I am an undergraduate student and applied for research about mental health disparities among Latinx youth and families. Will this look good on my potential medical school application?
Research
- Thread starter ris11
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The purpose of research in an application is to acquaint you with the process of hypothesis-driven improvement to the practice of medicine.
If this avenue adds to your narrative, it is useful.
If this avenue adds to your narrative, it is useful.
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"Applied" for research? Have you gotten an offer to join the group?
If so, then my next question is, "Why?"
In my school, if we were interested in participating in research we had to email the professor. I did that and she invited me for a meeting. I applied for this research because I know research is important for medical school applications and psychology is an interesting topic for me.
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Research isn't that really important for medical school outside of the research powerhouses or if you're applying MD/PHD. Do research because you're interested in it not because you're checking off a box. Adcoms can see through that. Minority disparities is a really important area of research not just in medicine, but it needs to be something you're passionate about or else you're doing no one any good.
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Any research can look good on your application if you are able to discuss what you did, why it's important, and ideally have some sort of deliverable (presentation/publication).
Importantly, it will not help you at all if you are distracted by research and do not excel at your academics. I generally advise students to not start research in their first college semester until they have acclimated and demonstrated that they can handle the academic rigor of college premed classes.
Importantly, it will not help you at all if you are distracted by research and do not excel at your academics. I generally advise students to not start research in their first college semester until they have acclimated and demonstrated that they can handle the academic rigor of college premed classes.
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I wouldn’t say it is unimportant. Even if it isn’t that important for getting into your medical school of choice, it might be for residency. On the low end, matching residents averaged 4 publications, and on the really competitive residencies those who matched had 20+. So it might be a smart box to check even if you aren’t MD/PhD or going to a research powerhouse.
Agreed. Applying to a research group without acceptance is no more prestigious than applying to Harvard Medical School with a 490 MCAT and 2.8 GPA.
