How to Get Research Experience for Med School

How to Get Research Experience for Your Medical School Application

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Posted in: Extracurriculars

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The Council on Undergraduate Research defines undergraduate research as “a mentored investigation or creative inquiry conducted by undergraduate students that seeks to make a scholarly or artistic contribution to knowledge.”

Having research experience on your medical school application is an excellent way to make a contribution to medicine while also gaining extracurricular hours. Instead of thinking about it as just a way bolster your med school application, think about research as a way to showcase your teamwork, problem-solving, and passion for scientific inquiry. It’s also great for mentorship and networking.

You don’t need research experience to get into medical school, but it certainly makes your application more competitive. Med schools focused on research may prioritize applications of students with 400+ hours of research experience. MD-PhD program applicants should aim for 1,500+ hours of research.

If you are a premed who’s interested in doing research but has never been exposed to it before, as I was until my sophomore year in college, you are probably wondering, “How am I supposed to get an undergraduate research position?” 

Keep reading below to gain a fundamental understanding of undergraduate research, how to find the best opportunities, and how to reap the most benefits.

Step 1: Identify Your Research Interests

Identifying a good research project to join takes some legwork at the front end. Narrow down your research interests by considering the type of research you’re most likely to enjoy. Just because your sights are set on becoming a medical student doesn’t mean you have to focus on healthcare-related research. Perhaps you’ll find that the physical sciences are where you’d prefer to focus. Kinesiology, exercise science, and nutrition labs also offer great experience.

For medical school admissions, any kind of scientific research is good as long as it is done consistently and thoughtfully. When I went through this process, I decided I wanted to do some sort of cancer research. Although “cancer research” is very broad, it gave me a starting point to launch from.

Step 2: Find Relevant Opportunities

Now that you have a general idea of what kind of research you want to do, start looking for principal investigators (PIs) with similar interests.

Your undergraduate institution may have a website or resource center that shows all the current research positions open. UCLA, for example, has a website dedicated to undergraduate research.

You can also visit departmental websites to read professors’ profiles and their research interests.

As you find potential researchers, make a list of 20 to 30 relevant principal investigators that you would like to contact about a potential position. Make a spreadsheet to keep track of the information you need: name, email address, and research profile.

Remember, quality is better than quantity. Fewer hours of relevant research ending in a publication or poster presentation is more valuable than many research hours associated with no end result. 

According to the AAMC, the best time to look is at the start of a semester. It’s most common to secure an undergrad research position during junior or senior year.

Learn expert tips for making the most of research during pre-med with our FREE Research Roadmap video course.

Step 3: Apply to Research Positions 

If you are applying for your first research position, you have no previous experience to offer. Researchers know this and seek students who are dedicated, hardworking, smart, and enthusiastic about research.

3.1: Develop a CV and Send Emails

The best way to contact professors is to email them with your CV (the academic version of a résumé) attached. Since you are sending the same CV to everyone, you will also need to write personal cover letters to each principal investigator to show that you are genuinely interested in their research.

Work from your spreadsheet to send 20-30 emails. 

If you’re wondering what to write in your email/cover letter, we actually have a free template you can use to expedite things. This is the template that Shivani Mehta, a Fulbright Scholar and third-year medical student at UC San Diego School of Medicine, used to secure her numerous research positions in undergrad.

Use Shivani’s cover letter template to put your application at the top of the stack!

In terms of creating a research CV, the most important things to include are the following:

  • GPA
  • Research interests
  • Courses you have taken that might relate to their research
  • Research skills you may have
  • Awards or honors you may have received
  • Extracurricular activities in which you are involved

Learn More: How To Write An Undergraduate CV

Be aware — you may only get 3-4 responses. When I applied for research positions, I sent about 30 emails. Three researchers kindly rejected me, one offered me an interview, and the rest never replied.

Shivani got over 10 replies from PIs using her cold email/cover letter template, so if I were you, I’d look into that (see above). Hopefully, you’ll get at least one interview offer.

3.2: Prepare for the Interview and Interview Like a Pro

If a researcher does offer to interview you, make sure that you are ready. Learn as much as you can about their research interests. Read the papers the researcher has published, prepare questions, and be enthusiastic.

When you go into the interview, let them know that you would eventually like to have an individual project (i.e. a project where you have a mentor’s guidance but, essentially, the project is yours). The best researchers want to see that you are willing to take ownership of your research.

If the principal investigator says that an independent project probably won’t be an option in the future, you should be wary about working in that lab long-term. Being a grunt worker is fine to get some preliminary experience and build your research CV, but eventually you should identify a lab that’s willing to grant you some research autonomy.

When interviewing for research positions, remember that you should be evaluating them as they evaluate you. You need to ask yourself:

  • Is this a place you want to work?
  • Will they offer you mentorship?
  • Do they care about your success?
  • Can you meaningfully contribute to their work?
  • Are you settling?

