Conducting academic research can sometimes improve a medical school applicant’s chances of admission, but research experience does not automatically lead to acceptance, according to physicians and med school officials.
Dr. Fred M. Jacobs, executive vice president of St. George’s University — an international medical school — and former chair of its department of medicine, says compelling research experience can improve the candidacy of a premed with strong academic qualifications. However, it cannot compensate for subpar academic performance.
“If you’re a good student and you’re getting good grades and your scores on the standardized exams are superior, that’s the kind of student I would encourage to then go and do research if they want to,” he says. “But if you’re an average student and you say, ‘Well, I’m going to enhance my … application by doing research,’ you’re liable to shoot yourself in the foot because you basically don’t have time. You’re not doing well enough as it is, so research should not be the top (priority) on your list.”
[Read: 4 Skills Every Premed Student Should Develop Before Medical School]
Do You Need Research Experience to Get Into Med School?
A research background may be necessary to successfully compete for a spot at a top-tier research-focused medical school. Aspiring physician scientists who want to pursue a medical degree and a Ph.D. simultaneously while being paid a stipend should plan on conducting premed research, since such research is often mandatory to qualify for a subsidized dual degree, admissions experts say.
However, premeds applying to primary care programs that don’t emphasize research may be able to get accepted without research experience. A lower-tier or mid-tier research-oriented med school also might admit someone without an impressive research background.
In sum, it’s possible to get into medical school without premed research experience. But a renowned research-based med school is unlikely to forgive the absence of it on a candidate’s resume.
How Important Research Is Compared to Other Admissions Criteria
A premed’s first priority should be fulfilling the admission requirements for medical school, Jacobs says. Once those requirements have been met, premeds can devote time and effort to research experiences.
Dr. Daniel Clinchot, the vice dean for education at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, cautions that a research project is unlikely to mitigate a serious deficit in another aspect of a candidate’s application, such as a poor MCAT score or a lack of clinical exposure.
The Difference Between Excellent and Mediocre Research
Some research experiences are definitely better than others, say current and former medical school officials.
“The only type of research that impressed me and enhanced my opinion of the applicant was sincere, committed research done for its own sake and not simply to aid the applicant’s competitive status,” Dr. Alex G. Little, a clinical professor of surgery at the University of Arizona–Tucson, wrote in an email.
“How to tell? If the research was part of or leading to a master’s or doctorate was a definite sign,” says Little, who was previously involved with screening prospective medical students. “A plan to continue the research in medical school and/or afterward was another indication. A month or two spent with a mentor just to be able to say research was done is not helpful.”
[Read: How to Find a Medical School That Leads to a Research Career.]
Little says grades and test scores are typically much more pivotal factors in the med school admissions process than research experience. While research is a factor in admissions decisions, he says it has only a small influence. Research experience is weighed more heavily at research-intensive medical schools versus primary care-focused schools, he adds.
The Best Way to Conduct Premed Research
Solid research requires significant time and effort, experts say, so it is best to begin premed research early in college to allow ample time for experimentation and data analysis. Premeds should also focus on researching subjects they care about and take time to learn about the nuances of their research topics.
Additionally, premeds should look for mentors who can help them develop their research abilities.
Regardless of a premed’s research focus, it’s key that he or she displays persistence, resilience and critical thinking skills, says Dr. Quinn Capers IV, professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
“There is no expectation that the research be medical or even scientific, for that matter,” he says, adding that research projects by premeds who were English and political science majors have impressed him.
Capers says he doesn’t expect premeds to have published research papers, but he appreciates when they have given presentations about their research. It’s essential that premeds with a research background understand the research project they participated in well enough to explain it, even if they played only a minor role, he adds.
The Value of Research for Premeds
The vast majority of med school applicants have research experience, Capers says. “Those who do not have research usually have something else that’s really on the ball, like maybe they’ve worked as a paramedic for two or three years or they did some other really terrific experience.”
Research projects help premeds in various ways, according to medical school admissions experts.
Through research, aspiring doctors can better understand and appreciate medical science, and develop important skills such as the ability to decipher research findings and papers. Plus, since premed research provides insight into the work lives of physician scientists, it can help premeds decide whether to pursue a Ph.D. alongside their medical degree.
Accomplishments as a researcher can also bolster a premed’s case for medical school, and so can an enthusiastic endorsement from a research mentor.
[See: 10 Ways to Identify Your Dream M.D.-Ph.D. Program.]
The Subject of Your Research Matters Less Than the Quality
“There is a misconception that future clinicians should be conducting bench research in so-called ‘wet’ labs, surrounded by test tubes, reagents, and cell cultures,” Dr. McGreggor Crowley, a pediatric gastroenterologist who is also a counselor at the IvyWise admissions consulting firm, wrote in an email. “Having a solid background in the scientific method is really what matters, not necessarily the type of research conducted.”
Dr. Kama Guluma, associate dean for admissions and student affairs at the University of California–San Diego School of Medicine, says med schools are not concerned about a candidate’s academic research concentration or whether the research was lab-based. Med schools care about whether a student was actively engaged in his or her research and gained a significant amount of knowledge, he says.
Med schools judge the significance of an applicant’s research through a comprehensive look at the circumstances in which the research took place, Guluma adds.
“It is how that research experience fits in context with the rest of that applicant’s application that matters, and how it fits in the context of what the applicant had available to them,” Guluma wrote in an email.
“For example, a project done by an applicant who is a science major at a university with a plethora of research opportunities and labs, graduate science programs and an affiliated medical school may be viewed differently (possibly less impressively) than that same exact project done by an applicant who is a liberal arts major at a small college, in a small town, with no graduate science degree programs and no affiliated medical school.”
A student who is a fifth author on a paper in a prestigious research journal may garner a less positive reception than a student “who conceived, designed and implemented the totality of their own project, but only presented it at a research meeting because it wasn’t as glamorous and impressive,” Guluma says.
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What Type of Research Helps You Get Into Medical School? originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 02/08/22: This story has been updated with new information.
