How Important Is Research For Admissions?

[PicardAndRoll]

A lot, average, a little?

My stating these relative states of importance, I mean with respect to making an applicant more favorable for acceptance.

Or, is it specific on the type of school? i.e, Stanford or something similar does a lot of research and they can respect an applicant's propensity to do research, even though they might not do research per se., and sees that quality as something that makes the applicant relate more to the institution...or on the flip side if you applyto a top primary care school they might not care as much about research and want to focus on the ECs and you as a person.

I ask because I have three legit projects/research work done so far(like ACTUALLY contributing in a lab and not wiping down experiment tables or cutting stuff open/grunt work). I enjoy it, and I would do it even if it didn't help my application. I was just trying to get a feel for how much my application could get augmented.

Thanks

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[Ace-Co-A]

Research is extremely important for admission to research-heavy medical schools. It is an expectation for the top-20/top-30 programs. Then again, they'll want to know that you got something out of it (even if that was not a publication in Nature), not that you just did it to check off the box.

Good luck to you.

 

[XmedBarney]

Depends on where you apply, if you're applying to a school focused on turning out primary care doctors for the community, not so much. If you're aiming for a school that prides itself on research, then it probably becomes a necessity.

 

[PicardAndRoll]

One research was explicitly molecular, the others were computational. The computational one was still biological in nature, though. I got a ton out of it. I traveled to three out of state conferences (one Ivy) and presented them, networked, and met some cool intellectuals. This had more of an academia feel than a medical one, but it was still great.

I still have some excess research stipend that is only allowed for travel, and I can probably squeeze out 2-3 more conferences, depending on how I budget.

So I guess respond to the question, "What did I get out of it?", I guess a lot. Obviously I would be more detailed and elaborate, but you get the gist of it.

 

[Lucca]

All of these things are good things but we cannot quantify "how much" it will help you.

 

[Served]

Your GPA, MCAT score, extracurricular, and research are like the 4 limbs of your body. Losing even one of them would be quite detrimental.

 

[NickNaylor]

It is helpful in all circumstances, but certainly not required. It also depends on what kind of med school you'd like to go to. If you want to go to one of the big names, then research is a near de facto requirement since these schools are focused on research. Even then, though, not having research isn't a deal breaker. You just need to have strong areas of your app that will "make up" for it, so to speak.


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[orangeman25]

Depends on where you apply, if you're applying to a school focused on turning out primary care doctors for the community, not so much. If you're aiming for a school that prides itself on research, then it probably becomes a necessity.

If you're applying to a school focused on turning out primary care doctors for the community, would doing research be a bad thing? Would they rather not see that?

 

[NickNaylor]

If you're applying to a school focused on turning out primary care doctors for the community, would doing research be a bad thing? Would they rather not see that?

It's not going to be a bad thing. This isn't a strict dichotomy. Good in one sense doesn't mean bad in another. Use your brain.


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[orangeman25]

It's not going to be a bad thing. This isn't a strict dichotomy. Good in one sense doesn't mean bad in another. Use your brain.


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I always figured that for such schools, you want to spend as much of your time doing community outreach or service projects. Because research is something they could care less about, it seemed to me that doing research "detracts" away from their mission.

 

[NickNaylor]

I always figured that for such schools, you want to spend as much of your time doing community outreach or service projects. Because research is something they could care less about, it seemed to me that doing research "detracts" away from their mission.

I disagree. I think you should do what you find most interesting and fulfilling. If that's research, great. If that's service or community outreach, great. The key is that whatever you decide to do you throw yourself into it. You must do it with excellence and be able to talk about it in an intelligent way in your interviews.

Your point just illustrates the fact that there are two sides to every coin. If you want to do research in the long-term and you demonstrate that with significant research experience, then yes, a school with a community focus likely won't accept you. But that makes sense... if a school doesn't have research as a focus and you do, why would you want to go there in the first place?

