Researching. Where to start?

[binarysolo]

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I don't know if this has been addressed before, but if it has, I apologize.

Brief background: Comp. sci major recently switched from business. I'm a Junior but I expect another 2 years. 22 years old. Want to go to med school after. GPA isn't stellar, but I know I can bring it up within that time to being decent. I'd like to start building up my ECs, but don't know where to start. I used to be a volunteer ff, but that was only for about a year & 1/2. Interested in bioinformatics.

How can I go about building up my CV for med schools? Aside from doing well on the MCATS.. can I just ask a few doctors if I'm able to shadow them? I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do that, since it may be a liability/insurance issue, right? What have you all done?

I'm thinking of taking an EMT course to get my EMT-B, which is essentially what 90% of the calls I went to while I volunteering as a ff were. That interested me, but I don't think that'll be sufficient.

Any recommendations at all from any of you would be greatly taken into consideration.

Thanks.

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

hey I'm in the same boat as you as far as research goes, I've been emailing my bio 183 teacher to help me get started in this process. Try e-mailing a science professor you had and express to them you'd like to get involved in some type of research, more often than not they will be happy to help.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

I don't know if this has been addressed before, but if it has, I apologize.

Brief background: Comp. sci major recently switched from business. I'm a Junior but I expect another 2 years. 22 years old. Want to go to med school after. GPA isn't stellar, but I know I can bring it up within that time to being decent. I'd like to start building up my ECs, but don't know where to start. I used to be a volunteer ff, but that was only for about a year & 1/2. Interested in bioinformatics.

How can I go about building up my CV for med schools? Aside from doing well on the MCATS.. can I just ask a few doctors if I'm able to shadow them? I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do that, since it may be a liability/insurance issue, right? What have you all done?

I'm thinking of taking an EMT course to get my EMT-B, which is essentially what 90% of the calls I went to while I volunteering as a ff were. That interested me, but I don't think that'll be sufficient.

Any recommendations at all from any of you would be greatly taken into consideration.

Thanks.

Shadowing is key. It's one thing I didn't do and it came up in interviews. Incidentally, I'm an EMT and I didn't really find it to help me too much. One interviewer asked me why I "didn't have more clinical experience" despite the fact that I'd been working >70 hrs/week as an EMT for the past 6 months...it just doesn't compute for them. But, if you like the EMT thing, by all means go for it.

My advice: focus on bringing up your GPA as high as possible first. This is your number 1 priority. The better you do in your classes, the easier the MCAT review will be, so it pays off double-time. After that, volunteer in hospitals and around doctors as much as possible. They want to know that you know what you're getting yourself into. Next, get research experience if you still have time but only if it's something you enjoy. I do, and did, but it's not necessary.

One good thing to do is stop by your school's pre-medical adviser office. Mine had a sign-up for weekly emails with health-related (and other) volunteer opportunities, and also had a website that matched students with professors who were looking for undergraduate help in the lab. Good luck

 

[caseofthemndays]

One good thing to do is stop by your school's pre-medical adviser office. Mine had a sign-up for weekly emails with health-related (and other) volunteer opportunities, and also had a website that matched students with professors who were looking for undergraduate help in the lab. Good luck

No way! What school did you go to? My "pre-med advisor" was a JOKE!!! It was so hard to get anything out of her, and if you wanted to do research and weren't a minority or ridiculously smart and started when you were a zygote... then good luck.

I know my reply sounds irrelevant, but I posted a similar question about how to get into research because it was really difficult at my school.

 

[whimsical]

ridiculously smart and started when you were a zygote...

Hahaha, I bet they're the same kids who decided to go to med school in the womb, too.

 

[acridknight]

3 quick good points:

1. work on having a gpa > 3.5 to be competitive (and of course the MCAT > 30).

2. get good CLINICAL experience (ideally a few [2 or greater] different, long-term [ >1yr] with which you can develop a strong relationships with docs... .that can later write good LORs 😉 )

3. Try to get leadership exp and maybe some research exp. Research is not req'd, but it can really help your app stand out if everything else is avg.


My personal view is to get a few diverse experiences and develop them out over 12-24 months (eg. 2 different clinical exp, 1 research project, and 2 group leadership positions). this way you have a better chance of actually accomplishing things that can make your application better (eg. better, more involved clinical exp b/c the docs trust you better, research publications, and/or significant leadership opporutnities like starting a new club).
The other mantra is to try to tack on as many of the above ECs (as opposed to a few, targeted and long-term ECs), but, personally, I don't see this as fruitful b/c you'll dilute out your time and reduce the amount of accomplishments that you could point to in AMCAS.

 

[binarysolo]

Good advice, gang. Thanks for all the support. Definitely going to stop by my school's pre-med advisor along with developing a few long-term shadowing opportunities. 👍

 

[acridknight]

Good advice, gang. Thanks for all the support. Definitely going to stop by my school's pre-med advisor along with developing a few long-term shadowing opportunities. 👍

yay! another satisfied SDN customer 😀

 

[k7i5t3n]

You can also consider looking for part-time work in a doctor's office, for example, or volunteering at a hospital. By working/volunteering, that usually takes care of the liability issues because they will most likely make you take HIPAA training and sign off on the HIPAA rules. Even if the work you do is more administrative, it can open up doors for shadowing, networking, etc.