Research And Residency?

[intriguing]

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[Bambi]

I would think at this stage of the game, it is more about exploring your interests, while demonstrating interest in a field.

For the sake of your own mental health and the limited time you will have to relax in the future, I would encourage you to thoroughly enjoy your first summer and not even think about medicine. When I completed 2nd year, I devoted 3 weeks to doing a literature review of a topic of interest in a field about which I was passionate, I was published and gave a presentation to the annual meeting of specialists.

[ameltingbanana]

The above is very good advice, but do bear in mind that dermatology is one of those specialties that is hyper-competitive and it's not a bad idea to get involved with something from first year. It'll honestly be difficult for you to do research with a clinician at another school, depending on what the research is. I experienced this issue when I tried to work with someone at another school for chart review stuff, getting access was a huge hassle. But if you're doing a case report or something, it's not an issue really. If the non-dermatologist is still a clinician, e.g. internal medicine/onc or plastics or something, I'd say it's a pretty valuable experience still.

Definitely continue exploring fields though, you're pretty early on in medical school and won't be able to make an informed decision without experiencing other branches of medicine. Don't commit to dermatology in the 3rd month of med school!

[intriguing]

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