Finding research opportunities in gap year?

[ladysmanfelpz]

Where can you gain research experience when you are no longer a student? Background is biology and psychology. Interested in either. Contact hospitals or local universities? Where did you all gain your research and how long did it take? How much do you believe it weighed in on your application?

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[AlteredScale]

Where can you gain research experience when you are no longer a student? Background is biology and psychology. Interested in either. Contact hospitals or local universities? Where did you all gain your research and how long did it take? How much do you believe it weighed in on your application?

Do you have any research experiences? If not, when you reach out to the places of interest (try private research inst, research labs in a university particularly within the medical department) you need to show what skills and lab techniques you're comfortable with (western blot, pcr, etc).

I spent 2.5 years in a research lab within the GI department at my alma mater.

It was a talking point and I do believe it helped because it showed I could balance multiple things including a full time class load and a TA position. Did the research actually wow someone on the adcom? Perhaps butler than likely no. The only time thorough research matters matters is top 20 MD where research is absolutely expected from their students.


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[ladysmanfelpz]

Private research is through universities? And I have fairly limited lab techniques, mainly just Ochem and worked in a lab as a phlebotomist but you did get to pippet lol. Is that realistic though, a university giving a research position to someone off the street? I'm guessing I could apply for a summer research opportunity then. How would I go applying and how would I increase my acceptance opportunities?

 

[AlteredScale]

Private research is through universities? And I have fairly limited lab techniques, mainly just Ochem and worked in a lab as a phlebotomist but you did get to pippet lol. Is that realistic though, a university giving a research position to someone off the street? I'm guessing I could apply for a summer research opportunity then. How would I go applying and how would I increase my acceptance opportunities?

No i meant they are separate. Someome with no research experience can get a position if they word theire inquriries out and are upfront with the PIs, theyll give you a shot if they can.

Email PIs (look at the websites for their email) and tell them upfront you want toto do research with them. Be honest about the lab technqiues you know and dont. Shotgun approach works best (emailing many many PIs), since you will have a harder time getting in with no experience.


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[TUVIX]

Where are you located? Do you live near a teaching hospital? If you do, google things like "Cardiac Research XXX Hospital or Emergency Medicine Research etc..." and find the research websites for various groups at the hospital, then email the PIs and say you are interested in their research and ask to meet with them to discuss.... take it from there.

 

[ladysmanfelpz]

In Phoenix area so there is a Mayo clinic here. Is there a website for research positions like a monster or indeed for jobs?

And PI stands for....?

 

[TUVIX]

In Phoenix area so there is a Mayo clinic here. Is there a website for research positions like a monster or indeed for jobs?

And PI stands for....?

PI = Principal Investigator


Ok so I googled "Mayo Clinic Phoenix Research" and I found this site:

http://www.mayo.edu/research/arizona


Then on that site there was a link to view all researchers at Mayo in AZ:

http://www.mayo.edu/research/faculty?letter=A&location=az

Click around on the first site and you find stuff like this (a list of their trials happening in AZ):

http://www.mayo.edu/research/clinic...?location=MN&searchtype=location&locations=AZ

Once you find something that looks interesting just email the person responsible for the trial. Another thing you can do is look up the trial on clinicaltrials.gov and there is usually a contact person/s email or phone number. Just start emailing people... hell you could even email this lady who is the dean for research at Mayo in AZ:

http://www.mayo.edu/research/faculty/jelinek-diane-f-ph-d/bio-00084587


See? All of this information is at your fingertips. Be persistent and interested and you will find something. Clinical research is the best option if you want to do research in a gap year because it gets you both research and honestly more importantly clinical experience.

 

[ladysmanfelpz]

Thank you Tuvix

 

[TUVIX]

Thank you Tuvix

Live Long and Prosper.

 

[ladysmanfelpz]

I've contacted the departments, but haven't reached out to individual PI's yet. My question now is is research necessary for me at this point of my application? I will be a reapplicant and have just retaken the MCAT and added volunteer and clinical experience these past years. I believe this is my best chance at getting accepted and will have my apps in the very first day AACOMAS opens up (June 1st?). So with my lower end stats, 3.26 sGPA, 3.43 cGPA, 80 hrs volunteer, 1.5 years working as Scribe & Phlebotomist, will any additional coursework make a difference? Would it even be counted in my application? Opportunities I am considering are research, language classes (medical or similar spanish course), and or business course, all of which wouldn't be taken during the summer, so maybe completed before September. Would any of these make a difference in my application or should I just strive for early entries, and early and strong interviews?

