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funnymedstudent

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Hello everyone! I am trying to get some research experience. I was wondering how publications work? Are publications rare when applying to medical school? Are they commonplace? Is there any data stating how many students that apply to medical school have research and publications? Please let me know. Thank you so much. How common is a publication in research when applying to medical school?

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Hello everyone! I am trying to get some research experience. I was wondering how publications work? Are publications rare when applying to medical school? Are they commonplace? Is there any data stating how many students that apply to medical school have research and publications? Please let me know. Thank you so much. How common is a publication in research when applying to medical school?
Publications are indeed uncommon for pre-meds. Hell, they're hard enough for grad students!

The value of research is overrated, except for the Really Top Schools.
 
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Generally speaking, having publications when applying will only help your application but not having publications won't necessarily hurt it. Plenty of applicants have applied with just research experience but no real publications and have been accepted. That being said, some of the more research heavy med schools tend to favor applicants who do have publications or if you're planning on applying MD/PhD track having extensive research experience and publications are likely a must. The goal should be to get publications out of research but don't sweat it if you don't.
 
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It entirely depends on your luck and your lab. You can work super hard in a lab with an independent project for 5 years and have no publication or work on something for 3 months and get a middle authorship (have personally experienced both). It just all depends, too many variables. Generally, even if you have a pub, I don’t think ADCOMs take undergrad pubs that seriously unless it’s a first author in Nature or something. Not having a pub wont tank you, having one won’t put you over the top.
 
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Pretty sure Stanford heavily values publications.
Well... I didn’t have one at the time but did managed an interview... who knows these days
 
Well... I didn’t have one at the time but did managed an interview... who knows these days

Lacking a publication isn't a downside at any school, but some schools can weigh publications pretty heavily when making the final decision. Seeing that one of Stanford's secondary questions asks to list any publications, it's a pretty reasonable guess that their adcoms would give some favorable points to those who have them.
 
Lacking a publication isn't a downside at any school, but some schools can weigh publications pretty heavily when making the final decision. Seeing that one of Stanford's secondary questions asks to list any publications, it's a pretty reasonable guess that their adcoms would give some favorable points to those who have them.
I would agree that it is the general consensus at research heavy schools. Personally, I think people understand that at an undergrad level, publications isn’t always reflective of the student’s research ability, but more of circumstances. But I don’t think it will necessarily break you or make you unless it’s high profile. The experience/presentations still carries some weight on its own without pubs and if PI is big name and stuff.
 
Thank you everyone for such great answers! I appreciate it! So pubs are really rare huh? I mean is there any data for how many students that get accepted have pubs? I mean it's gotta be like less than ten percent right?
 
Thank you everyone for such great answers! I appreciate it! So pubs are really rare huh? I mean is there any data for how many students that get accepted have pubs? I mean it's gotta be like less than ten percent right?
I think it’s hard to say. I’ve seen people get put on papers for editing grammar for clinical research paper (ortho ofc). I’ve also seen grad students slave away in lab for 5 years and not get pub from their project. It’s hard to say.
Work toward the goal of getting a pub or presentation. But don’t bend backward trying to juggle while riding a unicycle at the same time to get one.
 
The amount of research experience is "objective", you're the one who chooses to put in "x" amount of hours. It looks good to have a lot of research.

Publications are more "subjective", some labs and some research just publishes leagues better than others. Shoot for one publication, imo.
 
Rare in the general applicant pool, more common in the interviewee pool at top schools. That's just how it is.
 
Depends on which schools to which you’re applying.

The UCs? Many of the UTs? Top 20s? Yes. Research is generally important and how important depends on the specific school. Consult MSAR or school-specific websites to see how important.

In general? Less important than clinical hours, leadership, and non-clinical volunteering across a majority of schools.

Indeed, it’s also possible for too much to be detrimental. If you have, for example, 3000 hours in research, three publications, and a conference talk versus 120 clinical hours on your application, admissions committees may question why you want to become a doctor and not a researcher (excluding MD/DO + PhD programs). That’s not good.

Research is a good thing to have, but it shouldn’t be at the very top of your priority list.

More to the point, and to answer your question specifically, publications are not common among medical school applicants. Additionally, there is much data on this. There is another thread on this that came through recently in which the amount of medical matriculants with research experience was examined. I’ll link it later if I run into it again.
 
anecdote. Our class was asked to raise hands if we had a publication before and about 10% did. It’s definitey the minority even for admitted students. This is at a “t-20”
 
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Ditto with the above comments. A publication does you less favor than it would in other process (like getting job or post-doc). It is also very lab/PI-dependent and requires months and years of dedicated lab time. UGs and pre-meds are usually not expected to have a publication because they spend little time in the lab every week comparing to grad students. Also many PIs are unpleasant about pre-meds joining their lab because "they want a publication and nothing else."

I am from a research-intensive school, and many applicants I know have presentation/thesis. But little have publication (let alone top authors). I agree that having a pub will set you apart , but it doesn't do you as much in the admission game. Unless the school is a research powerhouse, they value higher on your other parts of the app.
 
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