Question about Research.......

[DoctorDude]

OK, so here's the situation. I'm a junior, applying to med school this summer. The only real thing that I feel I am lacking in terms of competitiveness is research. It's not that I haven't tried to apply; I applied last year with no luck and I just received two more rejections this week for research positions for this summer. I even inquired of many professors to research as a volunteer, but there is simply no space. So I have absolutely no research experience and it looks like I won't get any either.

Will this be a problem??? To be honest, I don't really find research to be that appealing - I just want to do some of it to get experience and more importantly, to be competitive since it seems many people have it. I'm worried that not having any will automatically put me at a disadvantage at many schools. I have a high GPA from a respected state school, will hopefully have a great MCAT (judging from practice scores), I have clinical and leadership blah blah blah... just NO research. What should I do/should I be worried and/or explain my pursuit of research with bad luck in my PS?

Thanks

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[FlowRate]

It sounds like you may be in a saturated major like biology or biochemistry. If you haven't yet, look outside your major for research opportunities. Maybe you have a gen chem or physics (for the biology example) professor who could use some research help. You may also look into engineering and psychology departments (engineering may be difficult if you don't have a vested interest in their research, psych isn't hard science).

 

[RogueUnicorn]

it seems research isn't much of a passion of yours anyway, so fit-wise it should work out that schools that like research won't be too high on you, whereas more clinician-oriented schools will be fine with no research

 

[getright]

From what I've read on here, the research that you can participate in can be DRASTICALLY different compared to the research that you have had to do for random courses. So it's kind of hard to judge whether or not you won't like it if you haven't really experienced it.