How important is research on a medical (D.O.) school application?
Research
- Thread starter jjgrnak
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As I usually say, it's more of a cherry-on-top kinda thing. It's not as important, but nice to have assuming you have other good ECs.
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I agree, but having that cherry is pretty sweet.
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I agree. How are non-traditional students getting research opportunities? Having a hard time looking for something.
Research alone is not what stands out. I would imagine adcoms having a hard time distinguishing one applicant's "research" from another's. What makes the ultimate difference is publications, indicating the applicant's productivity and/or luck 😉
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I disagree, I have done research in both molecular diagnostics and microbiology and my molecualr diagnostic research is far more interesting and intensive then my microbiology. I think the duration of research and subject matter is important on your application and yes getting published looks very nice especially if you are the main author. Overall not having conducted research will not hurt your application but it will help it if you do.
Without publications (or at least abstracts/posters) to demonstrate an applicant's contribution to expanding scientific knowledge, it might be hard for adcoms to distinguish "fluff" research (done simply to say "hey, i did some research") vs something more genuine. I'm sure it's pretty easy to make one's research (and all ECs) sound greater and more involved than they actually were. As for duration, I know some PIs who wonder about productivity if the ratio of duration vs publications gets heavily skewed towards the former.
OP, I think that might depend on which DO schools you apply to. The ones that do the most research might consider it more than others.
