What is my plan of action?

[JASS92]

Good evening, 

I am new to this board and would like some input from those with more experience. I am currently an M3 at a low-mid tier state school with no home program. I came into medical school married to ENT, however after scrubbing into some neurosurgical procedures and attending clinic, I think I am really starting to catch the bug. 

I was fortunate enough to score a 259 on Step 1 and receives honors commendation in years 1 and 2. I will hopefully be nominated for AOA and perform well on Step 2 as well. 

I currently have only 2 publications: 1 ENT case series in a high impact ENT journal, and 1 neurosurgery literature review in a low impact IM journal. In all honesty, I do not anticipate being able to be very productive with regards to publishing during this academic year, as I am focusing primarily on my clerkships.

So, if I do intend on applying neurosurgery, what is my most appropriate course of action? Should I take a research year? What if I want to aim my sights on a highly ranked program? 

I really appreciate any and all input. Thank you very much for your time everyone. 

Kind Regards, 

JASS92

[Guest]

Take a look at charting outcomes of that match 2016 (the 2018 version is supposed to be released this summer). Neurosurgery average is 249 on step 1. Abstracts, presentations, and publications is 13.4. For each of those projects if you presented them at your home institution and at a national conference, that would give you 4 research experiences + 2 publications. Work on another project during 3rd year and that would give you 3 more experiences bringing you to 9 total. That's a pretty good number.

Even if you didn't do research at all in 3rd year, you will likely still match somewhere, but probably not at a big academic research powerhouse. If you have your sights on big name programs, you will likely need more research. Google some programs and search their resident's names on pubmed and see how many publications they had.

Because you don't have a home program, call up a program near you that does. Set up a time to go talk with their program director and lay out your application and ask for specific advice. That person will help you decide where to do you away rotations and if a gap year is a good idea for you or not.

[Guest]

You don't need to take a year off. You're fine.

Research is much more important than clinical grades. I'm not saying lose your AOA status, but I'd prioritize adding a couple more papers over an OBGYN honors.