Medical Quitting research?

[Goro]

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So I have kind of a unique situation in terms of my lab:
Tufts has an early acceptance program to med school, and I just got in as a sophomore, but it is a mid tier school and very expensive. I would like to apply elsewhere as well, as I have a good GPA and other experience like scribing, but am afraid that if I quit my lab before my junior year without a publication I wont really have a chance to get in to any top-tier schools.

I'm currently working in a reputable lab, but I am absolutely miserable. I am not great at bench work and don't really enjoy it, despite liking the concepts behind it. Also, my grad student and I have a very frosty relationship after she accused me of falsifying data and told the PI about it, only to zoom in to my image and see that what she thought was a fake gel band was a text box that had shifted in reformatting.

However, despite my PCRs rarely ever working, because the PI likes me due to my conceptual understanding, I have been offered to continue at lab next semester, working with another undergrad, with the chance of a first author publication if our project goes well.

I am miserable there and dread interacting with my grad student, who has given up on me. Every time another gel comes up blank or an experiment fails I just feel so completely dejected. I would love to do more clinical volunteering, which I don't have a lot of, but am terrified that if I don't do any research junior or senior year I won't get into a top tier med school and will have wasted time in studying for and taking the MCAT when I already have an acceptance. If I quit now, my last research will be at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute this summer.

What should I do?

Life is short and if you want grief, it's a lot easier simply to go punch a policeman.

Nothing what you're going through is worth it. Research is overrated as a requirement for med school.

So, give your apologies to your PI, and leave. You don't need a PI LOR either.

Getting into a top tier school isn't worth what you're going through. You can get a fine education from Albany or Drexel.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

So I have kind of a unique situation in terms of my lab:
... What should I do?

No, this is not unique. Unfortunately.

1) You are an undergraduate, and you have no contract to stay in the lab, especially if you are experiencing traumatic peer interactions that your PI is not willing to properly manage.
2) Chalk up lessons learned about working in a dysfunctional work environment. Clean up how you would ever answer an interview question where you would use your experience to show why you are more inclined to working with people. Now, don't ever close the door on all research since you could enjoy more social-science-based less-bench work, but you have gained some knowledge of what you would look for in a good collaborator and a great team.
3) We'll repeat: you can leave your lab. Your mental health and your self-esteem are worth you taking this action over any desire about getting into some top-tier school. You may have some similarly challenging teachers and supervisors in medical school where you have to learn to cope with that conflict but there are usually safeguards to help you. There aren't any here.

 

[lord999]

I would leave this lab full stop EVEN if you didn't have early acceptance. No offense, if you are screwing up what is a fairly straightforward lab procedure routinely, it is the PIs actual responsibility to either retrain and supervise your performance until you get it right (and PCR is not hard to consistently get correct) or reassign or dismiss you to a role that you can contribute to. It's not unheard of, but a lab that is sloppy is a lab that you don't want to be associated with.

That said, do you want to research? If you do, try to find a Pathology, MCB, or Immunology Lab. The techniques are practically useful, you repeat them often enough to get good, and you might like it. But if you're doing research to check a box, well, your risk benefit profile continuing in this lab is stacked against you.