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You mean you're in high school and haven't done research yet? OMG!! I started in Kindergarten...you better get on the ball to have a shot at a lower tier MD school.🙄

Nothing before college matters so start worrying about it then.

Edit: To get into a good undergraduate school you need to do well on the ACT and get a high GPA in high school. You should do some community service type things. And hell no you don't need to be thinking about research at this point. Also, your sentence about it being necessary to get into medical school is incorrect as well. It is a good thing to have on the application, but it is by no means necessary unless you're shooting for MD/PhD programs or programs that are very research intensive.
 
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No, you don't need research in High School. Just enjoy life, and have fun in your extra curricular activities (which are needed to get into college) whether it be marching band, orchestra, or sports.

College admission is pretty easy compared to graduate/doctoral programs. Just do ok on your ACT/SAT and have an ok GPA. You can get into many colleges with even a 3.3 GPA...


kingkobra123 said:
Hey HSDN!

I need y'all's help on something: I've been interested in entering the medical field for a while now; I've been volunteering in the ER at my local hospital for a few months and have garnered invaluable clinical experience there. I've also gained a ton of experience in the healthcare field in general and have learned how a hospital system functions.

I don't really know if this is true, but I think that my goal of becoming a doctor and even getting into a decent college (perhaps a BA/MD program) requires loads of experience: both clinical and research, starting in high school (I'm a sophomore in high school). Although I've had some experience in the hospital setting, I've only scratched the surface of healthcare and the medical sciences as a whole and still have absolutely no research experience.

My counselor was telling me that to increase my chances of getting into a decent college and to pursue a medical degree, I should do something that makes me stand out from the thousands of other applicants, e.g., doing research with a mentor (at a hospital or a research facility) and getting published. My school does not offer a science research program and although I have obtained some information on mentors and research internships, I do not know how to approach them due to my lack of scientific experience (which renders me useless to them).

My question to you is: what are the steps I need to take to get into a decent college and ultimately, get a medical degree and become a successful physician? How do I obtain internships at research institutes or hospitals to further my knowledge and experience and augment my chances of getting into better colleges so that I can be a better doctor for my patients? Should I even be worried about such things at this point in time?

Do I truly need to do research in high school to become a physician? I ask because my interests in becoming a doctor lie in the medical/biological aspects of medicine, as well as the altruistic patient interaction (as opposed to research (i completely hate research)).

I know that research will be necessary in undergrad for med school; thus, if I don't do medical research in high school, how would I develop the lab experience and skills necessary to get into med school?

Any advice that you give will be more than appreciated.

I live in the New York Metro Area and if you guys know about any such programs in my area, I'd greatly appreciate it if you guys let me know.

THANKS!
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If you get involved in research it will most likely as a lab assistant helping around the lab with various things. THis is primarily because of your education background. I know a lot of people that say they do research, but all they are doing is helping a graduate student or a professor. Its good to get experience and I suggest you start at the bottom, but dont expect to be doing complicated procedures and individualized research of your own. You will have all the time to get involved in that during your undergraduate experience. Thats what I did. =)
 
When applying to medical school, they don't want to hear about what you did in high school, only college. The only time you can talk about high school experiences is if you continued the same experience (i.e. shadowing at the same hospital, or the same research with the same adviser) through college. So, my advice would be to wait until you go to college.
You'll find this trend throughout your career. College only wants to hear about HS, med school only wants to hear about college, residency only wants to hear about med school, etc.
Also, you don't have to do research to get into medical school. Many people do, but some of us didn't have any research on our applications at all. It does take you out of the running at research-heavy medical schools, but since I hate research, I, personally, didn't want to go to any of them anyway. 🙂
 
silverhorse84 said:
When applying to medical school, they don't want to hear about what you did in high school, only college. The only time you can talk about high school experiences is if you continued the same experience (i.e. shadowing at the same hospital, or the same research with the same adviser) through college. So, my advice would be to wait until you go to college.
You'll find this trend throughout your career. College only wants to hear about HS, med school only wants to hear about college, residency only wants to hear about med school, etc.
Also, you don't have to do research to get into medical school. Many people do, but some of us didn't have any research on our applications at all. It does take you out of the running at research-heavy medical schools, but since I hate research, I, personally, didn't want to go to any of them anyway. 🙂
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👍
 
kingkobra123 said:
Thanks for all of that...I really appreciate it...

My follow up question to this thread is: although it's not required to do research in college for med school, one day in undergrad, I plan on doing research (even though I dislike it) just to gain more experience in the lab and raise my chances of getting into med school while being a part of all of the new discoveries that are being made 😉.

If I don't do research know, will there be an intro to research class or something in undergrad so that I know what I'm doing? (I ask because I won't know s*** about research in college unless I start now (even though I hate research)). I also don't plan on majoring in a science in college.

Another question...it is recommended that I do some sort of research if I want to get into a BA/MD program, right? --> from what I've heard, that sort of a program is not a good idea, either (my options will be severely limited and I won't be a part of the full college experience..)

Thanks a lot, guys!
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Research is common for pre-health students because the majority of faculty at health professional school partake in research of their own. Its not required, but it definitely makes you pretty unique to have it. Also you should participate in research objectives that might interest you. Ive had many professors and TAs that do their own research and as a part of the process I began to ask them questions pertaining to their individual research initiatives. I took interest in one particular project and asked if I could join. I was given a project and was supervised by a TA who was also my mentor.

Most schools don't have an into to research, but they do have an elective that might be named "Independent research" At my school if you get a professor to take you under their wing they require u to do a project at the end. It wasnt graded. Just pass/fail.
 
Mt. Sinai has a highschool research thing. Look into it, so does Museum of Natural History, look into that too.