The fallacy is thinking you want or need to get accepted to every school. You don't, and you won't. Do the things in college you're interested in, do them well, talk about them intelligently, and you will be fine. Rather than trying to fulfill some magical non-existent checklist, focus on doing whatever you ARE doing to the best of your ability. That's what will serve you well.


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[XmedBarney]

If you're applying to a school focused on turning out primary care doctors for the community, would doing research be a bad thing? Would they rather not see that?

It's not bad in the sense they will mark you down for it, however, your time is limited so would another activity have more impact at such a school.

 

[The Buff OP]

What kind of research work are we talking about here?

 

[moop]

Use your brain.

 

[Redpancreas]

I applied to schools last cycle with a 34, 3.8 and superficial research (unmeaningful). I had just about very everything else...200+ clinical experience hours, 400+ TA and tutoring hours, unique ECs, 200+ non-clinical volunteering, and 100+ shadowing in 4+ specialties...I applied to UMich, UWisc, Boston, OHSU (that good one in Oregon) Cincinnati, Indiana, and Umiami as my highest. Wasn't touched by UMich (IS), rejected after interview at Boston where i was forced to give detail about my research experience, and not touched by Wisconsin. Accepted at Indiana and Cincinnati (as well as Wayne IS). Ignored by Miami and OHSU. As you can see, for the top 20-30, meaningful research seems to be almost a requirement like clinical experience for admission. Don't take my n=1 word for it though. Ask LizzyM, an adcom. She'll echo the sentiment saying that the top20-30 schools are ranked that way due to research funding influx so it would be perfectly logical to assume that they'd be looking for those with substantial research (she herself is an adcom at a top institution who looks at thousands of applicants and had to have a good understanding of how the competitors-other Highly ranked schools work). You'll occasionally here of the student who did it without research. Those students were probably excellent in another area. If you think about it, research is like an area of excellence. Doing clinical experience, shadowing, volunteering, teaching...those aren't areas that you excel in, they're areas more or less you can check a box in. Research, on the other hand takes dedication in order for it to be substantial. Therefore, quality of research experience is a very good metric for assessing medical
School applicants. I'm willing to bet that those who did it without research experience had some other achievement like being a college athlete, winning a prestigious award, etc. I had a completely different view on this throughout college and drifted away from research as it seemed to be a huge time consumer and I thought my time would be better spent elsewhere. That probably cost me but tbh I'm very happy with where I'll be this coming fall and it probably won't influence my ability to get my desired residency.

 

[PicardAndRoll]

What kind of research work are we talking about here?

I'm a pretty private individual, so I don't want to get found out, but I'll budge a little.

So far, it's Genetics and Molecular Biology (Proteins) from the perspective of computing, mathematics, and physics. Pretty much imagine a C/MATLAB/LabVIEW compiler analyzing data and equations that describe phenomena, and interpreting qualitative information based on the behavior of your models.

However, I'm kind of getting more interested in something that is purely molecular/chemical. I might make a transition soon.

 

[The Buff OP]

I'm a pretty private individual, so I don't want to get found out, but I'll budge a little.

So far, it's Genetics and Molecular Biology (Proteins) from the perspective of computing, mathematics, and physics. Pretty much imagine a C/MATLAB/LabVIEW compiler analyzing data and equations that describe phenomena, and interpreting qualitative information based on the behavior of your models.

However, I'm kind of getting more interested in something that is purely molecular/chemical. I might make a transition soon.

Would nutritional sciences and exercise science research also work?

 

[PicardAndRoll]

Would nutritional sciences and exercise science research also work?

Definitely. I think anything that displays your passion and contributes to the body of knowledge in society counts as viable research in my opinion.

 

[pyrrion89]

If you do research and can explain really well what you did, the experimental design, etc... and if you had a hand in designing the study, the data analysis, writing up the paper or doing a poster---these are all great things, and more important than what discipline it's in, what impact factor the journal is, etc., etc.