planning for 1 summer of reserach

[anonymousername]

I'm only planning on 1 summer of research and I'm a little concerned that because I'll be involved in it for such a short amount of time, it won't count for much. The previous threads that I looked at don't seem to detail how much harm having only a summer (or no) research experience will have on an application.

I understand that "top tier" schools want research but do California schools (even the ones that are considered top tier) weigh research as heavily?

Also, the general gist I got from the previous postings was that:

clinical experience > volunteering/research....is there any truth to this?

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[rockyDoctora]

This is my plan so far as well. However, I'm also hoping that I'll be able to make time for research for all of junior year after the summer research (I'm a sophomore now).

Everyone on SDN seems to have like 1yr+ research experience, and that gets me pretty nervous haha.. ....

 

[muhali3]

clinical experience > volunteering/research....is there any truth to this?

This is true. There is a pdf from AAMC that I am too lazy to find, that lists what factors weigh most heavily in admissions, and clinical xp comes right after GPA and MCAT.

You shouldn't do research to impress adcoms. Unless you actually like it, I wouldn't go doing it beyond a semester, because there are many better things that you could do with your time.

Many applicants get in with no research, but rarely does someone get in with no clinical experience.

 

[randombetch]

Many applicants get in with no research, but rarely does someone get in with no clinical experience.

Lol really? Let's see what it's like for California schools:

% of accepted students with research experience:
USC - 88
Stanford - 98 (!)
UC Davis - 91
UC Irvine - 93
UCLA - 92
UCSD - 91
UCSF - 92

(according to 2010-2011 MSAR)

 

[loveoforganic]

California schools are hardly the norm. At any rate, most have research, generally not necessary. However, summer research is probably worth a year of research during the school year, at least timewise.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

I would do the summer of research. That way, you can always say that you tried it and that research wasn't for you. The posted stats on research for Cali schools might be scary, but those stats don't say how much research experience people had. I'm betting that many of those matriculants had only a summer or semester of research.

 

[randombetch]

I would do the summer of research. That way, you can always say that you tried it and that research wasn't for you. The posted stats on research for Cali schools might be scary, but those stats don't say how much research experience people had. I'm betting that many of those matriculants had only a summer or semester of research.

You're probably right (except Stanford... they seem to be nuts about research. The 2% were probably incredible URMs who never had time to do research because they had to work full-time jobs or something)

 

[jla314]

You're probably right (except Stanford... they seem to be nuts about research. The 2% were probably incredible URMs who never had time to do research because they had to work full-time jobs or something)

wow.

 

[randombetch]

wow.

?

 

[jla314]

1) why would the only people who needed to work full time be URMs?

2) i think its a bit offensive how often acceptances are chalked up to URM status. it's like all of our other accomplishments will never be taken as seriously because we had the three magic letters on our applications.

 

[Narmerguy]

?

You're insinuating that minorities are the reason for academic anomalies.

 

[randombetch]

1) why would the only people who needed to work full time be URMs?

2) i think its a bit offensive how often acceptances are chalked up to URM status. it's like all of our other accomplishments will never be taken as seriously because we had the three magic letters on our applications.

You're insinuating that minorities are the reason for academic anomalies.

1) I never said URMs are the only people who need to work full time. Nor did I insinuate that. Where the hell did you get that from? What if I said, "probably URMs who had tons of great clinical experiences" - does that imply that URMs are the only ones who get tons of great clinical experiences? I said "full-time jobs" because that would be a legitimate excuse for not having the time to do research (while I doubt saying "I was unable to get involved with research because I had to volunteer at a hospital" would have the same effect).

But even if I did say something along the lines of, "they're probably URMs and therefore more likely to work a full-time job" - I don't think that's anything other than just stating a fact either. URMs as a whole have a lower average family income than non-URMs, and are thus more likely to work full-time jobs. Want to dispute that?

2) A lot of times, people who are URMs who get in wouldn't have gotten in otherwise - it is a moderately significant advantage. That's the truth.

Obviously, there are also many URMs who didn't need the advantage to get into where ever they got into. I never meant otherwise.

Maybe you find this offensive? I guess the truth is offensive then?

 

[jla314]

i think bringing up URMs in stanford's 2% who do not have research experience is irrelevant, period.

yes, maybe those 2% of acceptees do not have research experience because they have tons of volunteering or because they have full time jobs or because they have lots of international or public health experience, but the race of that 2% has nothing to do with anything. there are URMs with tons of research experience, and there are URMs with tons of clinical experience, and there are URMs who work a full time job...but to try to specifically pidgeonhole a subgroup of minorities as comprising the 2% was probably not your best line of logic.

 

[anonymousername]

I don't really care about the URM discussion but more input would be nice from more ppl (LizzyM?).

 

[kami333]

However, summer research is probably worth a year of research during the school year, at least timewise.

Project completion-wise it can be equal too, especially if you are comparing something like a summer internship at a company or a REU to a year of doing research in a random lab.
A lot of times the labs who participate in summer programs have a specific project in mind that can be started and mostly completed in a few months time, which sometimes can be a better experience than starting partway through an open ended project since you get the whole background research/design/data collection/analysis experience.