Research Experience Question

[reb21199]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can clear something up for me. I'm currently working on my experience sections for my med school applications and I want to know if some of the small projects I have done in my undergrad through my classes count as research experience.
1. My freshman year I spent a semester researching the philosophical foundations of the Hippocratic Oath for a first year experience course. We did other things in the class and worked on the research projects on our own outside of class. (I presented my paper at a symposium so I'm including that under presentations).
2. I took part in the SWI project as part of a microbio lab. I isolated bacteria from top soil, sequenced a colonies DNA, and tested the colony to see if it produced effective antibiotics.
3. I researched and wrote a paper on the metabolic rates of mice and how that related to their mass.

I didn't publish any official papers for this stuff, but it they were definitely more involved than a lab report. I'm just curious to see if these small projects are worth adding to my application. Thank you in advance!

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[Blueprint Med School]

They sound legit experiences to me, particularly #2 which is a layup as far as counting it towards research.

#1 may best exist as a presentation, I agree. and #3 may or may not count. Tell me more about it. Was it a thesis paper (yes) or a class research paper (perhaps not) or something in between?

David D, MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[reb21199]

Thanks for your response! The mouse research probably falls along the lines of a class research project. I spent 3 days collecting respiration rates of mice that weighed different masses (like we grouped them big vs small mice if that makes sense) at different temperatures and then I compared the masses to the respiration rates in order to find the lower critical temperature for each mass group and the scale at which metabolic rate changed as the mass increased. Honestly, I didn't get much out of it, but I figured if I would just group all three experiences under one research entry because they were very small projects.