Everyone talks about research, but why do you need it? What does it really mean? Well, in this blog post, we’re going to share more about what it means to do research and why you as a pre-med need it as you proceed to medical school. Let’s jump right in.
So if you are a pre-med student, you’re trying to figure out what it means to do research and why it is important. It’s important to do a research experience because it shows medical schools that you saw something that you were curious about, you saw a problem that you wanted to solve, and ultimately, you found a team of people who are working to solve that problem, and you were able to connect with them.
Why is Research Important?
Research is important to show your curiosity to medical schools, and to really show that you’re interested in pursuing scientific knowledge and helping to grow our knowledge in the scientific community. So, what types of research experiences can you do? There are so many opportunities for you if you’re considering research.
Types of Research
Basic Science Research / Research in a Lab
Let’s talk about the one that everyone thinks of, which is basic science research, or research in a lab. This is an exciting opportunity to explore something that you may not have ever pursued before. So, when I was an undergrad, I had the opportunity to go to Johns Hopkins to do a summer internship thinking about the lungs and how we can look at the water channels and how water flows in and out of the lungs in an asthma patient.
Well, some would say, that’s unique. How did you even come up with that? Well, for me, that was a problem I wanted to solve because I personally have asthma. So I’ve always wanted to know more about how it actually works. How does the disease of asthma impact individuals and their lungs? So for me, this was a problem I was interested in.
It was a personal problem for me, and I wanted to be a part of a team that was solving that problem. So in basic science labs, you can get a lot of different experiences. You can work with animal models, which I had the opportunity to do, working with mouse models to help kind of dissect their lungs and use that as a part of the research experience.
Some people do things where they’re working with cells and growing the cells or culturing the cells and learning all of the different scientific techniques that come along with working in a research lab. So basic science is one way you can do research. But there is another way that a lot of people are not familiar with, which is clinical research.
Clinical Research
What is clinical research? If you’re interacting with patients to help figure out how diseases are impacting them and what interventions can help solve those problems for patients, that’s a clinical research experience. So imagine if you’re at a clinic that’s helping a group of patients who have knee injuries learn how to recover from the injuries.
You may be a part of collecting data from the patients, or collecting data from the procedure that’s done to see if a procedure helped them with the injury. There’s so many different opportunities for clinical research because there’s so many diseases and illnesses that impact everyone. So if you’re looking for an opportunity to actually connect with patients, then clinical research may be for you.
Community-based Research
Next up is community-based research, or even population health research. You probably didn’t know this, but there are types of scientists and individuals who are studying how entire populations are doing and how their health is going. So you may be a person who wants to think big picture and think globally about how our health is impacted.
So a population health research experience may be for you. So that’s basic science research, clinical research, population health research. And of course, there’s community research where you can actually help, uh, study things that happen in individual communities. Lastly, there’s social sciences or sociology related research experiences.
And those relate to how people interact and engage with one another. Now those are just a few types. There are so many more opportunities. So we’re also going to jump into how do you go about getting your own research experience to make sure that you not only get to solve and think about a problem that excites you, but you also think about what medical schools are looking for as they look at applicants when you are going through the journey.
Steps for Research Success
So how do you go about getting a research experience? The first thing I want you to do is think about the student organizations at your campus, and I want you to ask some of the people who are a little bit ahead of you what have they done to think about research experiences? Because there are types of experiences that may be going on right on your campus at your university that you can tap right into and be involved while you’re in your spring or fall semester.
Be sure to ask your peers around you if they are familiar with any opportunities. The next thing I want you to do is ask the faculty members and your professors of your classes if they are aware of any opportunities. Or if they themselves have any research going on and need an undergraduate student to help them as they are pursuing the problems that they would like to solve.
So when it comes to approaching your professor, most students would just send an email and say, Hey, I’m interested in research. Do you have any? That is the wrong thing to do. Here’s what you should do. You should go to the professor’s website or on your university website, look up your professor and see what topics they’re already doing research on.
I want you to research those topics and then figure out does this first even excite you? Is this something you’re interested in enough to actually reach out to the professor? Next you should look up those specific articles if they have any. All you got to do is go to GoogleScholar. com and then type the article name in and read the summary or the abstract.
Now you’ll see more about what exactly they do and how they do it. With all of that background information, then I want you to email your professor. Most students would just say, Hey, here’s what I need. Please let me know if you have any opportunities available. Again, that is the wrong thing to do. I want you to actually incorporate what you learn from your research about the professor and talk about the topic that they’re interested in and how that excites you.
