Medical Are there any med schools with a particular emphasis on research?

[lord999]

Hello, I had a question that would help me tailor my list of schools I'd be applying to. I feel that research is one of the strongest parts of my application (over 3 1/2 years worth of various research experiences), and that with my stats (cGPA 3.69, sGPA 3.6, MCAT 515) I am a fairly competitive applicant for mid-mid high tier schools. Are there schools that emphasize research in particular? And also on the flip side, are there schools that emphasize volunteering in particular? I have over 200 hours of volunteering, but am worried about applying to schools that view that as insufficient. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

You need to look at your LizzyM, and frankly, you are fairly average or below average for the very research intensive schools. Unless you are undertaking research yourself, research is a low consideration in the application. If you can invert the volunteering and research, you will go farther.

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[GoSpursGo]

Yeah I hate to be a killjoy, but I agree with above--the research-focused schools also tend to place a very high emphasis on stats, and while your stats are fine they're not amazing.

Furthermore, looking at your non-confidential post, I see two really major red flags. The first is that if you're going to have research be the centerpiece of your application, I would hope to see SOME kind of productivity in terms of at least getting your name on some posters or middle authorship on a paper somewhere. Just spending time and "dabbling" in a few different labs is normally totally fine, because as @lord999 said research is a relatively low priority, but if you're trying to plant your flag that you're going to be productive in research as a med student you really should have something to show for your 3.5 years. Worse, and more concerning, the "200 hours" of volunteering that you're describing was done in high school. So since you graduated last year, if I'm understanding correctly then it seems like you're going to have ~20 hours of non-clinical volunteering in the last 5 years by the time you apply... and regardless of which schools you're looking at, this is a really, really big problem.

What are you doing with your gap year(s)? What can you do between now and when the application system opens to bump that number up?

 

[AlteredScale]

with further strengthening of your application as @GoSpursGo go said and with hopefully more productivity in the research lab via posters and publications, you could be in the running for DO PhD, but your resources will be far Moree limited since there isn't much funding through DO schools.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Your stats are average for medical school in general. Your high school volunteer hours are not going to count. Medical schools want to see that you spent time during your undergrad volunteering and expanding your clinical experience so you know what you are getting into. I am not sure if your research CV thus far would really help you at all with "research schools" as you haven't (from your post at least) showed any production (posters, presenting at conferences, publications, etc). What specific research experiences have you had? There is a huge range from washing the dishes in a lab to developing your own project and publishing your own manuscript as a first author. Where are you on that spectrum? Even if you don't go to a "research school," any MD school is going to have research opportunities, and when you become a resident/attending, you can continue your passion for research.