Looking for Advice on Research Experience

[chosenan]

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I'm an incoming freshmen at UCSD this fall for Human Bio, and was wondering if it is necessary to get a research experience at UCSD since its the place where I'm getting my undergrad.

This summer I already lined up one lab at MIT and one lab at UCSF so I was planning on doing just those two for the next few years. Is there any disadvantage to not doing a physical lab at UCSD, and will T10 ADCOMs look down on remote research with profs from different schools?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I'm an incoming freshmen at UCSD this fall for Human Bio, and was wondering if it is necessary to get a research experience at UCSD since its the place where I'm getting my undergrad.

This summer I already lined up one lab at MIT and one lab at UCSF so I was planning on doing just those two for the next few years. Is there any disadvantage to not doing a physical lab at UCSD, and will T10 ADCOMs look down on remote research with profs from different schools?

Short answer: no.

Why do you only care about top-10 adcoms? You have no grades to report. If you don't focus on your grades, the rest of your concerns won't matter if your only goal is a T10 program.

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Seriously, good luck keeping pace at UCSD.

 

[chosenan]

Thanks for the advice. I’ll focus on adjusting to college and take it easy during my first few quarters. I was mainly wondering whether remote computational research is seen differently from in-person wet-lab work. I only mentioned T10 schools because if I eventually have the stats to apply, I didn’t want the lack of a UCSD lab to bite me in the back.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thanks for the advice. I’ll focus on adjusting to college and take it easy during my first few quarters. I was mainly wondering whether remote computational research is seen differently from in-person wet-lab work. I only mentioned T10 schools because if I eventually have the stats to apply, I didn’t want the lack of a UCSD lab to bite me in the back.

Read

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"Remote computational research" doesn't get enough mentions in our survey to make an impression, so I suspect it would just be considered esoteric to most med school or clinical faculty unless they are immersed in your field.

I'm sure that T10 schools aren't that picky about you being restricted to do research just at your home undergrad. It's not like they screen you out because you did a summer research fellowship at Scripps or Keck Graduate Institute. The question is what you want out of research beyond an honors designation on your diploma.