Question about research

[alibaig14]

Hi,
I had a question about research in undergrad. I have no lab-based research experience or science research. I have been doing Mathematical research with my professor for the past year. Will that count, or look bad without a scientific lab-based research? (And its not even a research at top school though). and plus, I dont have summer research experience and I declined my professor for this summer because I will be taking the MCAT, and summer research is 40 hours a week, so i thought it would be best to use that time for MCAT. Will no summer research experience will look bad as well? I know its not required, but so many people are doing research these days.

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[once]

Hi,
I had a question about research in undergrad. I have no lab-based research experience or science research. I have been doing Mathematical research with my professor for the past year. Will that count, or look bad without a scientific lab-based research? (And its not even a research at top school though). and plus, I dont have summer research experience and I declined my professor for this summer because I will be taking the MCAT, and summer research is 40 hours a week, so i thought it would be best to use that time for MCAT. Will no summer research experience will look bad as well? I know its not required, but so many people are doing research these days.

No summer research experience won't look bad as long as you do something else productive during the summer. MCAT prep is a job in and of itself, but you need to build a study schedule that allows you to do other stuff as well. Try to get some good volunteering or shadowing experience at a hospital or clinic. Try to fill the summer with stuff you find enjoyable but also could be listed on an application or CV.

A year of research experience is enough to get the gist of what research is about and whether or not it is something you really want to pursue or not. There are joint MD/PhD programs that you can apply for where research experience is a much larger component of admissions and in that case you may want to gain some more lab based research. I work in both a mathematics research group and a biomaterials research group and I would have to say that the environments and experiences are quite a bit different.

 

[ucsfstudents]

Agree with above post. Also try to submit an abstract to a conference or publish your results (have your professor help you with that).

 

[NickNaylor]

As long as you can talk meaningfully about your work and are able to clearly explain what you did, you should be fine. An abstract or a poster at the least would be ideal, but a pub would be best.

 

[alibaig14]

No summer research experience won't look bad as long as you do something else productive during the summer. MCAT prep is a job in and of itself, but you need to build a study schedule that allows you to do other stuff as well. Try to get some good volunteering or shadowing experience at a hospital or clinic. Try to fill the summer with stuff you find enjoyable but also could be listed on an application or CV.

A year of research experience is enough to get the gist of what research is about and whether or not it is something you really want to pursue or not. There are joint MD/PhD programs that you can apply for where research experience is a much larger component of admissions and in that case you may want to gain some more lab based research. I work in both a mathematics research group and a biomaterials research group and I would have to say that the environments and experiences are quite a bit different.

Thank You all who responded. Yeah I have submitted my abstract twice, and presented two times in a conference. I was just confused if math research was ok or not. I am definitely not trying for MD/PHD program isnt that very competitive? Yeah hopefully i get some more volunteering experience this summer plus shadowing. I have both but not as much as people talk that they have. Thanks!

 

[dlee262]

okay, I have a similar question.

What if I do research in economics/development?

The topic seems so relevant and significant to me, that I can barely resist from pursuing it.

Of course, this combined with my past decisions will most likely translate to me not having any lab nor scientific research experience before my med-school application. What would medical schools think?

 

[vc7777]

Scholarly, original work endeavors are well received by many medical schools. The one caveat would be trying to leverage less traditional research experiences specifically for research intensive programs/schools (MD/PhD and MD/MS, CTSP, etc). In these cases, it would be easier if the research was related to medicine. For example, I think prior research into the economics of medicine/healthcare delivery would be very intriguing to the right programs, and irrelevant to others. As would perhaps research into mathematical modeling of biological processes.

Good luck.

 

[dlee262]

thanks for the helpful comment VC!