Talking about research in secondaries?

[Hzreio]

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Hello,

For questions like "what do you want to do in your medical career", if research is one of the answers to that, is it ok to discuss my research more specifically (e.g hypothesis, methods, etc.), how I contributed, and how it made me more interested in research?

This is my MM activity so I've written about it on my primary application, but am planning to go a little more in depth with it in my secondaries. How would y'all advise?

 

[begoneneuroticism]

I think it's a good idea to talk about the research and your contribution, but I would personally leave out technical details that don't add on to "what you want to do" because this is about you, not the research. Just not the hypothesis n methods lol cuz now im thinking something that resembles an abstract.
So I assume the end product would look something like: doing this and this in my research experience taught me the importance of teamwork, testing my hypothesis and blah blah was inspiring in this and this way? That doesn't dive deeply into what you did and just provides minimum amount of details to give the reader a sense of what you were feeling and how it transformed you.

 

[Hzreio]

I think it's a good idea to talk about the research and your contribution, but I would personally leave out technical details that don't add on to "what you want to do" because this is about you, not the research. Just not the hypothesis n methods lol cuz now im thinking something that resembles an abstract.
So I assume the end product would look something like: doing this and this in my research experience taught me the importance of teamwork, testing my hypothesis and blah blah was inspiring in this and this way? That doesn't dive deeply into what you did and just provides minimum amount of details to give the reader a sense of what you were feeling and how it transformed you.

Thanks for the comment. I think I will try to give minimal technical details while still giving context to what I did.

 

[Kumorebi]

Why MD instead of PhD? If you don't get this message across in either your primary and secondaries, you might be shooting yourself in the foot. You definitely do not want to be talking about methods and procedures for research in a secondary. Not all people reading applications have a science background, and if I was an adcom and had to read science vernacular I do not know I would move on to the next app. I'm coming from PhD Chemistry, so you can imagine I did write a little about my research in my personal statement, but literally as just an opening for the first paragraph. Just make sure you show your humanistic side and don't focus too much on research.

 

[deleted688779]

I would steer away from the technical details and focus on your passions regarding research, how your experience contributed to your development, and where you think it’ll take you in conjunction to how the school will help you get there in terms of programs, opportunity, etc

 

[GreenDuck12]

Hello,

For questions like "what do you want to do in your medical career", if research is one of the answers to that, is it ok to discuss my research more specifically (e.g hypothesis, methods, etc.), how I contributed, and how it made me more interested in research?

This is my MM activity so I've written about it on my primary application, but am planning to go a little more in depth with it in my secondaries. How would y'all advise?

I would not go into detail or stress research too much unless you know that is what the school is specifically looking for. Medical schools are looking to primarily train physicians in MD programs. Coming across as too research heavy in a secondary, you run the risk of creating a profile that does not match the mission of the program. If the school does heavily emphasis research, I would talk about how you see your research interest furthering your abilities as a clinician.

 

[Hzreio]

Why MD instead of PhD? If you don't get this message across in either your primary and secondaries, you might be shooting yourself in the foot. You definitely do not want to be talking about methods and procedures for research in a secondary. Not all people reading applications have a science background, and if I was an adcom and had to read science vernacular I do not know I would move on to the next app. I'm coming from PhD Chemistry, so you can imagine I did write a little about my research in my personal statement, but literally as just an opening for the first paragraph. Just make sure you show your humanistic side and don't focus too much on research.

Because patient care is a much larger priority for me. But I will be sure to make this clear in my essays. My research was in clinical psychology so it's not super heavy on the science vernacular/easier to explain, but I will take your point into consideration.