I am a third-year student at a top 15 university and I am looking to begin applying to summer programs for the upcoming summer (between my third and fourth years). I am most interested in either neuroscience- or pharmacology-related research, but am open to any kinds of summer programs that are good experiences for students who want to go to medical school. I have no preference as to geographic location or clinical vs. research programs.
=========================================
A little more about me:
Neuroscience major at top 15 national university
URM (Hispanic) and first gen on one side of my family? (I don’t think that’s a thing but I’ll include it in case somebody has more insight as to whether it is or not)
GPA:
BCPM: 3.29
cGPA: 3.32 (hoping for an upward trend in both since I just have physics and biochem left to do and they are both much easier than physio and organic chem at my school!)
ECs:
Community Service:
Community Outreach Chair for Global Health club; I organize and go no numerous volunteering events in the local area every few weeks.
Volunteer at a hospital (~100 hours, but stopped this month because it was not worthwhile; I only had administrative duties and was not able to interact with patients–I also volunteered in HS for ~200 hours and had patient interactions, but I’m not sure to mention that or not)
Research:
Lead RA (out of 20 undergrads, some of whom are older than I) in neuroscience lab working with psychiatric and healthy patients. We are looking to find biomarkers of depression/anxiety/bipolar/schizophrenia using both EEG and MRI. I am trained in both methods and have received numerous competitive grants from my school to conduct independent research. I was also included on a poster which I presented at a national conference in October.
Other:
I am very heavily involved in other ECs, but they are more for my own enjoyment–lots of stuff with our Alumni Association and Orientation programs. I can elaborate on those as well but I hold lots of leadership within all of these clubs.
=========================================
With all of that out of the way, if anybody has programs they think would be a good fit for me (either clinical/volunteering or research is fine), PLEASE let me know!!! I would like as much input as possible.
Your best opportunity for a full time summer research position will be at your home institution.
Acceptance to summer programs is extremely competitive and getting a position is never guaranteed. (Your relatively low GPA/sGPA is going to hurt your chances…) Program acceptance rates range between 3% to 30% of applicants.
AMGEN’s program is NOT geared toward pre-meds; it’s for those who wish to make a career out of science research (PhD or MD/PhD only.)
You may want to consider a SHPEP program–which is for URM, rural, low income and otherwise under-represented in healthcare populations–although the program is geared more rising college sophomores than upperclassmen. http://www.shpep.org
With your BCMP and cGPA, you will have difficulty to compete for out of school research projects. My D was in a better situation than yours, but every out of school applications in the US was shot down, except one in India which she ended up not going. She was able to secure in school research for two summers, with pay, nevertheless. Of the “out side” research opportunities, forget about major institutions (EG : Emory U, Mayor Clinic etc.) as those are reserved for “internal” applicants, the few openings to the public is for top students and very competitive. You can try local institution opportunities or international openings, you get a better chance.
@WayOutWestMom Thanks for the info. Do these programs accept only students from the same school? In general students would like to come back to their home base during summer break and would like to apply locally. Will that be possible?
My D is studying in OU and did not see much from the above list. But I see plenty of programs in UC and in Bay area. That is why would like to know is it realistic to expect or since there is so much competition and so many students already studying in respective UC and they get preference.
Except for SHPEP, most summer internship programs are aimed at older students (rising seniors & juniors). For the most part, rising sophomores do poorly in the selection process because they lack both upper level sciences and previous research lab experience. For a younger student who wants a paid summer research experience, the best opportunity will be at her home program.
If you want your D home for the summer and she wants to engage in research, probably the best thing to do is for her to cold email her CV to professors at unis near your home and offer to work for free as a lab volunteer. She probably won’t get any bites, but who knows— she may get lucky…
One issue your D may run into re: summer programs in CA–she’s on a semester system at OU and UCs run on a quarter system. This means the summer terms aren’t congruent. Quarter system programs start later and finish later. Your daughter may need to return to OU for classes before the summer program is finished–thus disqualifying her from consideration. (Because students receive a stipend + housing + food, they sign a contract agreeing to the terms of the program.)
NSF programs are federally funded and there is no bias in admission based upon home school. Basically the best/strongest applicants for the programs get chosen.
NIH programs are all based at the NIH in Bethesda or at other NIH lab locations in Montana, North Carolina, Arizona, Baltimore or Fredrick, MD. Applicants are accepted based upon grades, LORs + best match of skills to program applied for.
