research for admissions

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OneLove

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I've just been told that I will be put on one of my professor's research teams for when she goes on sabbatical. I plan on pursing this oppurtunity because she has made a huge exeption for me in taking me in. I have her for general psych and I'm also a psych major. The reserach has to do with segretation, rascism, and prejudice with minority and eop college students and how they accomodate to it. I think this would be a great oppurtunity to really get into the whole research realm. I realize that this really has little to do with medicine or the life sciences. Does this still help me stand out on my amcas? Should the oppurtunity to do more biology based reserach come up, should I puruse that even though I would enjoy the psych reserach oppurtunities more? Thanks so much all.

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My research experience was in psychology, in cognition and in social attribution theory. The bottom line is that scientific psychology shares the same research process as medical research. There's really no difference in the process. One advanteage of psychology research for med school admissions is that you get to work with live human subjects, so if you spin it the right way, it can be both reseach experience and clinical health experience.
 
OneLove said:
I've just been told that I will be put on one of my professor's research teams for when she goes on sabbatical. I plan on pursing this oppurtunity because she has made a huge exeption for me in taking me in. I have her for general psych and I'm also a psych major. The reserach has to do with segretation, rascism, and prejudice with minority and eop college students and how they accomodate to it. I think this would be a great oppurtunity to really get into the whole research realm. I realize that this really has little to do with medicine or the life sciences. Does this still help me stand out on my amcas? Should the oppurtunity to do more biology based reserach come up, should I puruse that even though I would enjoy the psych reserach oppurtunities more? Thanks so much all.
Research experience is research experience even if it is physics, sociology, anthropology, psych, etc. One thing I am experiencing from going through the application process right now is that it is the "in thing" as far as adcoms are concerned to have research experience. The thing they will be looking for is that you are learning from it.
BTW, I'm a psych major too! :thumbup: Psych has alot to do with medicine even if it is somewhat removed like I/O psych.
Oh yeah, and Osteopathic medical schools use AACOMAS, not AMCAS, but the application process is pretty much the same.
 
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In my opinion I really don't think adcoms look at it that much. I think alot of premeds think that it does, research may help you land a residency but schools look at two factors. MCAT and GPA. Don't get me wrong, I had more research and clincal experience than probable 90% of the people on here, but I don't really think it helped me all that much.
 
I had exposure to labs doing lab inspections but never actually worked in one. I had several questions about my job and the unique opportunity I had with it; but not once was I asked "why didn't you do research?" Do whatever type of research interests you...don't worry about the field.
 
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