Research as a freshmen

[frosh MD]

Hey guys, I was wondering if it's a bad idea to start research during freshmen year in undergrad. Some have told me that it's good, others have said that you should first settle down with grades and wait til sophmore year. What do you guys think???

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[GoSpursGo]

I did it, and it was great. My grades didn't suffer at all when I started it in the spring, despite taking a really heavy courseload (2 sciences and a math); all it really did was make me learn time.

If you start now, you've got a chance to say you've done 3.5 years of research by the time you apply to med school, which will be more than most other people will be able to say. Unless you're struggling with keeping up with classes as it is, I really support starting research as soon as possible. Of course, everyone is different

 

[mister_seng]

If you think you have the time and effort to actually do some meaningful research, then go for it, but alot of freshman undergrad research usually ends up just watching the test tubes boil. Not a very interesting blurb to put on your application if that ends up to be the case. That time could be better used, say, volunteer....

 

[stooges287]

If you think you have the time and effort to actually do some meaningful research, then go for it, but alot of freshman undergrad research usually ends up just watching the test tubes boil. Not a very interesting blurb to put on your application if that ends up to be the case. That time could be better used, say, volunteer....

Ditto.

 

[GoSpursGo]

If you think you have the time and effort to actually do some meaningful research, then go for it, but alot of freshman undergrad research usually ends up just watching the test tubes boil. Not a very interesting blurb to put on your application if that ends up to be the case. That time could be better used, say, volunteer....

Obviously, what I said assumed that you saw this as the start of a long-reaching future research project that you could hopefully continue throughout college. If you would pretty much just be doing this to check off on your application that you did some research, then wait until later so that when you do it you can actually contribute something substantial, like the others here say.