How necessary is research?

[lexswift]

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I have literally zero research to my name as of right now but hope to get some in from January-May.
Would that be enough for most schools? Would this be seen as a weakness at any particular school (top 10, maybe even top 20)? Would it be fine for schools in the top 30 to 50 and state schools?

 

[DocFarnsworth]

Seen as weakness for top, depends on the rest of your app. Get some done if you can when January comes.

Also if you buy a copy of the MSAR it will give you the % of students matriculating at each school that had research so that will give you the best idea.

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[Lucca]

Many students get in every year with 0 research experience. Looking at the MSAR, there are many schools, however, where 90-98% of matriculating students have some level of research experience listed on their app (could be anything from a single semester to several years of independent work) and these schools tend to be what SDN calls "research powerhouses". They also tend to be higher ranked in USNWR, but not necessarily.

 

[Goro]

It will hurt you at the research powerhouses, which coincidentally, are the top schools.

Less of an issue for state schools and those that are mission driven, and DO schools.

The wise DrMidlife has this to say about research: “you've preferably had some exposure to research so you can be convinced that Wakefield used malicious dirtbag methods and is not the savior of the world's children.”

I have literally zero research to my name as of right now but hope to get some in from January-May.
Would that be enough for most schools? Would this be seen as a weakness at any particular school (top 10, maybe even top 20)? Would it be fine for schools in the top 30 to 50 and state schools?

 

[Lucca]

It will hurt you at the research powerhouses, which coincidentally, are the top schools.

Less of an issue for state schools and those that are mission driven, and DO schools.

The wise DrMidlife has this to say about research: “you've preferably had some exposure to research so you can be convinced that Wakefield used malicious dirtbag methods and is not the savior of the world's children.”

Journal clubs are where I learned how to distinguish crap from gold. Surprisingly, there is a lot of crap that can still get published, and here I am with good data trying to get one figure into one paper XD

 

[mouster]

Just make sure that if you do research you're doing it because you actually like your project/want to do research. Be able to describe things. I had a friend who did a bunch of research but wasn't that involved (despite being published) and wasn't interested in the project, and when asked about it at interviews she belly-flopped hard. Even listening to her talk about the experience was painful.

 

[jtd2081]

The only thing research has done for me is show that it's not what I want to do with my life lol. Met some great people and learned a bunch of cool techniques. But the whole research process is definitely not for me. Everything is supposed to work on paper and doesn't usually turn out as such when you run the experiment.

 

[Swish16]

Not having research will be a death sentence at the research powerhouses like HMS, JHU, Stanford, etc. This is assuming you don't have any extraordinary life experience to compensate for your lack of research. Even one semester of research is considered weak. You'd ideally want to have 3-4 semesters of research under your belt before applying.


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