 

[ZT_530]

In my opinion I would try to find some other ways to boost your application. I think that research experience is much more compelling when that research translates into either a publication or presentation. Otherwise it is hard to really grasp what involvement you had in the research. Maybe you just washed dishes and did a few PCRs a week, or maybe you had a very involved role that included designing experiments, analyzing data, and deciding the direction of the research. You can talk about it in your essays, but I don't think it carries much weight unless you have an outcome. It is difficult to publish data. Presenting a poster this summer is more realistic but even that would be difficult, and seeing that you have not significant research background I have a hard time seeing a PI put you with a project that would be ready to present this summer. I would say try to get as much unique volunteering, clinical exposure, and boost that GPA as much as you can. Even getting your sGPA above a 3.3 and cGPA above a 3.5 could be really helpful. What is your MCAT? A strong MCAT score goes a long way. My MCAT was the primary reason I have been accepted.

 

[cassis_Cake]

I don't know the situation in Arizona, but in California (San Francisco specifically), it is quite difficult to find paying research opportunities if you don't have extensive experiences already. I assume it is very similar across most academic research institutions right now because government funding are very tight. For me, I emailed my CV/resume around to a lot of PI in labs that I'm interested in doing research and asking to see if I can volunteer. Many labs can't afford to hire right now but they would take up volunteers. Having worked in academic research for close to 4 years now, I can tell you it can take a very long time to get your name on anything so it's definitely not a 2-3 months thing. My advice is to only do research if you are interested, not because it makes your application looks good. As mentioned above, you could also try boost your sGPA instead. Good luck!

 

[ladysmanfelpz]

In my opinion I would try to find some other ways to boost your application. I would say try to get as much unique volunteering, clinical exposure, and boost that GPA as much as you can. Even getting your sGPA above a 3.3 and cGPA above a 3.5 could be really helpful. What is your MCAT? A strong MCAT score goes a long way. My MCAT was the primary reason I have been accepted.

Just retook the Mcat for 3rd time scoring a 503 with 123 in CARS . I'm basically looking for a simple way to boost app even slightly in the next few months before I interview in September. Would anything even make a difference in that time frame? I know you can continually add to your app, but what will carry the most weight and be actually adjusted for by interview time? Is it worth taking a course or two this summer as a post bacc?


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[frosted_flake]

Just retook the Mcat for 3rd time scoring a 503 with 123 in CARS . I'm basically looking for a simple way to boost app even slightly in the next few months before I interview in September. Would anything even make a difference in that time frame? I know you can continually add to your app, but what will carry the most weight and be actually adjusted for by interview time? Is it worth taking a course or two this summer as a post bacc?


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What were your other scores and when did you take them? I have seen here before that it is highly frowned upon to take the MCAT >3 times.
Perhaps @Goro can offer his wisdom regarding that.

**And if you are applying for DO schools, retake C/D/F courses, get more clinical exposure as well as a DO LOR. Research experience is not as heavily emphasized on the DO side as it is on the MD side.

 

[Goro]

You're significantly handicapped by being a 3x taker because you haven't improved. There is a risk, seen with other multiple test MCAT takers, that you either have test anxiety (lethal for a med student) or make bad choices and took the test when unprepared. Short of making a six figure donation check, nothing is going to improve your chances significantly to offset the poor MCAT, which a 503 alone is circling the drain for MD schools, and is merely OK for DO. My school would average your scores and probably low wait list you.

Just retook the Mcat for 3rd time scoring a 503 with 123 in CARS . I'm basically looking for a simple way to boost app even slightly in the next few months before I interview in September. Would anything even make a difference in that time frame? I know you can continually add to your app, but what will carry the most weight and be actually adjusted for by interview time? Is it worth taking a course or two this summer as a post bacc?


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[ladysmanfelpz]

Thanks for the reply @Goro. My scores are 25 (9/7/9), 26 a month later (10/7/9), and lastly 503 (125/123/128/127). I mainly tried to improve verbal on that quick month retake. Last take I studied while working full time, gave it three months and just went for it saying this would be my last one ever trying to eliminate test anxiety as I know I do struggle with it. Felt good on the take, but was shocked at a low cars again and opened a separate thread on that. All practice I got 125 to 126 in the section.

Maybe test anxiety is having a bigger factor than I originally thought. From what I've heard SMP's aren't worth it and having sufficient stats to get in is something I am trying to avoid. I am not worried about handling the material in med school, but boards I am concerned about. I'm okay handling one thing on my plate at a time, but know the crunch of studying boards the last semester matched with classes would give me serious stress. Starting undergrad I thought I was more capable than the average and loaded my plate with premeds while also competing in track for my school. Second semester and into sophomore year I started getting sub 70's on tests and I guess subsequently lost a lot of confidence in my test taking abilities. I actually got shingles at the tender age of 20! This ultimately caused me to give up track. I attributed it to mainly the impact of jumps and overuse, but maybe it was more due to stress than previously thought.


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