Read Next: How To Prepare For A Medical School Interview

Finding a research project that interests you and research mentors who care about your success both go a long way toward meaningful undergraduate research. This research experience will benefit you when it’s time to apply to medical school and as you develop into a well-rounded physician.

Step 4: Maximize Your Experience

After a lot of hard work, you have finally landed an undergrad research position. Congratulations! Now, let’s maximize your experience and not let this opportunity go to waste.

I’ve learned several strategies for making research more high-yield and less stressful:

  • Remember the personal things: Notice the human, personal stories that come out of your research experience. When it’s time to describe your extracurricular activities on your medical school application, you might not remember the exact timing details of your PCR or the specific strain of mouse that you used. Yet, you will remember the day that the PhD student in the lab taught you a useful shortcut to help you analyze samples. You’ll recall the day that your PI sat with you and told you about all of their failed experiments to help you feel better about yours. Those are the stories that will resonate with AdComs.
  • Beware benchwork: As a student, you usually have 2-4 years between when you start a project and when you need it to be published for your application, so you can’t afford to do projects that take a very long time. Benchwork is not bad — it just takes quite a while, and it’s always helpful to have completed research under your belt.
  • Avoid lab technician limbo: The research position is finally yours, or so you think. The downside to lab teching is that students frequently get caught in this position with no hope of moving up in the ranks. If you’ve spent 3-4 months without any real, personal involvement in research, I strongly recommend you talk to your Principal Investigator (PI) or the graduate student with whom you are conducting research. Do not become complacent with the level of your involvement in research and desire something more.
  • Actually be a team player: Your PI is a professional researcher, and if there’s anything your PI dislikes more than lecturing during a busy semester, it’s probably a premed student only looking to get a good letter of recommendation. Whatever your goals, do not give off that impression. Trust me, I’ve seen that premed student who shows up when they want to, disappearing for weeks at times before waltzing back into the lab like nothing has happened. This kind of attitude does not build rapport with your research mentors. Instead, take initiative, be an actual team player, and keep looking for ways to advance your research with your graduate student or PI.
  • Maintain a balance: The delicate balance between extracurriculars (including research experience) and academic performance is, in my opinion, the most important thing that medical schools look for. Consistent participation in research while maintaining a stellar science GPA speaks volumes about the focus and determination of a candidate. If you find yourself struggling to keep up academically because of your commitment to research, slow down and honestly evaluate how much better you would do in class with the extra hours usually spent in the lab. I am not saying stop conducting research altogether. However, each quarter/semester does have a different weight depending on the number of units you take and the difficulty of the classes. Adjust accordingly, maybe staying for 2 hours a day instead of the usual 4 hours.

Step 5: Make the Most of Mentorship Opportunities

One of the best things about a summer research program is that you get paired up with a PI or research mentor who has dedicated their summer to teaching you about research. Make the most out of this time because it may impact the rest of your life.

Having a good mentor is essential to your research experience. A good mentor will teach you how to be a good researcher, help you get published, and possibly even provide a letter of recommendation for your med school application.

Take advantage of the face time that you have with your mentor to learn about your research questions but also about their unique experiences and areas of interest.

Express your interests when you first meet with your PI or research mentor. Be professional and friendly. Show up on time to show respect. Ask what your PI needs. Ask what their goals are.

Don’t be transparently prowling for a letter of recommendation. Instead, graciously seek out an earnest mentor, and the letter of recommendation won’t be your only reward.

Unique Benefits of Summer Research Programs

If you are a premed, don’t waste a summer, even if you plan to take a gap year. You can do a lot in the summertime, but few activities are more rewarding or beneficial to your medical career than a formal summer research program.

Below are 4 reasons that demonstrate the unique benefits of a summer research program:

  • Offers a structured program designed to teach you about research: Not all principal investigators or research mentors are created equally. Some PIs teach and guide you, while others — intentionally or not — simply use you as free labor. Because of this, many undergraduate researchers do not really learn how to properly conduct research. Summer research programs, however, are specifically designed to teach you how to think scientifically, design experiments, troubleshoot, and solve problems. They can often open your eyes to see what research should actually be like.
  • Helps you determine whether you want to do extensive research in the future: A summer research program is, in essence, a research internship. You do research full time, like a graduate student or a postdoc. Thus, this experience is key when deciding whether you want research to be a significant part of your future career. Those who love their summer research experiences are more inclined to pursue an MD/PhD. Even if they do not work towards an MD/PhD, interested researchers are often more inclined to do significant research as an MD.
  • Often provides a stipend and/or housing: This is especially important if you do not have many research or clinical opportunities near where you normally live. If you are going to dedicate a summer to doing research, you might as well get paid and housed.
  • Boosts your CV/application: This shouldn’t be your main motivation, but participating in a summer research program is a significant experience in the eyes of admissions committees. The more prestigious the research program, the more impressive it is. This is mainly because the best research programs have the best structure, provide the best mentorship, and allow you to make an important contribution to the scientific community.

