High school research

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Tawantinsuyu

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My application to med schools is a long way off, but I have a question. If I did research in the summers before my senior year and the summer before I started college, can I have that in my med school application? Also, if I have been volunteering in a hospital since my junior year of high school, can I include all of those hours?
 
No I don't think so kid.

Relax... Your freshman year you should just focus on getting good grades and having a good time!
 
I would include the research, if it was meaningful, but not the hospital volunteering.
 
I would include the research, if it was meaningful, but not the hospital volunteering.
alright thanks. But the hospital volunteering is meaningful too. I mean, I still do it whenever I am home from school. Over my winter break, I went there almost every single day. My friends even complained that I didn't hang out enough. I love helping the people in the hospital, it makes me feel good. I feel that the experience is contributing to my want to be a doctor.
 
In all seriousness, what you do in HS gets you into college. What you do in college gets you into med school. What you do in med school determines your residency. Each step essentially puts everyone back on equal footing.

This is especially true in HS. I mean, could you even vote when you did these things? Just relax and enjoy the ride! When it comes time to apply, you will see how silly it sounds to put stuff from HS on a professional school application.
 
In all seriousness, what you do in HS gets you into college. What you do in college gets you into med school. What you do in med school determines your residency. Each step essentially puts everyone back on equal footing.

This is especially true in HS. I mean, could you even vote when you did these things? Just relax and enjoy the ride! When it comes time to apply, you will see how silly it sounds to put stuff from HS on a professional school application.

No lol. But what does that have to do with it? I was interested in it, and the experiences from it are helping me decide whether I actually want to attempt med school or not.
 
in all seriousness as well, I have heard that if your start date for an activity was in HS, you can enter that start date, but for activities that you have continued throughout college. Not for things that you did just in high school. Sounds like your hospital volunteering though was longitudinal over several years.
@Tawantinsuyu maybe tag an adcom and ask them?

edit: Ismet's response pretty much covered it though
 
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Can you include those hours? You can include whatever you want. Will it hold much/if any weight? No, not really.

Unless you are continuing something you started in high school into college, stand-alone activities from HS won't hold weight for med school admissions. Schools want to see what you have done in the past 3-4 years in college, not what you did in high school. The only exception I see to this is if you go to college in the same area as your high school and you continued the research or volunteering through college. Then you can lump the high school hours in.

If you're a freshman in college, stop thinking about AMCAS. Go out and do things that you're interested in and get clinical experience and research experience in college. If in a couple years you sit down to fill out your AMCAS work/activities and you feel the need to draw from high school experiences, you can do so if you'd like, but know that it doesn't make up for any holes in your college activities.

I do understand where you're coming from, though, as I shadowed and volunteered through all 4 years of high school. Instead of putting them in the work/activities section, I talked about an experience from shadowing in high school in my PS, tying it into why I wanted to go into medicine. Consider that as an option for those experiences. It's also good fodder for interviews, when you will inevitably be asked "why medicine?"

The experiences were valuable I'm sure. They just won't do you any benefit in the work/activities section of AMCAS. Show what you have done in college.
 
I'm just saying that you have four more years to build your application, and you should have plenty more to talk about than what you did in HS. Trust me, you're going to have more impressive things to write about.

The only place you could mention it is in your PS, and you can say that this sparked your interest in medicine, but when you do write your PS you aren't going to want to waste too many characters talking about HS.
 
Can you include those hours? You can include whatever you want. Will it hold much/if any weight? No, not really.

Unless you are continuing something you started in high school into college, stand-alone activities from HS won't hold weight for med school admissions. Schools want to see what you have done in the past 3-4 years in college, not what you did in high school. The only exception I see to this is if you go to college in the same area as your high school and you continued the research or volunteering through college. Then you can lump the high school hours in.

If you're a freshman in college, stop thinking about AMCAS. Go out and do things that you're interested in and get clinical experience and research experience in college. If in a couple years you sit down to fill out your AMCAS work/activities and you feel the need to draw from high school experiences, you can do so if you'd like, but know that it doesn't make up for any holes in your college activities.

I do understand where you're coming from, though, as I shadowed and volunteered through all 4 years of high school. Instead of putting them in the work/activities section, I talked about an experience from shadowing in high school in my PS, tying it into why I wanted to go into medicine. Consider that as an option for those experiences. It's also good fodder for interviews, when you will inevitably be asked "why medicine?"

