Research is a PLUS!
One of the must-haves to be a strong applicant to medical school is research. Research experience may not necessarily be required at some schools but is definitely viewed favorably if you have it. Everything you’ll do for the rest of your career as a physician (speaking it into existence!) will be based on research so it’s essential for you to understand and be a part of the process. Research will be a requirement for medical school and residency completion, so showing your involvement as an undergraduate is a major plus for your application.
The word research alone may be enough to give you heartburn, but do you realize how varied research can be? It’s not all sterile labs, pipettes, test tubes, and white mice. For example, one of my current research projects is looking into why my patients choose to — or not to — accept the influenza vaccine. It’s a questionnaire, no mice involved. In practically every field of study at your university, there should be people doing research and the opportunity to find something that you’re truly interested in working on.
How do I find research opportunities at my college?
Every 4-year college should have a research department; looking there is a good way to find a research advisor and project. I’m looking at my academic institution online right now, and there’s a whole website dedicated to undergraduate research. Faculty members are able to add to a database their research interest and project and whether or not they need student assistants. And students can go through the postings and find opportunities. This site also allows you to search projects by topic, see what types of research other students are doing, and gives information about opportunities to present your research through university-sponsored exhibits. Take some time to look into your college’s research department/website and see what is available to you.
In the world of academia, in order to advance (from assistant professor, to associate professor, to “full” professor) instructors have to have plenty of research; this means they almost always have a research project going on. So if you have instructors that you really like, consider asking them what their research interests are and if they need a student research assistant. Or, even better, look up their research interest beforehand and approach them with the added brownie points for having done your homework on them in advance! Sometimes opportunities just fall into your lap, but sometimes you do have to do a little work to make them happen. One of my psychology professors in college mentioned one day in her class that she had paid positions in her lab if anyone was interested. She couldn’t get out of the classroom without talking to me before she left that day! I worked there for 3 years and loved it and got some coins for doing it!
If there is a medical campus at your college, you should also check out the research opportunities available there; their website would also be a good place to start. Academic physicians (like me) are also often looking for student help. I love this as an option for you because it’d likely be healthcare-based research so it should be somewhat interesting to you, and you’d be paired with a physician to do it. A physician who you could (and should!) also ask to shadow in clinic and ask for pre-med advice. Win-win on this one.
You may even have an interest or passion that you’d like to study. Speak with your academic mentor or pre-health advisor to identify a research mentor to help you develop the project.
Summer Research Initiatives
There are also many summer programs that are research intensive. You may find these at your institution or at other colleges or medical programs across the country. Be mindful that some are specific to undergraduate students who are looking for a career in research, so these may not be for you. But there are also many that are open to pre-health/pre-med students. Your pre-health advisor may have listings of summer research programs, but also check out this list of options provided by AAMC.
Presenting your research
Now getting your name on research is the jackpot and you need to try your hardest to find a way to do this. Most university research departments will hold an annual student research day. This is usually in exhibition format where students create posters representing their research project. You submit the layout in advance, stand in front of your poster on the day of the event, answer questions of anyone who passes by and asks, and you may even be eligible to win a ribbon (or prize!). You can also present research at conferences, like AMEC mentioned in an earlier post that you’ll hopefully go to before you graduate.
Another way to get a gold star in research is to have your name included as an author on a publication. If the research is written up, and you’ve contributed significantly enough to it to be considered an author, this would be great! As a graduate student, I was really fortunate to be “first author” for a paper that was published and that’s super exciting, in a very nerdy kind of way. It was exciting then as a student, it’s impressive now as an application reviewer.
Paid vs unpaid research opportunities
It’s important to note that some research positions are paid and some are not. If you can find one that’s paid, like as part of a work-study, then power to you. You can knock out two birds with one stone and make some money while also logging these much-needed hours. This is what I did as a student. I worked in an infant cognition lab and spent my time calling parents to get their babies scheduled for the study and helped with conducting the studies. And playing with cute babies, of course. It was really interesting, the primary investigator was studying at what age babies develop the concept of numbers, math, etc. Now I didn’t get my name on a poster or an article, but I got paid. And I did it for 3 years. That added up to alot of research hours on a medical school application. And I was able to talk about it in an interview in detail to anyone who asked. I say that to say: even if you don’t get your name attached to the research, if you have a ton of hours (and a letter of recommendation from the researcher) that’s still great. There’s a previous post about whom to ask for letters of recommendation, and the researcher/primary investigator that you work with would definitely be a good one. They can highlight your experience in research and also speak to your ability to work as part of a team, the research team, which is something that application reviewers are looking for as well.
Reporting and discussing your research
Just as important as getting the research hours is documenting them. If it’s a paid position, you’ll likely have a record of your hours. If it’s not, you need to be sure you’re keeping up with the time you put in as you will have to report this on your medical school application. This can easily be stored electronically or wherever you are tracking your pre-med hours and other important stuff that you will include in your application.
Also, make sure that you really understand the different aspects of the research project you’re involved in and are able to talk about it on your interviews. Few things worse than saying you did something and not being able to describe or talk about it in detail!
I’m really excited to have two Black pre-medical students to help me with my research project. It definitely helps me out to have the assistance and I know it will help them in their application as well. In addition to the hours, I plan to make sure they get posters out of it and hopefully we can get our work published.
So, they’re good, what about you? Are you already involved in research or do you have a plan for what you will do? If you have done research, are you able to put your name on it and/or present it? Do you have any suggestions about other opportunities? Or do you have any questions about finding opportunities? If so, please include your comments or questions in the Comments sections below or feel free to send me an email!
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