Is it disingenuous to talk about research opportunities for the "Why Us" section if I don't have any research experience?

[catalyst1000]

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Title. I obviously sincerely want to do research as a med student—I want to hit the ground running as an M1 actually—but it feels hard to substantiate this interest in secondaries since I have literally no experience to speak of.

If I have other strengths to my application that I could tie into the school's mission, should I just leave research out? Or is it still worth including just to show that I did the "research" and know that x school has x y z research programs.

 

[polymerization]

I'm an applicant, so YMMV, but I would find it hard to wax poetic and look out into the future over a passion for an activity I had every opportunity to pursue as an undergraduate. I'm not at all saying that you don't actually want to do research, or personally judging your path—it just doesn't necessarily logically follow and would be really hard to write about in a way that will have people believe you.

This is 100% an opinion, but I'm of the belief that your interests should be self-evident by the way you talk about things you've already done.

It would be weird, for example, for someone to talk about how much they love Italy—spending all day doing a bad Italian impersonation, eating pasta and drinking affogatos—but they've never been to Italy, don't know anyone from Italy, and are themselves not Italian. It would seem disingenuous if they suddenly started expressing such an affinity they never had before while standing in line to apply for a study abroad trip to Italy and gesturing wildly in front of the program organizers. Mamma mia.

 

[wysdoc]

Title. I obviously sincerely want to do research as a med student—I want to hit the ground running as an M1 actually—but it feels hard to substantiate this interest in secondaries since I have literally no experience to speak of.

If I have other strengths to my application that I could tie into the school's mission, should I just leave research out? Or is it still worth including just to show that I did the "research" and know that x school has x y z research programs.

Talk about things you have actually done and experienced. If research is something a school plays up as important to see in its applicants, you are not likely to move forward in that school's admissions process.

 

[Goro]

Honestly, yes.

 

[garlic_hunter]

In my humble opinion, the answer to your question is that it depends. If you attended a small liberal arts institution or a region where you did not have access to research in your area of interest, there is nothing wrong with laying down a vision of how you want to impact medicine through research, even though you lack substantial research experience.

For instance, you might have worked as a CNA in a rural addiction clinic with no academic hospitals or research programs that focused on this area of medicine accessible in your local community. In such a scenario, it's entirely reasonable to lean on your clinical background and talk about a vision of wanting to improve treatment modalities through scholarly involvement for people who suffer from addiction. However, if you find yourself in such a scenario, do proper research and actually identify resources and programs you are interested in at the respective institutions to avoid coming across as someone who virtue signals.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

(highly imperfect analogy warning)

Not that I have direct experience in "exaggerating" my interests on any dating profile, but if you say you're into skydiving when you've never done it... Maybe more innocuous would be that you love to learn about skydiving... that it's something that you know you need to check off a bucket list (like you know you want experience in research when there are good resources and mentors to help you generally). I just want to know why you have it on your bucket list and what has stopped you before (other than money, time, or other interests).

I think your mental energy is better spent showing how the program builds on what you have current interests in. If you want to be involved in research, most schools will have opportunities.

 

[eigen]

Title. I obviously sincerely want to do research as a med student—I want to hit the ground running as an M1 actually—but it feels hard to substantiate this interest in secondaries since I have literally no experience to speak of.

To add to the other good advice above, there's an implicit question of "how do you know you want to do research if you haven't ever done it?"

My experience mentoring students in research is that a lot of the students who've never done research think they're going to like it, but don't really know what it is. And many of those students do a semester, or a summer, and realize they don't like it and don't pursue it further.

I will say, anecdotally, that I often hear from friends at medical schools who have been burned repeatedly by med students with no prior research experience who want to do research during medical school. From their perspective, it almost never works out well, and that leaves students in your position with a significant uphill battle to convince those folks that you're the exception to the rule.

You don't have to answer here (although we can help you think through it if you do), but why do you want to do research? And if it's something you're super passionate about, why haven't you done it yet?

 

[catalyst1000]

To add to the other good advice above, there's an implicit question of "how do you know you want to do research if you haven't ever done it?"

My experience mentoring students in research is that a lot of the students who've never done research think they're going to like it, but don't really know what it is. And many of those students do a semester, or a summer, and realize they don't like it and don't pursue it further.

I will say, anecdotally, that I often hear from friends at medical schools who have been burned repeatedly by med students with no prior research experience who want to do research during medical school. From their perspective, it almost never works out well, and that leaves students in your position with a significant uphill battle to convince those folks that you're the exception to the rule.

You don't have to answer here (although we can help you think through it if you do), but why do you want to do research? And if it's something you're super passionate about, why haven't you done it yet?

That's an excellent point and I can believe it from the school's perspective.

I would like to say that I would be the exception to the rule but I can't guarantee that.

Here's why I think I would like research:

a) My current clinical employment is very data-driven, although it is NOT clinical research. I work for a sub-specialty service and do data collection / analysis for them on stuff like procedure volume, referrals, cancellations, etc. There is a menial aspect to it (as I'm sure there is to research in general) but also lots of interesting problems re: data quality, sourcing, etc. Like I've built several databases from scratch for the practice at this point and each time I have to ask myself: what data is available/accessible, what data is accurate/trustworthy, and what data is useful—that answers a practical question? For example for case volume we have clinic data (from the RNs who schedule procedures), we have OR data (from their schedule) and then we have billing data on the backend. For several reasons there are discrepancies between the three and that's kind of unavoidable: how do we take it into account? That's the kind of stuff I work on day-to-day and I suppose the strongest reason why I think I will like research.

b) This is a much sillier reason but I have been listening religiously to "This Week in Cardiology" for the past year which is a 30min podcast that goes over news in cards research. Absolutely love it. Some stuff goes over my head but the host talks a lot about trial design and I've learned a ton. Caveat: the host of the show doesn't even do research himself (at least not recently), it's more about *applying* (or more often, not applying) research to clinical practice.

As for why I haven't done any research yet:

Did completely non-science undergrad, 0 exposure to even basic science until 1yr DIY post-bacc 2023-2024.

DIY post-bacc I was working part-time and also juggling a significant and extended family illness, then took MCAT

Since then I've been working full-time and volunteering in evenings. Also obviously spending a lot of time preparing to apply.

I'm not going to say that I couldn't have gotten at least SOME research exposure in the past year but I would have been stretched pretty thin.

 

[PickaGodnPray]

Medical students with no research are the bane of my existence in a research lab and honestly even some physicians have no idea how to conduct proper research. It is a skill that needs to be learned through doing. There is nothing wrong with talking about wanting to learn how to do it because then you are telling the institution what level you are coming in at so they know what to expect. If you do not, you put a lot of burden on the institution if they cannot train you at that level. We had an MD/PhD student rotate in our lab with NO research experience dropped by the program last year.

 

[eigen]

Ok, so follow-up: when you say “research”, are you thinking mostly data based / clinical and not lab based?

If not, I’m not sure either of your reasons really suggests that you know what lab research is about (although menial tedium in a job is a good start), and the complete lack of a strong science background beyond the prerequisites would make me worry about a lack of basic lab skills and experience.

 

[catalyst1000]

Ok, so follow-up: when you say “research”, are you thinking mostly data based / clinical and not lab based?

If not, I’m not sure either of your reasons really suggests that you know what lab research is about (although menial tedium in a job is a good start), and the complete lack of a strong science background beyond the prerequisites would make me worry about a lack of basic lab skills and experience.

Yes. My impression is that wet lab research is very low ROI for med students and not typically done. Much more common is getting hitched to a clinical trial or doing retrospectives / case reports / etc. If I were a student that's 99% of what I'd pursue