The experiences were valuable I'm sure. They just won't do you any benefit in the work/activities section of AMCAS. Show what you have done in college.
I'm going to disagree here. I included my research from high school (I did 3 years of it, though..) and it was a major selling point at my interviews. I absolutely listed it, had a rec from my PI, and it was one of my most meaningful experiences. I also published from it and listed the pub. I think if it's significant enough it matters, so I'm going to go against the grain on this one.
 
I did two summers of it...I'm trying to get back into that research lab
 
I'm going to disagree here. I included my research from high school (I did 3 years of it, though..) and it was a major selling point at my interviews. I absolutely listed it, had a rec from my PI, and it was one of my most meaningful experiences. I also published from it and listed the pub. I think if it's significant enough it matters, so I'm going to go against the grain on this one.

Yes, there can always be exceptions, and yours is one. 3 years and a publication has weight, especially if you're interested in research as part of your career.

Putting these things on AMCAS won't hurt OP, I'm just saying that for most cases, college activities take precedence over high school activities. It sounds like he has continued the volunteering into college (sorry, I must have missed that post earlier), so those dates can be included and will show continuity and commitment. BUT he should still try to get clinical exposure beyond just when he is home on break.
 
Yes, there can always be exceptions, and yours is one. 3 years and a publication has weight, especially if you're interested in research as part of your career.

Putting these things on AMCAS won't hurt OP, I'm just saying that for most cases, college activities take precedence over high school activities. It sounds like he has continued the volunteering into college (sorry, I must have missed that post earlier), so those dates can be included and will show continuity and commitment. BUT he should still try to get clinical exposure beyond just when he is home on break.

Yeah, I'll admit, I haven't really been focused on getting that clinical experience while in school, at least not yet. I'm planning on doing a lot of med/vet shadowing/volunteering this summer to help me figure out whether I actually want to pursue either profession. How exactly should I approach shadowing? If I am volunteering in the ER, do you think it would be annoying to just go up to a physician and ask, "can I shadow you?" I've kind of tried to get in on some procedures, but I've only gotten to see two, and they weren't really procedures, well, just minor ones.
 
Can you include those hours? You can include whatever you want. Will it hold much/if any weight? No, not really.

Unless you are continuing something you started in high school into college, stand-alone activities from HS won't hold weight for med school admissions. Schools want to see what you have done in the past 3-4 years in college, not what you did in high school. The only exception I see to this is if you go to college in the same area as your high school and you continued the research or volunteering through college. Then you can lump the high school hours in.

If you're a freshman in college, stop thinking about AMCAS. Go out and do things that you're interested in and get clinical experience and research experience in college. If in a couple years you sit down to fill out your AMCAS work/activities and you feel the need to draw from high school experiences, you can do so if you'd like, but know that it doesn't make up for any holes in your college activities.

I do understand where you're coming from, though, as I shadowed and volunteered through all 4 years of high school. Instead of putting them in the work/activities section, I talked about an experience from shadowing in high school in my PS, tying it into why I wanted to go into medicine. Consider that as an option for those experiences. It's also good fodder for interviews, when you will inevitably be asked "why medicine?"

The experiences were valuable I'm sure. They just won't do you any benefit in the work/activities section of AMCAS. Show what you have done in college.
Can we pin this in HSDN or somewhere similar? This question gets asked an awful lot, and this is a wonderful response.
 
Yes, I'd you do academic research then it doesn't matter if it happened when you were 12. It would, however, look bad if you list it and not have any research during undergrad.
 
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The research they do there does get published in journals, though mine did not
 
Sorry buddy, what you did in high school doesn't really count for shet. However your experience could help you get a research gig in college. So I would try that. Also your only a first year sweetie! Don't worry about the AMCAS/AACOMAS yet, enjoy your college years!
 
It could count, but it is mainly if you continue doing research. It will show commitment to research.
 
College is a totally different game than high school. You won't even know if you are Med school material until sometime in your junior year. First good sign will be making an A or high B in general chemistry in college, second would be a high GPA and good grade on organic chem 1 and 2 sophomore year. Then if your nailing classes and have a good GPA in junior year, get really serious about this because you are a contender and have an MCAT to take. The fact of the matter is you should always work hard but think about making yourself and your application well rounded until MCAT time gets here and then worry about getting in.
 
OP, did you publish? If not, that's a joke experience and won't count.
 
OP, did you publish? If not, that's a joke experience and won't count.
I didn't think it was a joke experience. It was really valuable, and I learned a lot about how science actually works in the research lab. The material it related to was interesting too.
 
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And the experience also helped me realize that, even though research can be interesting and enjoyable, I wouldn't want to do it for the rest of my life.
 
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