Getting into Top School without STEM Research

[futuredocmaybe101]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently a political science major at Rice University. Ever since middle school, I was always split between medicine and politics. Since I was 14, no matter how much I explored other options, I never strayed from these two areas. I ultimately decided to major in political science. As my sophomore year comes to a close, and after thinking about it for years and talking to advisors, I'm pretty sure I want to go to med school. Not getting into a top med program obviously wouldn't be the deciding factor for going to med school (I would just be doing it for the wrong reasons). It's not so much the idea of going to a top med school, but after the research I've done, I've fallen in love with programs that happen to be top schools. Obviously I'll have matches and safeties. The thing is is that I've heard performing scientific/medical research is very important for top med school admissions. I'm very accomplished in my major. I've taken the most challenging STEM courses. My research is in the process of being published, and I've done some pretty cool/super competitive internships. I have multiple awards for mock trial, MUN, etc. My point is is that I would be a competitive applicant for say a social science grad program, but will not having STEM research obliterate my chances at getting into a top med school? I really like Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard, Yale (haha, the dreams,and I think some small part of me is still trying to overturn those undergrad rejections. Seriously though, I love these programs). I still have a lot of research to do for safeties and matches. I have a 4.2 (some classes award A+s with 4.3). No MCAT yet.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

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[giguerex35]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently a political science major at Rice University. Ever since middle school, I was always split between medicine and politics. Since I was 14, no matter how much I explored other options, I never strayed from these two areas. I ultimately decided to major in political science. As my sophomore year comes to a close, and after thinking about it for years and talking to advisors, I'm pretty sure I want to go to med school. Not getting into a top med program obviously wouldn't be the deciding factor for going to med school (I would just be doing it for the wrong reasons). It's not so much the idea of going to a top med school, but after the research I've done, I've fallen in love with programs that happen to be top schools. Obviously I'll have matches and safeties. The thing is is that I've heard performing scientific/medical research is very important for top med school admissions. I'm very accomplished in my major. I've taken the most challenging STEM courses. My research is in the process of being published, and I've done some pretty cool/super competitive internships. I have multiple awards for mock trial, MUN, etc. My point is is that I would be a competitive applicant for say a social science grad program, but will not having STEM research obliterate my chances at getting into a top med school? I really like Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard, Yale (haha, the dreams,and I think some small part of me is still trying to overturn those undergrad rejections. Seriously though, I love these programs). I still have a lot of research to do for safeties and matches. I have a 4.2 (some classes award A+s with 4.3). No MCAT yet.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

A+ don’t count just use regular A for gpa calculations

 

[futuredocmaybe101]

@giguerex35 Ok, well even then I have a 4.0. But that aside, do you happen to have any ideas about not having research in the STEM field?

 

[giguerex35]

@giguerex35 Ok, well even then I have a 4.0. But that aside, do you happen to have any ideas about not having research in the STEM field?

I’m not the person to be asking. If I had to take a stab at it I’d imagine it goes something like this good stem research>good any research>All other research. The only reason I could foresee being an issue is adcoms wondering why if you did so much research and activities in another field why not join that area to work in. Your major doesn’t matter as much because you’re still in a college curriculum where you have to take classes and everyone has to take the Pre reqs but if you’re spending so much time doing ECs in another area and you lack in the ECs that are important to med schools(volunteer shadow etc) then I could see that being the difference between someone getting into a top 20 and someone who doesn’t. Take home point: just make sure you have enough ECs related to healthcare so it doesn’t look like you want to go into another field, and this is my opinion I’m not an adcom who deals with this stuff so seek other opinions