Time to link up again! Head over to Your Doctor's Wife if you are on the hunt for more fabulous medical related blogs to read.
I'm still partially recovering from the reality slap of a meeting I had with my advisor for OBGyn the other day. I met with him to discuss what kind of candidate I am for applying to OBGyn residency, what I should do to make myself more competitive (especially because I'll be couples-matching), etc. Unfortunately, I have a lot of work to do. He said my scores and such are good, however, I am seriously lacking in the extra-curricular/research section of my application. Compared to my classmates (who over-commit and spread themselves wayyy too thin, in my opinion), I look like a slacker. Womp womp. I am just the type of person who is "all or nothing". If I commit to something, I go full-force, gung-ho. That's why I don't commit to just anything.
So, as much as I thought I would never do research in med school, here I am looking for a project. I have never done research before, so I have no idea where to even start with anything! I think I've been so hesitant to do any research because I know I'm going to need a lot of hand-holding. I definitely need to come up with something that really interests me, though. If I have learned anything about myself, it's that I am capable of really hard work, but only when I'm extremely motivated.
I also think my advisor is sorta pushing me beyond where I really need to be as a candidate, because I think he wants me to just get in wherever I decide I want to go, easily. And that's okay. I need to be pushed sometimes. We all saw what happened when my advisor pushed me farther than I thought I could go when studying for boards...
Thanks for linking up with us at Medical Monday's. I am so glad you have found your niche, and hope that it all works out with the couples match.
ReplyDeleteI did one research project in medical school and it was on something I was super interested in. Otherwise it would have been like pulling teeth. It was tough to find an advisor, but worth it in the end. In fact, I think getting started was the worst part, then it got kind of fun and interesting. Good for you for getting stuff figured out. Good luck with the research and the match.
ReplyDeleteOK, so going back to the board scores, you did really well when you expected to do less. So... perhaps this will work out well too, hard to say. Commitment at the level you do is really commendable but it does drive most everything else out of your life for the duration.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about the research. Med students have so little time for research. Advisors know this and will typically give the projects with a known outcome to med students. Maybe you have to do a bench experiment or two but usually it's just some number-crunching and stats and writing it up. Simple. At least, that was my observation when I was in grad school for my PhD. And go straight for someone in Ob. If there is someone in pathology or a bench scientist doing molecular biology in anything Ob-related that would be a good thing too. You don't have to prove that you can do translational basic:clinical science unless you're an MD/PhD. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI guess better now than 6 months from now! I've been thinking about doing this type of meeting myself just to see...
ReplyDeleteMost of my classmates don't really do ANY extra-curriculars. Oh shoot, is this bad? If they do something, it's completely meaningless - like participate on a dance team or play guitar, art, or something like that. Not to say that they're meaningless, but not as "sciency" as research...
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