Thread: How do we get opportunities for Research?

Lately, I've been reading about research really giving an edge to those trying to obtain good residencies. Is this true?

Also, when do we get an opportunity for research? From my understanding, we don't get 2 months a year off like US students. So, where do people find the time?

Originally Posted by AUCDOCTOBE

Lately, I've been reading about research really giving an edge to those trying to obtain good residencies. Is this true?

Also, when do we get an opportunity for research? From my understanding, we don't get 2 months a year off like US students. So, where do people find the time?

Uh, I suppose I will field this one.

AUC has several opportunities for qualified students to perform research. Currently, the largest research group on campus is the Anatomy group which has near 20 active participants. Other opportunities exist in Micropbiology and Histology with Pathology as a possibility in the near future.

The research groups are in the process of uniting under one collective group, called the Clinical Research Society which will be offically running by the time September 2004 arrives for orientation (look for our booth at orientation!!!).

I am currently the president-elect for the Clinical Research Society and have been participating in performing cardiac research since the end of November, 2003 (my 1st semester). It has truly been a wonderful opportunity to perform clinically applicabble research and meet tons of intersting people (Anatomy group recently presented at the American Association of Clincal Anatomists in June, 2004 where we came away with two out of the three pre-graduate doctoral awards) and the microbiology group is looking at presenting at the American Society of Microbiologists' meeting in the near future.

As far as residencies, a number of contacts I made at the AACA Congress (who are MDs, PhDs, and generally people who are practicing and in a postion to assess candidates for residencies) stress the importance of research. While not having it won't necessarily hurt you, performing research and having publications will most assuredly set you apart from someone else with comparable Step scores but no research. As a future IMG graduate, I'll be happy to participate in anything that will set us apart from other foreign graduates.

I hope this helps!

Aloha,

I know this is a very old thread, but I can't find anything from the last 5 years on the topic. Does the Clinical Research Society still exist? What types of opportunities are there? Thanks.

I second this question.

The Clinical Research Society no longer exists (to my knowledge), but there are plenty of opportunities in the Microbiology, Pathology, and MCB departments and possibly others. Just approach one of the professors and ask him/her if there are any open research positions for you. I've heard that the symposium is going on this week, which is a good opportunity to see the projects, many of which are on-going.

I know there are opportunities while you are on the island to do research but I am not that familiar with them. Best advice is to talk to professors down there and ask them if they do anything or if they know anyone who does. There are opportunities during 3rd and 4th years to get involved with research depending on where you rotate. There were many people who did poster projects for both my 3rd and 4th years. Again, you just have to ask around when you get to that point to see if anyone is doing anything. It certainly won't hurt your application, but it is far less important for IMGs than it is for US grads that are trying for highly competitive residencies.

i did 4 semesters of research while on the island with the micro department. at the end earning 2 honors hours of undergraduate research on my transcript. i was asked about the research on 75% of my interviews. the program directors seemed to like it, as many US students you are going up against have done research throughout med school.... if you can get into research at auc i think its worth it, looking back now im glad i did it.

like people on here have said just approach professor and ask but make sure they agree to the honors credits so you arent doing it for nothing

I've heard that the symposium is going on this week, which is a good opportunity to see the projects, many of which are on-going.

If you want to do some research, then i would tell you that Google it, because most of the people get some best result...

Wait till you get to clinicals, try to do all your cores under one roof- research takes time. Then start bugging people.