Please before everything finalize the specialty of your choice! And if you find a research elective in the specialty of your choice, go for it e.g an elective in rheumatology wont be of any use if you plan to be an opthalmologist.... I personally believe on the basis of all the information I have that aresearch elective LOR from Opthalmology is way better than a clinical elective LOR from Rheumatology for getting into an Opthalmology program...

Whatever u get in the field of your interest....its better than anything else!

If its not in the field of your interest....then you can say clinical electives are a better option....

my preference order is different for different specialties...Always remember one simple thing in mind.......if there is no disadvantage of doing something then there is definitely some advantage of doing it........so those who sayresearch electives are of no use....dont listen to them...there is nothing like 'useless' in the world

You can go for research electives whenever you like.......from 1st till final year.....

Any question you ask regarding steps, electives, research etc.......its answer would depend on a simple fact... which specialty you want to pursue your medical career in....e.g clincal electives are always considered superior to research electives for surgery/medicine fields, however research electives carry far more weightage than clinical electives in feilds like Pathology, Radiology etc.

If its a clinical/ primary care field like medicine, family practice, surgery etc.

1. clinical electives in the specialty of your choice
2. research+ publications
3. research without publication
4. research elective

If the specialty of choice is a non-clinical specialty like Pathology, Radiology etc

1. research + publications
2. research without publications
3. research elective in the specialty of your choice
4. clinical elective

Some people think research electives gets visa with difficulty. Visa does not depend upon research elective but on the university you are going e.g John Hopkins never gets rejected and Albany, as far as I know, rarely gets accepted....

Duration is always adjustable....you can do it for 4-12 weeks but generally 8 weeks are recommended and 6 weeks are considered effective.

If you get a publication then they are better than anything else....even than most clinical electives....even if you dont get them there are two uses of them....first you establish faculty connections/contacts and second you get a good LOR which might be able to get you goodclinical electives later on when you apply in final year.


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