Good luck.
 
You definitely do not need to do research in high school to go to medical school. Most students who did research in high school come from very affluent high schools or lived near a research institution and received the right kind of support. Not everyone is able to have those opportunities.

It's true that BS/MD programs highly favor applicants with research. I've noticed this is particularly the case for Northwestern HPME but not so much for Brown PLME.
 
kingkobra123 said:
...plan on doing research (even though I dislike it) just to gain more experience in the lab and raise my chances of getting into med school while being a part of all of the new discoveries that are being made 😉.
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Find somewhere to get involved with clinical research. You obviously won't be a PI and probably won't even get a publication (maybe but rare), but at least you'll get to see another side of research, get clinical experience and have an opportunity for some killer letter of recs.

At least that's what I did. Bench research = boring to me.

Until then, do well in your classes and rock the ACT/SAT.
 
kingkobra123 said:
(i completely hate research)).

I plan on doing research (even though I dislike it) just to gain more experience in the lab and raise my chances of getting into med school

(even though I hate research).
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It's pretty obvious that you hate research with a passion. Because of this I doubt you will get the full experience research has to offer because your motivations, etc will be lacking - obviously you're only doing it to put it on paper and look good which researchers would not appreciate. This is also why I would advise you against any PhD programs which are heavily research oriented.

kingkobra123 said:
I should do something that makes me stand out from the thousands of other applicants.
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From what I've read from this thread, because reseach is so crucial for acceptance to BA/MD programs, it is safe to say that the majory of applicants will be doing research.......so how will this make you stand out from the crowd?

kingkobra123 said:
how would I develop the lab experience and skills necessary to get into med school?
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If you are pre-med in college then your undergraduate education will give you all skills you need to take the next step. For example, my microbiology class has given me experience using a microscope(at 1000x using oil)and the procedures when working with live bacteria and so on.

If any of my post contains wrong information, SDN users, feel free to let me know and I will change it.

Keep on researching what you need for a career in medicine and focus on your next step which is doing well on your SAT/ACT/both, keeping your grades and GPA up, good extracurriculars(don't go over the top), and getting into a good college/post high school program that is a right fit for you. Nothing beats going to the source(the institution's website) for info on what your need for admission.
 
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Really, though, aren't most people just doing their EC's to have them on their resumes? I would have volunteered at my elementary school and shadowed just because I thought those were fun activities, but there's not a chance in hell I would've kept showing up to my hospital volunteer gigs if I knew I didn't have to. Similarly, I wouldn't have gotten a job at a pharmacy if I didn't need the clinical time, even though I loved working there.
 
That's true most people do, but if I didn't need my volunteer work I would still do it because I really do enjoy it and I am looking foward to future shadowing and research opportunities. I don't want to encourage people to do something they don't enjoy just to have it on his/her resume. The spots should be left open to those who really want, deserve, and will make the most of it.

I love the hospital setting 🙂 Always have.
 
You can like being in a hospital without liking what you're doing in a hospital. I see your point about letting people who want to get whatever position the resume builder may be taking up, but if you need the research and beat out the guy who LOVES it, well, sucks for him. The resume builder who gets the job wants and deserves it, or he wouldn't have gotten chosen. I doubt he'd bother going the extra mile for the project, but most people who're going into a professional health field are type-A enough to put in a healthy effort to anything they do just for personal pride and neuroticism's sakes. It'd be great if there was a position for everyone who really wanted it, but if that were the case, I think we'd all be mega-rich business owners who delegated all responsibilities to underlings and partied around the world.
 
I also do enjoy what I do in the hospital. Let's not get off topic, this thread is about kingkobra123.
 
It's germane. He's talking about getting into research that he isn't interested in, and you're telling him not to do it because there are people who are interested in having the position(s) he'd occupy. That's frankly not sound advice. You have to play the game and get the experience required of you. However, that's an issue to be dealt with in college. Research in high school is unnecessary.
 
I'm not telling him not to do it, I'm advising against it. He can do it if he wants, I'm telling him its my opinion that he shouldn't. I have explained my reasons and I DO think I gave good advice before you came in to the picture, whether he takes it or not is his choice. Stop critisizing and picking apart my opinions. I don't know everything about everything and I am only trying help others on SDN and there is no need for people to be so arrogant and rude. You are adding nothing helpful and this is starting to turn into another pointless SDN argument so I am unsubscribing.
 
Personally, I agree with most of what's been said here already. No, you absolutely do not need to do research in high school. Medical schools will not care one bit about your high school ECs, and if your record is otherwise solid, you should have no trouble getting into undergraduate programs.

As for medical school - some people are admitted without any research experience, but doing research is much more of a boost to your application than it is for undergrad. If you simply don't have the time or you truly hate research and choose not to pursue it in college it isn't the end of the world, but you may need to choose which schools you apply to based on your lack of experience (many schools explicitly state that they look for a research background in applicants. There are exceptions, sure, but it's never wise to assume that you will be the exception).

In my experience, undergraduate research is a good idea, but it is a mistake to choose biology research if it doesn't interest you. Psych research, computer science research, math research, etc all have their merits and there is nothing wrong with choosing one of those instead - you learn many of the same lessons about planning experiments, frustration, and presenting your work.

Just one question for you though - if you haven't done any research yet, how do you know that you hate it?

PS - I don't know much about BS/MD program admissions, but I had friends in that combined program years ago and none of them had high school research. Also, if you choose to pursue research, the easiest way to pick up skills is in undergraduate lab courses. There are some courses that specifically delve into research (4 credit lab courses), but most of those are for junior and senior students.

In general, you take your basic science labs and then hunt down a faculty member. If they agree to take you on, someone in the lab will train you.
 
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