Am I focusing too much on research for MD application?

[cheerios123]

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Hi I am a rising sophomore in college. I worked in a research lab for my freshman year and I am working there full time during this summer. I recently finished writing a manuscript, and I will send it to a journal by the end of this month; I will be first-author. I am starting 2 more independent projects, and this will take 12 hours/week during my sophomore year. I have also put a lot of time into tutoring and making a tutoring program at a school with a non-profit. For clinical exp, I am only volunteering 4 hours/week at a hospital. I feel that I am not spending enough time on clinical experience because I am so passionate about research and working on tutoring programs. What do you people recommend? I don't want the absence of good clinical exp ruin an app. I'm just trying to plan ahead so I can get some good experiences before I apply to med school.

 

[Dox4lyfe]

As long as you can handle it all, you're fine!

 

[cheerios123]

That's true. But is research really that important for MD? I feel that 2/3 first author publications on a MD application wouldn't be as great as 2/3 first author publications on a MD/PhD application.

 

[Dox4lyfe]

Obviously it'll carry more weight for an MD/PhD applicant, but if you're passionate about it (like you said you are) and enjoy it, don't sacrifice it for something else. Also, if the rest of your app is golden, this extensive research experience will set you apart from the rest at the research driven schools such as Stanford.

If you continue 4hrs/wk for the next two years (assuming you haven't done any thus far) you'll have around 200+ hours which is more than enough.

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

If you are passionate about research I'd say it's fine, especially at schools with a lot of research.

Maybe I'm missing it, but you could use some kind of voulenteering with those less fortunate than you.

 

[Pleides]

It also depends on your target schools. Top 20 schools love and care a lot about research. Lower tier schools not so much.

 

[Pepe18]

.

 

[Catalystik]

Hi I am a rising sophomore in college. I worked in a research lab for my freshman year and I am working there full time during this summer. I recently finished writing a manuscript, and I will send it to a journal by the end of this month; I will be first-author. I am starting 2 more independent projects, and this will take 12 hours/week during my sophomore year. I have also put a lot of time into tutoring and making a tutoring program at a school with a non-profit. For clinical exp, I am only volunteering 4 hours/week at a hospital. I feel that I am not spending enough time on clinical experience because I am so passionate about research and working on tutoring programs. What do you people recommend? I don't want the absence of good clinical exp ruin an app. I'm just trying to plan ahead so I can get some good experiences before I apply to med school.

Your research is sufficient as it is for general med school application purposes. If you have the high grades and high MCAT score to be considered by highly-selective MD schools or by MD/PhD programs, then additional research will act strongly in your favor. So will a substantial leadership experience, but it looks like you're on top of that, too.

I agree that by the time you apply, if you continue at the same rate, your active clinical experience will be fine. Don't forget to get in some physician shadowing, as well, but there's no rush for that since it won't require that many hours (50 is fine).

 

[Lucca]

If you like doing research and are good at it, keep at it. It will help your MD application even if you don't want to go the research career route. Just make sure you are also keeping up your grades and other ECs!

To answer your question more directly, research is more important at some schools than others. I doubt you can have "too much" research at Stanford Med but a school like Stritch will wonder if you're seriously committed to service to others if you spend 95% of your EC time pipetting

 

[md-2020]

If you like doing research and are good at it, keep at it. It will help your MD application even if you don't want to go the research career route. Just make sure you are also keeping up your grades and other ECs!

To answer your question more directly, research is more important at some schools than others. I doubt you can have "too much" research at Stanford Med but a school like Stritch will wonder if you're seriously committed to service to others if you spend 95% of your EC time pipetting

And yet if you can convince them that you'd matriculate they certainly won't lose any sleep about a multi-first authored student!

All schools love research. The lower ranked ones are just convinced that you (and other research superstars) will matriculate a research powerhouse over them and so focus on other things.

 

[DameJulie]

I also spent a lot of time in research. I wonder how does one demonstrate on the app that their research is more as a commitment in future medicine rather than giving the impression of "This candidate is better of with PhD?" I felt like there's an easy trap there for someone who had research-heavy EC to turn their research into a disservice.

Also, how to present research in a way that low-tier schools won't see it as "he/she is going to research powerhouse" and resulting a rejection?

 

[cheerios123]

Thank you everyone for your input! @gonnif, I have seen those tables on a previous post. But don't the sample sizes (n=127 and n=130) make research-focused schools (e.g. top 20) a minority in that analysis? Therefore, reducing the perceived importance of research? I am aiming for top medical schools.

 

[cheerios123]

@DameJulie, I feel that spending a lot of time in lab has given be a good idea of what research is. I personally don't want to do it for the rest of my life. But I like learning about the medical implications of the research I do. I do MRI research, so I learn a lot about surgical procedures and diagnostics.

 

[cheerios123]

@gonnif, you make very good points! Similar to most ambitious students, I aim for top medical schools. The reason why I made this thread is to make sure that I am not reducing my changes to get into any medical school by doing too much research. I have a good amount of volunteering and leadership through tutoring and with a non-profit I work with. I am also doing some clinical stuff, but only 4 hours a week By the recommendation on other posts and replies on this post, I will continue what I am doing, but I will make sure that I am not designing my app for the Top 20s.

 

[Goro]

Hi I am a rising sophomore in college. I worked in a research lab for my freshman year and I am working there full time during this summer. I recently finished writing a manuscript, and I will send it to a journal by the end of this month; I will be first-author. I am starting 2 more independent projects, and this will take 12 hours/week during my sophomore year. I have also put a lot of time into tutoring and making a tutoring program at a school with a non-profit. For clinical exp, I am only volunteering 4 hours/week at a hospital. I feel that I am not spending enough time on clinical experience because I am so passionate about research and working on tutoring programs. What do you people recommend? I don't want the absence of good clinical exp ruin an app. I'm just trying to plan ahead so I can get some good experiences before I apply to med school.

The gestalt I have gotten from SDNers who went into Top Schools is that they do want clinical and nonclinical volunteering/employment. It seems to be one of quality over quantity, but those who have shared their success with me in this regard indeed have lots of research, often productive in some way, and 100s, even 1000s of hours in clinical and/or nonclinical volunteering.

As LizzyM like to say (and she's at a school up in the stratosphere) "Service to others less fortunate than yourself."

 

[aldol16]

All top-ranked schools like research and passion. Having a passion for teaching is a good thing and you should develop that passion fully. They like research because strong research is what got them to the top of the US News research rankings. Research is also a crucial part of advancing the science of medicine. Having a first-author publication or publications is very good. Now you just have to spend a little more time getting some more clinical experience to show them that you know what you're getting into. That is, you will eventually have to answer the question "Why medicine" as opposed to graduate school multiple times. Being able to draw on a wealth of clinical experiences will help you answer that question and contextualize your research background.