Asking for research

[RollieFingers]

I posted this question on the orthopedic surgery board with no response so I thought I'd ask here in case somebody else had been in this same position. I start med school in the fall but want to get some exposure to orthopedics before school starts. I live in the city in which I'll be attending school and am thinking about cold emailing doctors in the ortho department about volunteering to help with any ongoing projects. Would anyone be receptive to this? Am I wasting my time seeing as how I'm not even a med student yet? Thanks for your help!

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[HolySmokes]

I posted this question on the orthopedic surgery board with no response so I thought I'd ask here in case somebody else had been in this same position. I start med school in the fall but want to get some exposure to orthopedics before school starts. I live in the city in which I'll be attending school and am thinking about cold emailing doctors in the ortho department about volunteering to help with any ongoing projects. Would anyone be receptive to this? Am I wasting my time seeing as how I'm not even a med student yet? Thanks for your help!

You're wasting your time because you could be using this summer to travel around, drink a lot, and engage in general tomfoolery. Don't do anything medical school related. Seriously.

 

[Metagamer]

You're wasting your time asking on this board full of neurotic people and gunners who will desperately try to dissuade you from doing anything productive the summer before med school.

E-mail whoever you want, worst case is it doesn't pan out. Sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[operaman]

You might want to cold call/email about some shadowing or something first and then talk about research with them in person. Do a lit search on all the names in the department and see who's doing a fair bit of publishing and start with them and work down the list until someone bites. Even if there aren't any projects for you, you can still make some good first impressions and meet people in the department and also see if you still like it after spending more time around it. I think I would be hesitant to trust a faceless stranger with responsibility on a project, but if I met the person and they seemed sharp and hard-working, I'd be all about it. My guess is others would react the same way.

I think something like what you're planning is a great use of the summer before M1. The only stupid thing would be attempting to actually study ahead of time; research and making personal connections is never a bad thing. You know how you always hear about people complaining that X or Y opportunity went to someone who was connected? Start working on those connections. Best of luck to you and congratulations on your acceptance to med school!