If you’ve completed research projects as a medical student, the hard part is over. Productively talking about that research in residency interviews, however, is the next step to improving your prospects of finding the right residency-program fit.
Charles Lopresto, DO, has extensive experience in research that dates to his time in medical school. He served on the editorial board of The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association and was editor for the journal’s medical student, resident and fellow section.
Dr. Lopresto, a hospitalist in New York and an AMA member, detailed how medical students can effectively showcase their research experiences during residency interviews, demonstrating both their expertise and their ability to communicate complex information succinctly. Here are some of Dr. Lopresto’s key tips.
The AMA helps medical students master the residency-application process so you can make the right decisions about your career, prepare for a knockout interview, explore residency opportunities—all so you can successfully match.
Know your research inside and out
You may be a few years removed from a project, but if you list it on your CV, be prepared to talk about it in depth. Students should be prepared to discuss design, results and next steps in a research project.
“When you're discussing your research experiences on a residency interview, It's important to first be prepared,” said Dr. Lopresto during an episode of the “Meet Your Match” series of the “AMA Making the Rounds” podcast. “You definitely want to know your research inside and out.”
You aren’t likely to get many in-depth questions, but you want to show that you have a good grasp of the topic and the process, Dr. Lopresto added.
“It's important that you're able to speak about your research in a competent way and be able to field questions if they arise,” he said.
Dive deeper:
- Medical student research FAQ: How to find projects, showcase your work
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Adapt to your audience
Each residency program and specialty has its own view on the importance of medical student research. You might not need to go too deep to make an impression, and if it seems that an interviewer isn’t that interested, then you should take that cue accordingly.
“People who are interviewing you for residency, most likely they're busy people in their own clinical lives, academic lives, and to be honest, they probably have not reviewed your particular application with as much detail as you might think,” Dr. Lopresto said.
“For the specific programs that are a little bit more research-heavy or are at institutions that expect you to do more research, perhaps be a little bit more prepared to answer all the fine-tooth details about your research,” he added. Generally speaking, it’s vital to “know the main points of your studies, know the main points of where you presented, why you presented, who you presented alongside and be able to speak about, perhaps, next steps that would be investigated in the research. That’s a common topic that comes up as somebody who might be interviewing you.”
Dive deeper:
- Meet your Match: Assessing program culture during virtual residency interviews
- Interviewing for physician residency programs
- Mastering M4: Top questions for your fourth year of medical school
- How to address a medical school misstep in residency interviews
- These are the interview questions M4s should prep for
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Be honest about your aims
If research is your passion and is a major fixture on your CV, let that also show in the way you speak about it. If a program doesn’t value the same things as you do, Dr. Lopresto said, it might not be a fit.
“It's important to be honest about your passions and desires and what you'd like to spend your time doing during your training with a program director,” Dr. Lopresto said. “This is what the interview process is about. Sometimes it's more of a conversation. You might learn that a program doesn't want you to be focusing on something that you're passionate about. And you learning that might change the way that you rank that program compared to other places.”
Don’t get too technical
Going too deep on your research might draw attention away from your other standout attributes as an applicant.
“You don't want to suck up all of your time in your interview focusing on the methods and the different statistical analyses of your research because that's going to take away from your other opportunities to shine as an applicant,” Dr. Lopresto said. “It's great to be able to show your prowess and understanding of research, and you might be someone who wants to …do research further in your career as a resident, but being a balanced applicant is, overall, a better strategy.”
