Valid research?

[joescollegiate]

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So a fellow pre-med was trying to explain to me how him acting as a lab rat for a study asking him questions for about 15 minutes on two different days for which he was given a 20 dollar gift card to a local mall, counts as research for his medical school application. I thought schools wanted research in terms of us being the researchers, not being participants in studies? Can someone please clear the confusion for me? Is being a participant in studies looked for on a med school app or does my friend have the wrong idea?

 

[davidbm95]

Your friend is absolutely right. You can be a lab rat as much as you want as long as your professor signs off on it as it being research which he should then your fine. Obviously if you are actually involved that would look better for medical school but we can't all be winners :/

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[gettheleadout]

Your friend is absolutely right. You can be a lab rat as much as you want as long as your professor signs off on it as it being research which he should then your fine. Obviously if you are actually involved that would look better for medical school but we can't all be winners :/

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...what?

No, participating in a study of whatever kind is absolutely not research experience and is useless for medical school applications. Research experience means being on the other side, planning, carrying out, and/or drawing conclusions from experimental results. It does not mean being a data point for a random study you have no professional affiliation with. Your friend is going to be laughed at when an admissions officer reads his application activities section.


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[davidbm95]

...what?

No, participating in a study of whatever kind is absolutely not research experience and is useless for medical school applications. Research experience means being on the other side, planning, carrying out, and/or drawing conclusions from experimental results. It does not mean being a data point for a random study you have no professional affiliation with. Your friend is going to be laughed at when an admissions officer reads his application activities section.


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Research is whatever your professor wants you to do. The way the system works is you start low like scut work for maybe a year than hopefully your professor will let you be involved the second year and that's what you put for research activities. There is 2 years of research right there. IF your lucky you might be able to get actively involved in the beginning of the research but that's up to you and the professor and how he views you.

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[tn4596]

So a fellow pre-med was trying to explain to me how him acting as a lab rat for a study asking him questions for about 15 minutes on two different days for which he was given a 20 dollar gift card to a local mall, counts as research for his medical school application. I thought schools wanted research in terms of us being the researchers, not being participants in studies? Can someone please clear the confusion for me? Is being a participant in studies looked for on a med school app or does my friend have the wrong idea?

lol your buddy is quite delusional. people can claim whatever they want but that is no research.

 

[AestheticGod]

Lol there's no way that's even close to research. That's like being a patient at the hospital and saying you shadowed a doctor haha

 

[gettheleadout]

Research is whatever your professor wants you to do. The way the system works is you start low like scut work for maybe a year than hopefully your professor will let you be involved the second year and that's what you put for research activities. There is 2 years of research right there. IF your lucky you might be able to get actively involved in the beginning of the research but that's up to you and the professor and how he views you.

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Do you understand what the OP is actually saying? There's a difference between being a "lab rat" as in doing scut work in a lab or for a research project and actually being a participant in a project run by a lab you are not working with in any capacity. Yes, washing dishes can be considered "research involvement" in the beginning, but what the OP is describing is his friend seeing a flyer on campus for a psych experiment looking for participants and offering compensation and him doing it. That is the farthest thing in the world from research experience. I truly believe you are not correctly understanding what you're talking about here.


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[chronicidal]

Lab rat != scut monkey. Different species.

 

[gettheleadout]

Lab rat != scut monkey. Different species.

Yes, also a good point, I misused the term.


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[soundnin]

Lab rat != scut monkey. Different species.

the confusion earlier posters had was probably due to OP using the term lab rat. guinea pig is more accurate for what he's describing.

and the two who were confused - horrible way to approach research...

 

[joescollegiate]

For clarification: he found the study on a random poster on a wall in one of our lectures halls. He does not know the researchers and thus he would not be able to get the professor to sign off on it

 

[JustMeditate]

No, participating in a study of whatever kind is absolutely not research experience and is useless for medical school applications. Research experience means being on the other side, planning, carrying out, and/or drawing conclusions from experimental results. It does not mean being a data point for a random study you have no professional affiliation with. Your friend is going to be laughed at when an admissions officer reads his application activities section.

100% agreed. List it as research experience if you want, but I'm pretty sure you'd look ridiculous enough to earn an auto-reject from most medical schools.

 

[MinitorV]

No this is not your research.

 

[Frazier]

lolz

Def research... I look forward to reading his solo-authored paper in Nature.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

If participating in a study counts as research experience then I've got 10 years of shadowing experience in psychiatry.

 

[0919mmk]

I've been taught by teachers for 16 years. I can haz PhD in Education now?

 

[davidbm95]

I guess I'm wrong. My bad. forgive me OP I misunderstood.