Research Classes vs Research with Professor

[Plue00]

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Hey guys

At my university, it's pretty hard to get a research positions with professors unless you kiss some major ass or have great connections. We have a couple of research classes in the upper level biology classes that one can take where it's about 18 people who do independent research themselves with one professor. It's their own research topic and they can research on anything related to biology.

I was wondering if taking those courses for a couple of semesters would be looked as research experience by adcoms or just another science class.

Thanks for the help

 

[red doctober]

Probably somewhere in between the two. If that is absolutely the only thing you can do for research, I guess it's better than nothing. You should really try hard to get into a real lab though. Just send out a ton of emails to different professors who have labs, sell yourself a little, and say you're interested in their research topic. The research doesn't necessarily have to be in biomedicine, just something that will teach you principles of science and research. Adcoms do understand that at some colleges research is hard to come by, but there are a ton of summer programs for people in liberal arts colleges to become involved in research at major research institutions. You might want to look into those.

 

[Lucky Louie]

This question is something similar. There's a course available that is associated with the university & med school & hospital. You basically work as a RA and solicit participants to research studies. This also allows you to interact with patients and even shadow doctors (since they offer to show how "this" added study makes a difference.) But since the university gives you credit (although it's just P/F), can you use this time as volunteering, clinical, or shadowing?