Hi everyone,
To put the main question up front and save you all time, if someone could go through the entire process how doing beginng research as a medical student works, I would be eternally grateful, because I know exactly nothing about the process. That is my main question, and there are further, more specific scenarios/questions below if you care to read them.
I am a first year medical student (not MD/PhD, just straight up MD), currently looking to do research during this summer, and I have very little research experience in undergrad, so maybe that is why I feel like an idiot, but I was hoping you guys could help me out.
Here is my situation. I am interested in doing either neurology or neurosurgery as a specialty. I thus want to get involved in research in these areas. I have emailed a few researchers at my school who are doing research that looks interesting to me. Nobody has agreed to meet with me yet, but I don't want to look like an idiot at my first meeting with them, so my first question is this:
what do I ask when I do meet with them? I have zero experience in neurology and know next to nothing about the subject. Should I even be doing research in this field since I know nothing about it (though I really don't know a whole lot about anything, my undergrad major was biochem).
Is the expectation that I make my own research project and design it myself? This is what it seems like is expected, but again, I would have no idea where to start. If possible, I would rather just jump on a project they are already doing and basically be a lab tech if it could get my name on a paper (or is this frowned upon?) Do I say I would be interested in this during the first meeting with a possible mentor?
What is the deal with funding? I keep on getting emails from my schools research director about different fellowships for various things, but for many of these things it seems like you already need a mentor and a research design. Is there other ways to get funding? What is the point of funding, too? Is it just to get a living stipend? Because I could live without that.
tl;dr I am really confused about how research works, and anything to help me understand the process would be greatly appreciated. I am sorry for being stupid about this, but nothing makes sense to me, and whenever someone at my school talks about it it sounds like they are speaking a foreign language. If someone could just go through the standard way research works for a med student I would be eternally grateful.
To put the main question up front and save you all time, if someone could go through the entire process how doing beginng research as a medical student works, I would be eternally grateful, because I know exactly nothing about the process. That is my main question, and there are further, more specific scenarios/questions below if you care to read them.
I am a first year medical student (not MD/PhD, just straight up MD), currently looking to do research during this summer, and I have very little research experience in undergrad, so maybe that is why I feel like an idiot, but I was hoping you guys could help me out.
Here is my situation. I am interested in doing either neurology or neurosurgery as a specialty. I thus want to get involved in research in these areas. I have emailed a few researchers at my school who are doing research that looks interesting to me. Nobody has agreed to meet with me yet, but I don't want to look like an idiot at my first meeting with them, so my first question is this:
what do I ask when I do meet with them? I have zero experience in neurology and know next to nothing about the subject. Should I even be doing research in this field since I know nothing about it (though I really don't know a whole lot about anything, my undergrad major was biochem).
Is the expectation that I make my own research project and design it myself? This is what it seems like is expected, but again, I would have no idea where to start. If possible, I would rather just jump on a project they are already doing and basically be a lab tech if it could get my name on a paper (or is this frowned upon?) Do I say I would be interested in this during the first meeting with a possible mentor?
What is the deal with funding? I keep on getting emails from my schools research director about different fellowships for various things, but for many of these things it seems like you already need a mentor and a research design. Is there other ways to get funding? What is the point of funding, too? Is it just to get a living stipend? Because I could live without that.
tl;dr I am really confused about how research works, and anything to help me understand the process would be greatly appreciated. I am sorry for being stupid about this, but nothing makes sense to me, and whenever someone at my school talks about it it sounds like they are speaking a foreign language. If someone could just go through the standard way research works for a med student I would be eternally grateful.