Read Next: How to Get a Research Position for Gap Year 

The deadline for summer research programs varies by program. They can range from the end of fall to the end of winter. If you are interested in doing summer research, find a research program that might be a good fit for you. You will most likely have to apply to multiple programs in order to get accepted because many summer research programs are competitive.

3 Ways to Be a Competitive Applicant to a Research Lab Despite No Previous Experience

Hiring managers may prefer students with research experience, so where can you get your first research experience from? Trust me, you are not alone.

Here are a few ways to land a research position without prior experience:

  • Meet with the principal investigator: Set up a meeting with the PI well before you’d like to start working there to discuss their work and your interest in it. You can do this with or without mentioning your upcoming search for a research position. Simply planting the seed of your enthusiasm and dedication will go a long way when it comes time to formally express your interest in working with them.
  • Customize your CV: Amplify your skills most relevant to each particular position. Applying to a clinical research lab with a lot of patient-facing work? Make sure that your interpersonal skills stand out on your CV — community engagement, peer support roles like tutoring, etc.
  • Showcase your related accomplishments: Highlight the excellent work you did in the chemistry lab as you executed each experiment and report diligence. Leverage the connections you made with professors, mentors, and career center advisors. You most likely won’t need a letter of recommendation to apply to work in a lab. This is an application process dominated by cold emails and, hopefully, warmer conversations. However, if a professor or mentor can send a short email to a PI on your behalf, that would be a great supplement to your CV, especially if that professor or mentor has any connections to the labs/research that you are interested in.

Read Next: Finding an Undergraduate Research Lab as a Pre-Med Student 

When to Consider a Post-Baccalaureate Program

Many post-baccalaureate programs, which can be taken between undergrad and grad school, offer research opportunities. Post-bacc programs are a great way to find and participate in more extracurriculars to strengthen your medical school application.

Post-bacc is right for some, not for others. Here are some questions to ask yourself before deciding if post-baccalaureate is right for you:

  • Do I need to boost my GPA before applying to med school?
  • What percentage of students are accepted to MD and/or DO schools after this program?
  • How long does the average student take to finish this program?
  • Is there built-in MCAT study time or preparation classes?
  • Do I need better MCAT scores?
  • Is career advising available?
  • What electives can I take?
  • Are there hands-on clinical opportunities?
  • What kind of research opportunities are there? 

FAQs

It is not just medical research that counts for medical school. AdComs value all types of research, including research in the humanities, social sciences, and different sciences. 

Research with medical or clinical relevance is the gold standard for medical school admissions, so you should look for those opportunities for the highest return on your time investment. AdComs also approve of non-medically related scientific research and social science research, but these experiences probably won’t open doors for you at research-oriented medical schools. Humanities research is the least useful for getting into medical school but is still better than no research at all.

Clinical research means you’re directly studying human subjects to evaluate the safety and efficacy of treatments. Think, “clinical trials.”

Wet lab research occurs in a laboratory setting. Researchers work with biological samples of cells, tissues, or chemicals, typically without using human subjects.

Medical schools don’t require research experience to get an admissions offer. However, lots of schools – especially the prestigious ones like Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Stanford, etc. – place a heavy emphasis on research and expect their students to understand the research process and continue researching throughout their four years at medical school. It is unlikely that you’ll get into any of these schools without significant research experience.

Other schools, however, may be more clinically focused or may have a unique mission to serve specific groups of people. Research may not be necessary to get into these schools. Just remember, though, that it will never hurt

That’s why I recommend that all my clients get some research experience, even if they’re only interested in clinical medicine.

Although it is uncommon, you can get published as a pre-med student.

If you’re dead set on making this happen, the first thing I recommend is to get as much research experience as possible. Once you have a couple hundred hours under your belt, start searching for opportunities where the faculty member or research mentor is open to including your name in the byline of a finalized research paper. Having lots of hours will open doors to more fruitful research experiences.

Also note that presenting a research poster may be much simpler and much less work than getting your name on a scientific article and will still count as valuable experience on your med school application.

Here are a few ways to get research experience after undergrad but before med school:
  • Consider a post-baccalaureate program.
  • Contact your undergrad professors about research projects in your field of interest.
  • Look for a research assistant position outside your alma mater, at a company or institution.
  • Volunteer for research opportunities.

Double Your Odds of Acceptance with MedSchoolCoach

Need help building your pre-med resume and becoming the best med school applicant you can be? You can work with a former admissions committee member to plan a detailed roadmap that takes you from here to medical school. Your Physician Advisor will help you identify weak points in your application and secure the right research position and extracurricular opportunities to level up your application. 

Skip the confusing forum posts and discouraging advice from your campus pre-health advisor. Work 1-on-1 with a former admissions committee member to discover EXACTLY what you need to do to get in. 
Picture of Renee Marinelli, MD

Renee Marinelli, MD

Dr. Marinelli has practiced family medicine, served on the University of California Admissions Committee, and has helped hundreds of students get into medical school. She spearheads a team of physician advisors who guide MedSchoolCoach students.

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