Does doing a summer research program at a school...

[Dreaming big]

Does doing a summer research program at a school help you get into that medical school? Like doing columbia amgen, would that help get into columbia?

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[redlight]

in general i think it helps (a little, or a lot, depending on the institution), if you were competitive med applicant in the first place, AND you get glowing rec letters from faculty. those programs are tough to get into and do some weeding for adcom. if you get in, it looks good... but it is all for naught if you dont stand out at the program.

however.. the only school (that i can remember right now) that has outright told me it helps was washu.

 

[Stratego]

For a any research-heavy school, probably the 2+ additional years of substantive research that you do at your home institution, ideally with publication, would have more to do with getting you into any given school than a 3-month summer experience. If, while at a given school you so impressed the PI that they wrote you an amazing, supportive he/she walks on water sort of LOR, that could help. But I seriously doubt you'd get to know the head of a lab that well in only three months.

 

[Dreaming big]

For a any research-heavy school, probably the 2+ additional years of substantive research that you do at your home institution, ideally with publication, would have more to do with getting you into any given school than a 3-month summer experience. If, while at a given school you so impressed the PI that they wrote you an amazing, supportive he/she walks on water sort of LOR, that could help. But I seriously doubt you'd get to know the head of a lab that well in only three months.

Hmm, well in the 3 months, you would have seen the facilities and be more accustomed to the area and stuff; maybe a positive if you talk about it on a interview?

 

[virusgirl]

Does doing a summer research program at a school help you get into that medical school? Like doing columbia amgen, would that help get into columbia?

I think it is icing on the cake if you were already a competitive applicant to begin with. But it doesn't really make that much of a difference if you're below average for their applicant pool.

I spent a summer doing research at UMass Medical School, and my PI from that project wrote me a strong LOR. I interviewed there but was not ultimately accepted, which didn't come as a big shocker as their averages are fairly strong.

 

[Az1698]

If you're working in a basic science department, already have strong research experience, are a good applicant for the school (grades, etc.), and want to do an MD/PhD then it can help quite a bit.

If you're just doing the experience for a standard resume slot then it can help if you get to know the school environment well and talk to different people. That way you can mention on the secondaries or during the interview that you really like X about the school, have spoken to students Y and Z, know that R does great research, etc. All of that is assuming you're still a good applicant for the school.

Just doing a program for the sake of possibly getting a little boost is probably not worth it.

 

[Narmerguy]

Not exceptionally so. It would probably be better to do something where you could continue after the summer.

 

[BigChubbyMD]

I'd say it would help, especially if you get a strong letter from your advisor/PI. At the very least it gets your foot in the door. Unless you are a complete ass or something...

 

[PremedIowa]

The consensus on the Mayo thread was that it really doesn't help in MD admissions (at least not more than any other intensive research experience). I know many of us that were accepted applied to SURF and got rejected, some of us multiple times.

For the PhD program, you are almost a shoo-in after doing SURF.

 

[Dreaming big]

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