Research

[aidylwise]

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How many hours of research do you think is good enough for medical school?
I haven't got any yet and I'm a junior. I was planning on getting some this summer but I'm not sure if I will get enough before applying.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I'd say that 1 semesters worth of research should be enough to be safe. Personally I'm considering 2 semesters worth of research for myself. Btw if your considering MD/PhD or DO/PhD it's probably smart to have over a year's worth of research, up to 2 years to be safe.

 

[oaklandguy]

How many hours of research do you think is good enough for medical school?
I haven't got any yet and I'm a junior. I was planning on getting some this summer but I'm not sure if I will get enough before applying.

Don't do anything just for med-schools. Med-schools don't need you to have done research. And there isn't anything you can possibly do to make yourself good enough for medical school.

If you want to do research then do it. Do it for as long as you want to and as many hours as you want to. Who knows, you might love it or you might hate it. But don't just do it for your application. There are tons of students who don't do research that get into med-school. It's not a necessity and the # of hours means nothing if you cannot talk about the research and be able to explain it.

Med-schools will know that you only did it for your application, especially if you do it for just 1 summer.

 

[Quester]

Is volunteering at a research lab as legit as actually getting paid to do research for more hours?

 

[d1ony5u5]

mmm... I think the AdComs aren't really concerned at all with how many hours/ summers/ years of research you do as long as you get something tangible out of it. This may be an experience, a paper, whatever... As long as you can make a good case for it in your app.

Don't think that you can simply put it there for padding. If you do, it will be obvious, and people will likely be unimpressed. Do it if it interests you, and if if you like it. If you don't, put the time to better use and go deeper into something else you like. As mentioned above, many get into medschool without doing it. If you do it, it will only help you in the measure that you can talk eloquently about it having to do with your personal growth/interest in medicine.

 

[Morsetlis]

The proof is in the publication. Sure, it's more legit to get paid--then you also get to count it as work experience! However, I'm pretty sure that volunteer research that leads to a publication is more important than paid research that led nowhere.

 

[Quester]

Gotcha.

I got lucky to even find a volunteer research position for this summer. That being said, I'm really not expecting any publication-- I guess I just want the experience of it; to see if I actually enjoy doing research.

Even without the publication, research is still research so I guess, it's still a win situation for me 😀

But now I gotta find paying part-time jobs... 🙁

 

[JJMrK]

IMO, research is becoming more and more important in this process. 1+ year is good, but what's better is being able to talk about it intelligently and being able to put presentations (and publications) on your app.

 

[tiedyeddog]

Is volunteering at a research lab as legit as actually getting paid to do research for more hours?

Yes. Same thing.

 

[NickNaylor]

I'd say do it as long as you still enjoy it and until you can talk about your field/project intelligently. This'll be different amounts of time for different people.