How much is research in the social sciences valued by admissions?

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elloL

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I am planning on applying for the 2021 cycle as a Psychology major/ Neuroscience minor. I did multiple research experiments in undergrad (handing out sheets looking at different variables and having students at my school fill them out.) I do not know if I will even include them in my application because they were not extracurricular as I did them for my research in Psychology classes. One that I did want to include was my honors thesis which was a literature review about intercultural differences in people's attraction and regard for others and how that is affected by biological and social factors. It is interdisciplinary, but not related to medicine. I thought the fact that it was combining different disciplines and exploring cultural differences would be a plus since it shows that I like learning about cultures that are dissimilar to mine and that I can integrate multiple subjects into one paper. I know that some schools are not research-focused, but I am very interested in Harvard medical (It has a mission statement that resonates with me and it is close to home). I wanted to pursue more clinical experiences, but should I use my gap year to find more research that is directly related to medicine? If I were to do that my clinical hours would be at around 120H (nonclinical - 400H). I just don't know what to prioritize, especially for my goals.

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You could try to do a research year in neuroscience if you wanted. Honestly, you can make your gap year whatever you want it to be, it's your last free time for pretty much forever. There are also clinical research coordinator roles you could look into but many require a two year commitment.
 
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