Publications

[Bluecolorisnice]

Are publications are necessary to be competitive for carms? Do number of papers matter or quality?

[ChemPetE]

For competitive specialties, yes to both. Intermediate and non competitive specialties, not really.

[anonymouspls]

23 minutes ago, ChemPetE said:

For competitive specialties, yes to both. Intermediate and non competitive specialties, not really.

 

What about specialties that were formerly competitive and are now starting to become less so? Like radiology for example. 

[ChemPetE]

Who knows on rads, it’s wavered up and down. Best is to ask one of them. Pubs never hurt though. 

[m_jacob_45]

6 hours ago, Bluecolorisnice said:

Are publications are necessary to be competitive for carms? Do number of papers matter or quality?

You'll get more talks about this in second year, but essentially they like to see that you have projects that have reached a point of completion (i.e. poster presentations, podium presentations, publications). That is much more impressive than having a larger number of projects on the go that do not reach an endpoint by the time you are applying for residency. So its definitely about quality/quantity/and seeing projects through to the end. 

[Edict]

5 hours ago, ysera said:

 

What about specialties that were formerly competitive and are now starting to become less so? Like radiology for example. 

You need to ask residents because this is often specialty and center dependent. If you are applying to a research heavy department, it often tends to be more important. I think research is probably especially important in radiology given how technology driven the specialty is. 

[Lactic Folly]

Think about how it might be possible to distinguish candidates on paper in a pass/fail system. If the program doesn't know you personally, they primarily just have your CV and your references, the latter not being entirely under your control. Some students might distinguish themselves through leadership, but this is not so common (leading an interest group isn't enough). Others show that they are very motivated and accomplished people through high research productivity (the more common route). A lot of the technology-focused radiology research occurs on the PhD side as high clinical demands mean that academic work is relegated to off hours for many MDs.

[Edict]

12 hours ago, Lactic Folly said:

Think about how it might be possible to distinguish candidates on paper in a pass/fail system. If the program doesn't know you personally, they primarily just have your CV and your references, the latter not being entirely under your control. Some students might distinguish themselves through leadership, but this is not so common (leading an interest group isn't enough). Others show that they are very motivated and accomplished people through high research productivity (the more common route). A lot of the technology-focused radiology research occurs on the PhD side as high clinical demands mean that academic work is relegated to off hours for many MDs.

Yes, its all about distinguishing yourself from the other candidates. If you want to match to your top choice, you want to be the person who's resume really pops out at the reader. They like to see people going above and beyond in resumes and this can come in the form of leadership, advocacy, research, teaching, innovation/enterpreneurship a combination of them. The other big side is of course networking, whether or not they know and like you, ref letters and electives, but don't underestimate the CV as well. 

A common mistake people do sometimes make is that they assume that if they just do all electives in one specialty, perform well on those electives and get decent reference letters, they will get into their top choices. This does work often, but if you want something competitive, you'll find that theres a lot of people who have the above and the way to really distinguish yourself is through the above.