nih is a great experience. also howard hughes.

but, if you want to stay at your home school, you should prolly do research there for networking purposes
 
I would do a chill research project (where you can still go out every night but roll into work) or community service project. Residency programs will notice. Don't stress in what field because it's the research opportunity that shows up. You need stuff to put on your residency application. Trust me.
 
is it impossible to be involved in research, shadowing or communtiy service during M1??
 
How easy is it to get "published" (that is your name on the paper when it is really mostly the doc/PI whose work it is) in a summer that is only 9 weeks long? I mean in all seriousness, if you're getting something published in 9 weeks you must be just short of God's gift to the planet. I spent 6 months in research prior to starting med school and didn't get the damn experiment off the ground.

Also does it matter if the research is clinical or basic-laboratory? Does it matter where you do the research, if you want to go someplace else to do residency?
 
DukeBluDevl02 said:
How easy is it to get "published" (that is your name on the paper when it is really mostly the doc/PI whose work it is) in a summer that is only 9 weeks long?

Simple. You start working on the project that summer, and continue throughout second (and third, if necessary) year.
 
Be sure to have some fun. I did research during my free summer. It was a great expereince. It may help you blah blah blah but be sure to plan in some down time and fun stuff to recharge for second year.
:p
 
docmemi said:
is it impossible to be involved in research, shadowing or communtiy service during M1??


Research is probably hard during the year, but community service and the occasional shadowing day are really doable. Lots of our student orgs are service-based; we have a whole host of free clinics that students get to volunteer at, for example. And there are lots of docs excited about having a student shadow; I've shadowed three docs this year, and I have a classmate who is in the ER like once a week to shadow, so it's basically whatever you want to do as an M1, they'll let you. At least @ UW.
 
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