Experience needed???

[mdforlife]

Hi all,
These forums are great, very helpful.

I've just started a postbac premed program. One of the speakers at the intro session spoke about two kinds of experiences needed to get into top med school: clinical and research. I understood that clinical is volunteering for the hospital (am i correct?)
What is the other type of research. He mentioned "wet lab research". What is it? And what are the best ways to get that internship? Does working for a lab in a pharmacutical company (Merck, etc) is considered good?

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[Wardens]

yeah, you're right in that clinical is hospital-type work, though it doesn't necessarilly have to be some formal volunteer activity like patient transport. You could also shadow a number of doctors from a variety of fields. Admissions committees just want to see that you've seen what it's like to be a physician. That's what they mean by clinical experience.

As for research, a position at Merck would be perfect. Any type of bench lab work will suffice so long as you can explain your motivation for doing it. It can be as simple as "I really enjoyed organic and wanted to see how all those syntheses played out in the real world.". I'm guessing wet lab research is just something akin to your ordinary chemistry or bio labs. You could also try to do clinical research, but without any experience, these positions are difficult to come by. The best way to get a research position is just to approach your professors. Get to know them over the course of the year, and ask if they might need help in research during the summer. Oftentimes, they'll have some funding to pay you. It won't necessarily be much, but it'll be a decent summer's work, plus you'll get some great experience.
Best of luck to ya.

 

[mdforlife]

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