One summer of research

[NP545]

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I am going to do research this summer for about 30-35 hours per week in a lab at my college. Is this "enough" for the unwritten med school requirement?

 

[mmmcdowe]

Is it enough, sure. Is it going make you a strong research oriented candidate for top programs, no.

 

[nemo123]

It's more important to be able to explain what you got out of the experience (i.e. were you just washing dishes and autoclaving stuff or did you have some role in hypothesis testing).

 

[NP545]

Is it worth doing it though (if it's the only research part of my entire app)? For the beginning I would be in training and learning how to do stuff but later on I may be able to start my own project or help on someone else's.

I'm not really too interested in research and only was considering doing it to fill the unwritten requirement

 

[Shazam243]

Do you have anything else you could/would rather be doing? If you're planning on applying to a bunch of research-heavy schools, you should definitely do it. Otherwise, it would be better if you find something else (volunteer-oriented) to do that you think you would actually like. It's not too late to be applying to volunteer things right now. One of the best things I've ever done was volunteer in a free health clinic.

You can actually get a lot out of it (research) for yourself, for your application, and for the interviews. I had two summers worth of research experience and it was more than enough to talk about.