Summer Research For Someone Who's Undecided On Specialty

[mulberry]

I'm in first year med and planning to apply for clinical research during the summer. I'm finding this hard because I don't know what specialty I want to go into. Does the research help with Carms only if it's in the same field as what you're applying to? Or is it more so the experience of doing research and having publications?

 

Thanks!

[medici]

Most don't care what kind of research you do. Unless you're an opthal gunner you'll be alright. I'm struggling with the same thing, switching back and forth between several specialties. Talked to a plastics program director and even he was like yea we don't expect med students to know what field they want to go into until clerkship.

[Lactic Folly]

Just pick something that interests you, with someone that you work well with. You can't really go wrong that way - either way, you'll learn more about what you like and what you don't like. For CaRMS, sometimes a supervisor might write something to the effect that so-and-so was great, and I wished he/she would apply to our specialty, but they have decided on x instead. This is also quite helpful.

[CharmingHedgehog]

Agreed with above. Find someone you can work well with and let you be involved in the project and hopefully publish. During interviews, you can talk about your research with enthusiasm.

For the specialties I applied for, they specifically wanted clinical letters, so didn't use my research letters at all

[Hockeynut]

How important is research after your first year? I've heard mixed things. 

[ralk]

How important is research after your first year? I've heard mixed things. 

 

Research can matter, particularly for competitive specialties, but it certainly doesn't have to be done in the first year summer break.

 

Summer research is helpful in that it can be a bit deeper and/or your role can be larger since you can devote all your time to the project, but that's not necessary for the vast majority of programs. A willingness to engage in research and some show of aptitude in the form of presentations/publications is about all most programs seem to be asking for. That can be done at any point in training, though it is arguably easier to do it in the summer.

 

I guess if you're going for a super-competitive specialty and have a particular preference for a competitive location, it's important, since it is arguably the most helpful thing you could do for your CaRMS applications. For the large majority of programs, however, it's not meaningful enough to matter - there are worthwhile alternatives in the summer to spend your time on (clinical electives, exchanges, travelling, playing video games in your underwear all summer) and there are other ways to get the research experience that helps for matching to many specialties. It's mostly a matter of personal preference - I chose to do summer research because I like research, I wasn't going to be able to go abroad for long, and I found a project I was particularly interested in. Others in my class, many of whom are looking at far more competitive specialties than me, didn't.

 

Long story short, research after first year can be helpful, but is far from necessary.