Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

2Nd Year Pre-Clerkship- Research During School


Recommended Posts

so as the title suggests, I am hoping for some opinions about the following 4 options:

 

a) doing data entry type research - ~5hrs/week - with research group not medically oriented - more social science

 

B) doing basic science research - not sure what the expectations will be in terms of hours/wk committment, but I mean, considering all the years of 'basic science research - cells/mouse model' I did in undergrad and no publication, I can foresee the same happening again - where nothing really comes off it... other than some more experience doing cell cultures and pipetting >_<..

 

c) try to find someone doing clinical research and join that?

 

d) do no research during the school year, and do it in the summer after 2nd year

 

I am not leaning towards d too much because a) I didn't do any research after 1st year summer, needed some time off for personal reasons, so I feel like since research has become a semi-mandatory part of Carms, I need to have a chance to get something done, and it seems more likely I will have success if I start now, and end by the summer after 2nd year. Also, I don't want my whole summer after 2nd year to go towards research, I want some time to do some electives in community-based settings before clerkship starts.

 

I realize it seems c is the best option to go for, but what if c doesn't work out..i.e. I can't find someone willing to take me on during the school year, which one would be next best?

 

also - for those who have done research during med school year - any guides on what's a good number of hours that's not too much, but manageable? 8hrs/week?

 

thanks :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's not clear from your post what your aim is in doing research. Do you have fields of particular interest? If so, you should try to set up research/electives in those areas. Research in itself not a necessary tickbox in CaRMS, and at this point in medical school, unlikely to be of significant benefit if in an area completely unrelated to what you are interested in (which is a different scenario than if you were not sure about a field, and research was part of that exploration). Exception is if you are going to get rigorous training in research skills that would be transferable, but I'm not picking that up here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like research is a tickbox for Carms - having attended enough talks about different residencies, .. as well as just keeping up my research skills which I built in undergrad, since a lot of residency programs require completion of a research project.

 

Going through different PI research profiles - I don't seem to be drawn to any specific one >_< :/

 

-I am tbh interested most in family medicine at this point.

 

 

It's not clear from your post what your aim is in doing research. Do you have fields of particular interest? If so, you should try to set up research/electives in those areas. Research in itself not a necessary tickbox in CaRMS, and at this point in medical school, unlikely to be of significant benefit if in an area completely unrelated to what you are interested in (which is a different scenario than if you were not sure about a field, and research was part of that exploration). Exception is if you are going to get rigorous training in research skills that would be transferable, but I'm not picking that up here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like research is a tickbox for Carms - having attended enough talks about different residencies, .. as well as just keeping up my research skills which I built in undergrad, since a lot of residency programs require completion of a research project.

 

Going through different PI research profiles - I don't seem to be drawn to any specific one >_< :/

 

-I am tbh interested most in family medicine at this point.

 

So despite what you might hear at talks, research is not simply a tickbox for CaRMS, at least not in the way you've described. It's one of the few pre-clerkship activities that can have any meaningful impact on CaRMS applications, which is why it so frequently gets mentioned, but that's more a reflection on the minimal value of alternatives than on the value of research. More than a few programs do not consider research at all, or at least consider it with such little emphasis that those without research are not at a significant disadvantage. Family medicine definitely qualifies here - going out of your way to do research is not going to help you much, if at all, in getting your desired program in Family Medicine. Better to show an interest in family medicine in any capacity - research, outreach, education, etc - than to simply dive into any sort of research just because it's research.

 

For more competitive programs that really care about research, a token effort to say you've done some research is better than nothing, but won't make as much of a difference as you're implying. Those programs will typically consider the relevance of your research to their specialty or, as Lactic Folly says, whether you bring meaningful research skills to the table. Finding a project that fits those criteria would require a bit more consideration than choosing between the options you've presented.

 

Anyway, if you're interested in doing research during the school year, hopping onto a clinical research project is probably going to have the greatest upside, but it really depends on the project itself. Avoid pure data entry roles, anyone can do that and it says nothing about your abilities. Bottom line is go with projects that interest you, not just projects that you think make your CV better (because they probably won't make your CV that much better anyway). In terms of the time commitment, that depends entirely on how much time you have available. I probably spent about 8 hrs/week on research this past year, but also spent a lot of time on other extra-curricular activities, so I suppose I could have spent more time on research without those other commitments. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like research is a tickbox for Carms - having attended enough talks about different residencies, .. as well as just keeping up my research skills which I built in undergrad, since a lot of residency programs require completion of a research project.

 

Going through different PI research profiles - I don't seem to be drawn to any specific one >_< :/

 

-I am tbh interested most in family medicine at this point.

 

You want family med and you are not drawn to any particular research, that's one of the best positions to be in. Keep calm and carry on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...