Why is the consensus that a senior thesis isn't worth it?

[NarcoticSmoothie]

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[alfie94]

Traditional applicants apply the summer before their senior year of college, and interview/get acceptances during their senior year. So any achievements during senior year will probably not factor into their acceptances.

 

[ifnotnowwren]

I did think it was worth it. For me, the opportunities for personal and professional growth were worth it. It was so valuable for me to learn how to engage in long term self study. I learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to long term projects and I think this will help me as I move forward. Whether or not adcoms cared, I was ultimately glad I did it, even though it was a lot of additonal work and stress.

 

[ChrisMack390]

My "senior thesis" consisted of me writing up a proposal for a study that I could do, but not actually submitting it to anything or doing it at all. That wasn't laziness on my part, that was the extent of the assignment, and we were encouraged to write our "dream study" and disregard funding and such considerations. In retrospect, this was a complete waste of time other than the 4 credits of A I have on my transcript for doing it.

If your school is actually having you produce original research that could reasonably be published, that is quite different. However, ive seen from reviewing resumes for jobs (not for higher education) that most of these projects are similar to mine or involve reproducing known results (like synthesizing whatever chemical via a documented reaction). Some are very small scale cross sectional studies. Ive literally never seen one that actually constitutes research, because research is a long and hard process laced with failures and a school could not really assign someone to do productive research in 16 or 32 weeks.

 

[ChrisMack390]

PS - Since you said you have no research experience, I would argue it would be a better move to join a lab the summer after junior year and stick with it through senior year. Better chance at publication (still low, but that's OK), and you will at least be engaged in the scientific process in a real way rather than a forced way.

PPS - I said "summer after junior year" because I am assuming you are currently a junior and it essentially is summer after your junior year. If you are even earlier in college, I would double down on my suggestion, as you can get 2+ years of productive research in before graduation.

 

[7331poas]

How is your "senior thesis" any better than someone who did volunteer research in a lab and actually published as a result of it?

 

[catie_jane]

I was in an extremely independent lab (PI was always extremely busy and hard to snag face time with). Although for some people this may have been a turn off, I believe it helped me grow in so many ways. I was an extremely independent lab member, had to develop and test completely new protocols (with very little assistance), do literature reviews, and motivate myself to write and incredibly long thesis/presentation. In the end, I believe I became extremely comfortable in a lab setting, practicedy public speaking, got a first author publication out of it, and an amazing LOR from my PI. Not to mention I was able to develop/broaden skills (motivation, dependability, critical thinking, problem solving, etc) that I could talk about on my app/in interviews.

For me it was totally worth it, but I believe it definitely depends on the student/project

 

[Flashfan]

My senior thesis was a bear, but it should be published, and I have already presented it at two poster presentations. It may not help with my application, but not everything I do is for admissions. I did update the waitlist schools with the poster presentation, but I doubt it will help.

 

[aldol16]

It depends on the caliber of the senior thesis. In the sciences, publication is usually the gold standard of achievement and if a senior thesis is on that level, it should also be publishable. If the thesis is not publishable but still original work, then it absolutely gives you something to talk about on your application. Much work doesn't get published for various reasons and not just because a referee rejects it. Sometimes the PI doesn't feel like the work contributes much to the field and withholds publication until more work is done on the topic. Sometimes the reviewer keeps sending it back with comments that are difficult, if not impossible, to address. As a graduate student, I have had to deal with all of those scenarios and it can be a pain sometimes. So a work can still be original but go unpublished.

The lowest tier is work that gives the student experience in a lab but involves repeating known experiments/work. This does not contribute to science and only contributes to the student's training in science and lab techniques. So although this may be enriching for the student and may be the stepping stone to real research, a scientist looking at such a thesis would immediately be able to see it for what it is.

Inevitably, senior theses vary by institution and so cannot be judged in a universal manner.

 

[njtrimed]

It really comes down to this: what you do in your quest to become a physician is not entirely about how it will look, but how it will benefit you in the long run. I'm the ultimate non-traditional premed, so my experience may be completely irrelevant to you; my senior thesis never came up in any of my interviews, as it did not have any measurable impact on my application by the time I applied, and I haven't worked as a scientist since graduating from college. However, working independently gave me insight that I will carry with me for a multitude of reasons more important than the publications and strong letter of recommendation I got years after I left that lab. Do it if you think that there is value in it; otherwise, focus on something else that you think will somehow contribute to your future.

 

[eteshoe]

I do see merit in doing a senior thesis. But maybe that's due to my physician scientist inclinations.

 

[redmen12]

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[thorloco]

Shockingly, there are reasons to do things independent of how they look on an application. I gained a reasonable set of research skills and a pretty good publication out of my thesis, and it fundamentally altered my career. That being said, a thesis isn't really correlated with the deliverable many medical schools are interested in. You may get questions about it at Case, but UI? Probably not so much.

 

[ed*26]

At my school, the thesis was a ~1.5 year commitment where you worked directly with your PI, wrote up a proposal, did your own lit review, did the data collection yourself, did the stats yourself, and then wrote the paper. You saw the entire project through from start to finish. Lots of people got first author pubs out of it, presented at conferences, etc.

For me, my thesis was a really valuable experience in itself, and something I got asked a lot about in interviews. Also worth noting that doing my thesis prepared me extremely well for the research projects I'm doing in med school - my school requires an independent project, and compared to some of my classmates I feel like I'm way ahead of the curve in terms of the nitty gritty details like writing a proposal.

Depends on the school, I think. Mine was very similar to what was described above and will hopefully lead to a first-author pub (though maybe not by end of the cycle...my PI told me to expect January at the earliest :/). I feel extremely prepared to do research in medical school, and I know that I can discuss the background, methods, and results of my project at a higher level than many of my peers. Doing my own literature review in particular helped. I can't help but think that this will help in interviews, especially at the more research-centric school. Whether it actually will (or will contribute towards actually getting those interviews) remains to be seen.