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Hi!
So I just got a job in a research lab, which I am very excited about! It's an ecology lab, so all of the lab work is field work done at our university farm. So basically what I'll be doing this semester is, as a volunteer, I'll just be helping out whenever a graduate student like needs someone to go shovel snow off the plants at the farm, and things like that. So that's obviously not research. But then this summer, I'll be doing my own independent project. I'll work full time (~40 hours per week) and get paid. Then, if I get any interesting results from my project, throughout my senior year I will work on writing a paper for publishing (obviously it probably wouldn't be published until long after I've graduated, if it gets published at all, but whatever). From previous threads, I gather that one summer working full time is "enough" to be considered significant research experience. I'll also be doing my own project, not cleaning glassware, so obviously the time I will have put in will be time well spent.
So here's my question: I'll be applying to medical school this summer. I plan on submitting my application basically the first day it's available (although I'm taking the MCAT in May so it won't be complete until late June). So at the time I submit my application, I will probably have about a month of research experience, but by the end of the summer I'll have ~400 hours of research experience, plus whatever time I expect to put in my senior year. I know that you can enter like "future hours" on the application for stuff like this. But do "future hours" "count" as much as stuff that you've already done? This will be my only research experience. So will adcoms look at me as an applicant with only one month of research, because that's all I've actually done by the time they get my application? Or will they look at me as an applicant with a summer of full-time research experience? I hope what I am asking makes sense...
I wish I hadn't put off getting a research position for this long 🙁 I would hate for this (not having enough research) to make my otherwise pretty solid application (high GPA, lots of volunteering, a good amount of work experience, interesting shadowing experience, and a semester abroad/near-fluency in a second language) look bad.
Also, a side question: if I got a letter of rec from my PI, could that count as a second science professor rec (she teaches bio at my university, but I've never taken her class)? I'm worried about letters of rec because I'm a Spanish major, so the only science professors I know are from my pre-req classes, which were all huge so I didn't really get to know any of the professors that well (stupid me). So all I've got right now is one letter from a math prof and one from a non-bcpm prof.
So I just got a job in a research lab, which I am very excited about! It's an ecology lab, so all of the lab work is field work done at our university farm. So basically what I'll be doing this semester is, as a volunteer, I'll just be helping out whenever a graduate student like needs someone to go shovel snow off the plants at the farm, and things like that. So that's obviously not research. But then this summer, I'll be doing my own independent project. I'll work full time (~40 hours per week) and get paid. Then, if I get any interesting results from my project, throughout my senior year I will work on writing a paper for publishing (obviously it probably wouldn't be published until long after I've graduated, if it gets published at all, but whatever). From previous threads, I gather that one summer working full time is "enough" to be considered significant research experience. I'll also be doing my own project, not cleaning glassware, so obviously the time I will have put in will be time well spent.
So here's my question: I'll be applying to medical school this summer. I plan on submitting my application basically the first day it's available (although I'm taking the MCAT in May so it won't be complete until late June). So at the time I submit my application, I will probably have about a month of research experience, but by the end of the summer I'll have ~400 hours of research experience, plus whatever time I expect to put in my senior year. I know that you can enter like "future hours" on the application for stuff like this. But do "future hours" "count" as much as stuff that you've already done? This will be my only research experience. So will adcoms look at me as an applicant with only one month of research, because that's all I've actually done by the time they get my application? Or will they look at me as an applicant with a summer of full-time research experience? I hope what I am asking makes sense...
I wish I hadn't put off getting a research position for this long 🙁 I would hate for this (not having enough research) to make my otherwise pretty solid application (high GPA, lots of volunteering, a good amount of work experience, interesting shadowing experience, and a semester abroad/near-fluency in a second language) look bad.
Also, a side question: if I got a letter of rec from my PI, could that count as a second science professor rec (she teaches bio at my university, but I've never taken her class)? I'm worried about letters of rec because I'm a Spanish major, so the only science professors I know are from my pre-req classes, which were all huge so I didn't really get to know any of the professors that well (stupid me). So all I've got right now is one letter from a math prof and one from a non-bcpm prof.
