How important is research experience to med schools?

[the Undergrad]

What IF I have no research experiece by the time I apply to med schools?

What IF I have a hospital volunteer experience, a decent GPA, and a competitive MCAT score, but no research experience whatsoever?

Am I screwed?

Once again, really important question for me, so be serious

Thank you.

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[UCLAMAN]

You are soooo skarewed!!!!

Hehe...

ok Seriously...no, you are not screwed. Research is not a necessity. Furthermore, it also depends on the schools you are looking at. A heavy research school like Stanford grilled me on my research experience. A clinically oriented school like Oregon Health Sciences really didn't care much about my research and even told me that they felt shadowing was a very important thing to do.

And even if you don't have research you can still get into research heavy schools like ucsf etc. When applying don't think in terms of I need to do this because everyone has it and it will get me into medical school. Think in terms of I want to do this because I personally think it is cool and giving it my all will lead to goood things. The things you like to do are the things that will better set you apart from applicants.

With that said...a lot of people like research and often work on a topic they are really interested in. But if you aren't into it then don't do it. Spend your time doing something you enjoy. You will get much more out of your activities that way.

 

[weirdo700]

Research is definitely not a necessity but it helps, especially when you talk to interviewers that are more inclined towards research more than the clinical side of medicine. But strong clinical experience can also work in a similar way. You seem to convey confidence in your numbers, and that in addition to some unique personal experiences (anything outside of medicine that makes you valuable to a medical school class) and a strong personal statement should get you some interviews. Oh and when you say you have one "hospital experience," I hope that experience was a very good one, because a half-hearted clinical experience doesn't really impress clinicians or other people. Believe me once you get to an interview you are going to realize that the people sitting right across from you have very amazing experiences, and numbers as well. I've seen some people raise a family, go to third world countries, applicants with PhDs, and people writing for popular publications. Similar to UCLAman, my only advice is to not do something because it sounds like something good for an application, but because you have a genuine interest. Admission Committees are good at discriminating between who is genuinely passionate about their work or the tool that is doing stuff to get into medical school. Good luck

 

[kreno]

I got into a few research driven schools, and I have virtually no science research under my belt. But remember, other types of research are also worth something... sociology, surveys, etc.

kreno