When you send this email, be sure to say who you are, what you want to do, and ask them for some time to see if you can have a conversation about joining their lab, or getting a research opportunity during the semester that you’re in school with them. If they don’t answer, that is okay. Remember, they may get a lot of different emails from a lot of students.
Most students would give up. That’s not what we do. You should have three or four professors you want to email to make sure even if one doesn’t respond, You can find out more information from the other professors that you may have. Even if they don’t have an opportunity for you, some, again, would just say, I’m not going to worry about it.
They didn’t have something for me. I want you to follow up and ask, do they know of any other professors who have research opportunities available for students? Again, it’s being persistent and consistent with the email correspondence between you and your professor. that’ll make sure they know how interested you are and how serious you are about learning about the research experiences on your campus that are available.
So, I’ve talked a lot about what to do if you’re looking for an opportunity on campus at your university, but there are also opportunities outside of your university that occur in summer programs that I want you to be aware of. Now, this takes starting early, so listen to me clearly. You must start early if you are looking for an internship opportunity over the summer.
The time is early winter and a lot of the deadlines are coming up faster than you think. So I want you to go to good old Google and type in research opportunities in whatever state or medical school research opportunities. Be creative with your Google search and you will find a long list of summer programs that have research.
A lot of times you have to write a personal statement when you’re applying to these opportunities. So make sure you write that statement and have someone else read it. Specifically, if you have a professor that can review your material, or if there’s a writing office that will look over your personal statement for you at your university.
Next, I want to make sure you have your CV ready. Because they may ask you what experiences and extracurriculars you have had already and they may even ask you for a transcript. A few things to remember, some of these opportunities are actually paid opportunities. So if you’re balancing or if you need a job over the summer to make sure you build up your finances, you may be able to satisfy that same thing by getting a summer program or a summer research experience.
Here’s what to expect. These opportunities are very exciting and they move pretty quickly. If you get accepted into a research opportunity, You may get to live in a place that you never thought you may live in. So for me, that was living in Baltimore for a summer. It was exciting. I get to meet other people who were at similar stages in college from all over the country, and it made the experience that much greater and that much better.
I want you to be sure to interact with the lab professor or the person. who’s running the research experience for you. Sometimes that person is called the principal investigator. I want you to interact with your PI. Ask them what the expectations are for you during the summer program. And most importantly, ask them what the deliverable is going to be.
Are they expecting you to help them write a publication? Which is the best thing for you because you get the opportunity and you get to share in the outcome and share that with others. Do they expect you to present at a poster presentation or a conference? Just make sure you’re fully aware of what they expect from you So, you know that in the beginning and you could put your best foot forward.
Of course, I’m going to mention the small things like ‘be on time’. Make sure you’re enthusiastic in the clinic or in the lab that you’re in and make sure that you’re showing them that you’re excited about the Opportunity and you’re doing your background homework to make sure that you’re actually doing a great job These are the perfect individuals to get letters of recommendation from when the time comes to apply to med school.
So take this internship opportunity very, very seriously. I learned so much from my opportunity, and it sent me to multiple conferences and even helped me to be a part of a publication when I was a college student doing my summer internship experience. So I want that same thing for you. So, make sure that you apply early and apply broadly.
Don’t just pick one or two programs and hope you’re going to get in. Look and see if there are five programs you can apply to, or ten programs you can apply to, and see how you can repurpose your personal statement and reuse that information as you apply to different programs. And last but not least, remember, I want you to keep this relationship warm, whether it’s an experience on your campus.
Or if it’s a summer program, try to build rapport with the principal investigator or the faculty member you’re working with. Because again, in a year or two, you may be going to those same individuals for letters of recommendation. So I want you to keep in touch with them, even if it’s a brief summer program.
Send them an email every few months just to let them know how you’re doing. Ask them how the research is going that you’ve helped them with over the summer. It’s the same concept if you did an experience on your university’s campus. Maybe you work with them two or three times a week for a whole semester, and you’re done, but make sure you send them emails and ask them how the research is going, and provide them updates because they know that they’ve had the time to build a relationship with you and they can be the best person to help you write letters when it’s time for your medical school applications.
Concluding Note
I hope you’ve learned a little bit about why it’s important to get an internship opportunity or a summer program to help you not only learn about the problems you want to solve and that you’re curious about but to also show your curiosity to medical schools when it’s time to apply. So I don’t want you to just listen to this video.
I want you to actually take action. Think about the steps it will take for you to get your summer program experience or the steps to get into a lab right now at your university. I want you to think about your future right now so that you can have a successful summer and be able to build up your resume as you pursue medical school.
