Is undergrad research "really" necessary?

Started by axon11
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axon11

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I'm in my 2nd year and my local hospital is starting up a program for university students where they are able to shadow doctors in the neurology, derm., urology, oncology and a few other departments. This sort of program wasn't available at any of my local hospitals before and I only had the chance of shadowing my local family docs. I know this will be a good experience for me come next summer as I can get a close insight into different med. specialties. On the other hand, my only chance to do full time research will be during the same time next year (may-august). So I don't know which one I should do. I'm not that fond of research and enjoy working/volunteering in the hospital environment like I'm doing now.

I am only volunteering in the ER department at the moment, greeting patients and directing them as they come in so it doesn't involve much "clinical experience". On the other hand, I can shadow doctors from different specialties and learn much more that way...

The program runs like this: You name your top 3 specialties that you like. They then match you up with doctors from those specialties. So you have a little more than a month to shadow each doc.
 
It depends on what kind of school you want to go to and what sort of medicine you want to pursue. A lot of top, research-heavy schools will want to see some time in a lab. Primary care focused schools won't care quite as much.

I'd say stick with what makes you happy. Volunteering / clinical experience can be just as important as research to some adcoms. If you are interested in doing *some* sort of research before you graduate, are you sure you can't find a lab to help out in during the school year?
 
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idf27 said:
It depends on what kind of school you want to go to and what sort of medicine you want to pursue. A lot of top, research-heavy schools will want to see some time in a lab. Primary care focused schools won't care quite as much.

I'd say stick with what makes you happy. Volunteering / clinical experience can be just as important as research to some adcoms. If you are interested in doing *some* sort of research before you graduate, are you sure you can't find a lab to help out in during the school year?
Click to expand...

I can certainly find a lab to "help out" in but adcoms won't consider it as research experience will they? I mean I won't be part of their research project, more of like a bench warmer or water boy lol. I actually spoke to a few TAs who are conducting research and they said if you want to help out you can but the most you will do is prepare slides, clean lab equipment, etc..is that good enough?

If I'm going to carry my own project or with a TA that could lead to publications then it will HAVE to be during spring/summer...which is the same time the shadowing program starts
 
axon11 said:
I can certainly find a lab to "help out" in but adcoms won't consider it as research experience will they? I mean I won't be part of their research project, more of like a bench warmer or water boy lol. I actually spoke to a few TAs who are conducting research and they said if you want to help out you can but the most you will do is prepare slides, clean lab equipment, etc..is that good enough?

If I'm going to carry my own project or with a TA that could lead to publications then it will HAVE to be during spring/summer...which is the same time the shadowing program starts
Click to expand...

I feel like that's how every undergrad starts, unless they have connections to a lab (nepotism ftw). As you get more useful, you gain more responsibility, and ultimately more opportunities. The great majority of ug's don't have pubs going into the application process, especially applying straight. Maybe posters or abstracts, but from what I've seen, generating actual publication results on PubMed before you graduate from college is pretty rare.

It really depends on how quickly you learn. I've seen undergrads who toiled away an entire summer learning how not to contaminate cells, and I've seen others who started doing IHC independently within a couple of weeks. At the end of the day though, I agree with Nick. Stick with what you like and do it well. I think that's what adcoms will respect.
 
This question has been beaten to death.

No, research is not a "requirement" by any stretch of the imagination. Only do it if you really want to do it- it's painfully obvious when students do it for pure med school resume padding.
 
chiapet874 said:
This question has been beaten to death.

No, research is not a "requirement" by any stretch of the imagination. Only do it if you really want to do it- it's painfully obvious when students do it for pure med school resume padding.
Click to expand...

Guilty as charged.

*scratches research off of ECs list*
 
I do research which is not even biologically relevant... I just do it because it is an exciting puzzle. I think the motives for research and not the research are important if you aren't going top 20. I would probably not do nano particle synthesis for top 20.
 
axon11 said:
I'm in my 2nd year and my local hospital is starting up a program for university students where they are able to shadow doctors in the neurology, derm., urology, oncology and a few other departments. This sort of program wasn't available at any of my local hospitals before and I only had the chance of shadowing my local family docs. I know this will be a good experience for me come next summer as I can get a close insight into different med. specialties. On the other hand, my only chance to do full time research will be during the same time next year (may-august). So I don't know which one I should do. I'm not that fond of research and enjoy working/volunteering in the hospital environment like I'm doing now.

I am only volunteering in the ER department at the moment, greeting patients and directing them as they come in so it doesn't involve much "clinical experience". On the other hand, I can shadow doctors from different specialties and learn much more that way...

The program runs like this: You name your top 3 specialties that you like. They then match you up with doctors from those specialties. So you have a little more than a month to shadow each doc.
Click to expand...

I think the above is more of an issue you need to resolve, you want as much clinical experience as possible. I'm guessing you're only a liason. I'm more of a volunteer/emergency tech aid in the ER and I tell you what I get more than enough clinical experience when I'm interacting with and tranporting patients from toddlers to the elderly all over the hospital. It's real hands on and I'm always running around helping the nurses/ER Techs and patients. I'm actually going to get into a paid position this summer maybe.

"If you can smell patients, it is a clinical experience." - LizzyM
 
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