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So I currently just graduated from my undergrad institution this past December and I've been wondering about how my application will come together and i'm not sure about how this factor could/should go.
So as an undergrad (starting about 2-2.5 years ago) I got in contact with a surgeon at our university affiliated hospital to start up a kind of "cohort" clinical surgical study that included surgical patients (we took intraoperative biopsies) coming in for an outpatient (and sometimes inpatient) procedure related to diabetes. In the first year I kind of worked as a support coordinator, taking on minor aspects of starting up the project.
However, in the last year I was essentially the research coordinator for the entire project as I quickly became the most senior member and had the best handle on our progress. Yes, I worked with some other med students and the surgeon himself gave VERY intermittent and limited support, but ultimately I did complete almost all the components of the startup. In fact, on almost all the documentation I'm listed and referred to as the primary contact as the research coordinator. Yes, I've been told many times that I shouldn't have been in charge of doing this but unfortunately/fortunately I was given the opportunity and I took it.
After around 2 years, I've pushed our study through our university's IRB committee (after a painstakingly long process that i've learned a lot about) and have also secured grant funding for the project. Although I obviously didn't do this alone, the large majority of it was honestly done by myself and working with whatever resources I had to put everything together.
My question then is this: is anything that i've done actually presentable to medical schools? I feel like although I have actual documentation (IRB documentation, drafts of grants, research protocol, literature reviews) of having pushed this entire study through, I don't feel like I actually have very much that is "tangible" for medical schools as a publication may be. I'm largely worried because I seriously put so much time and effort in to pushing this project through as an undergrad against a HUGE learning curve and it's finally coming together, but I don't have very much to show for it.
So i'm wondering, what aspects of this can I use for my advantage in applying for medical schools? I plan to apply this upcoming 2017-2018 cycle and i'm just trying to get everything in order, so any advice or knowledge would be greatly appreciated!
So as an undergrad (starting about 2-2.5 years ago) I got in contact with a surgeon at our university affiliated hospital to start up a kind of "cohort" clinical surgical study that included surgical patients (we took intraoperative biopsies) coming in for an outpatient (and sometimes inpatient) procedure related to diabetes. In the first year I kind of worked as a support coordinator, taking on minor aspects of starting up the project.
However, in the last year I was essentially the research coordinator for the entire project as I quickly became the most senior member and had the best handle on our progress. Yes, I worked with some other med students and the surgeon himself gave VERY intermittent and limited support, but ultimately I did complete almost all the components of the startup. In fact, on almost all the documentation I'm listed and referred to as the primary contact as the research coordinator. Yes, I've been told many times that I shouldn't have been in charge of doing this but unfortunately/fortunately I was given the opportunity and I took it.
After around 2 years, I've pushed our study through our university's IRB committee (after a painstakingly long process that i've learned a lot about) and have also secured grant funding for the project. Although I obviously didn't do this alone, the large majority of it was honestly done by myself and working with whatever resources I had to put everything together.
My question then is this: is anything that i've done actually presentable to medical schools? I feel like although I have actual documentation (IRB documentation, drafts of grants, research protocol, literature reviews) of having pushed this entire study through, I don't feel like I actually have very much that is "tangible" for medical schools as a publication may be. I'm largely worried because I seriously put so much time and effort in to pushing this project through as an undergrad against a HUGE learning curve and it's finally coming together, but I don't have very much to show for it.
So i'm wondering, what aspects of this can I use for my advantage in applying for medical schools? I plan to apply this upcoming 2017-2018 cycle and i'm just trying to get everything in order, so any advice or knowledge would be greatly appreciated!
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