research experience necessary?

[bruin16]

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So I was looking through statistics for a lot of people and it seems like most people with my stats have had research experience and are published, which worries me a lot. I've worked for the last 2.5 yrs in a dermatology office in the back office so I've had a lot of hands-on clinical experience. I also was a study coordinator assistant for a couple of studies we did in the office. My gpa was a 3.71 and im expecting my mcat score to be around a 34/35. I also had some other leadership activities such as one of the coordinators for a sexual violence seminar and i was a camp counselor for children from underserved communities. Do I have any shot at going to one of the top schools with a lack of research experience? Right now I am taking a year off from school while i apply and am working full time still at the derm office as well as volunteering a few hours a week at a hospital internship where i get to observe a lot of surgeries in different departments of the hospital. A professor told me i might be able to work in his lab as a sort of lab assistant once or twice a week (but i would not be the one doing the research). Is this worth it? Or do you think it's necessary that I quit my job to try to find a job doing research in order to get into a good school? I would like to do research because I find it interesting but never found the time as an undergraduate with my work and other activities. Now that I have told my work I would stay until I got into med school, I would feel bad leaving. If it would increase my chances of getting into med school drastically, I would definitely do it though.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Well, research definitely is not a requirement (unspoken or otherwise) to get into med school, but you'll have problems getting into a top research school without any.