The AMGEN scholar programs are funded by AMGEN and applicants are selected on a nationally competitive basis based upon the fit of the applicant's research/academic background to the needs of the individual project sponsor as well the applicant's academic potential as a PhD candidate. (i.e. GPA, grades in upper level coursework, previous research experience and LORs from PIs) Amgen programs have acceptance rates <4% and prohibit students from taking the MCAT or applying to med school during the duration of the program.
Programs sponsored by individual institutions may favor in-house applicants, but it will vary by program specifics. Also all CA programs (institutional and publicly funded) get HUGE numbers of applicants and are extremely competitive.
P.S. Some REUs favor students from smaller academic institutions–like LACs or directional state Us which may have only limited or no research opportunities. Providing gifted science students a chance to do hands on lab research was one of the founding reasons for REUs.
Thank you to @WayOutWestMom and @artloversplus for your helpful advice. I am aware that my situation is somewhat grim, and I do know that most research programs are VERY competitive. That being said, I was planning on applying to ~20 programs, so my hope was that I would be accepted to one or two (although I am realistic in thinking that those chances are still quite low…).
As for performing research at my home institution, I can pursue that again, but I would like to find other opportunities elsewhere 1) because I did research at my university last summer, and 2) because I want different laboratory experience! I really enjoy what I’m doing currently but what to see if there are other things I like more/as much. Now is the time to figure that out!
Also, with NIH, I have already applied to the Summer Internship Program and have reached out to a couple of PIs there. I have received positive responses from those PIs, although they do not begin recruitment until Jan-Feb. If that program does not work out (since it is my top choice), I will send out my applications to other programs. I will look into the links you sent, @WayOutWestMom , with the exception of AMGEN because I know that program is just too competitive for me.
Don’t wait until you hear back from NIH. REUs and other summer research programs have mid-January thru mid-February application deadlines. You won’t hear anything definitive back from the NIH until probably early March.
If you do end up with multiple acceptances, you can always (graciously) withdraw.
Be sure to apply to GEMS at UColorado-Denver Medical Campus. It’s has a 3.0 GPA minimum and is limited to UIM (under-represented in medicine) students. (African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Alaska Native, or Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander)
Thanks for the heads-up, @WayOutWestMom . I was planning on having all of those programs submitted and done by the time I started to hear back from NIH PIs.
Another general problem I’ve been running into as I look for more programs is that my university runs on the quarter system, and therefore does not finish school until mid-June. As a result, many of the programs I look at (including, unfortunately, GEMS) are not applicable for me. I am looking at any that start after June but the list is somewhat smaller, which is part of the reason I am asking CC for advice. I should’ve included this information in my original post, but I guess it’s better late than never?
<<<
GPA:
BCPM: 3.29
cGPA: 3.32 (hoping for an upward trend in both since I just have physics and biochem left to do and they are both much easier than physio and organic chem at my school!)
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
Yikes. I don’t see how two science classes can do much to improve your science GPA.
I would strongly suggest a gap year and taking more BCMP classes to increase that GPA.
Have you taken courses like, Cell Bio? Genetics? Maybe Anatomy?
While the psych classes required by her uni for a neuroscience major won’t help the sGPA, the required upper division neurosci classes are classified as BCMP by AMCAS.
@kitts95
Most quarter system colleges will be on the west coast--California, Oregon, Washington. Focus your REU/summer internship search on that geographic are.
Other quarter system colleges include: Dartmouth, DePaul, Drexel, Northwestern, Ohio State and Rush. All of those have med schools and probably offer summer research programs.
@mom2collegekids Hi! Thanks for your input. I will list out the courses I have taken so far and what I still need to take to show my coursework thus far. All courses are one quarter long unless part of a sequence (i.e. chemistry) and noted differently.
Completed (20 credits):
General chemistry with lab (3 quarters / all year)
Organic chemistry with lab (3 quarters / all year)
Physiology with lab
Genetics and Molecular Biology with lab
Brain Damage and the Mind
Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Independent Study in Neuroscience (2 quarters)
Neuroscience of Brain Disorders
Molecular Mechanisms of Neuropsychopharmacology
Statistics
Differential Calculus of Multivariable Functions
Multiple Integration and Vector Calculus
Need to Take (12 credits):
Cellular Biology with lab
Biochemistry
Physics with lab (3 quarters / all year)
Systems and Behavioral Neuroscience
Independent Study in Neuroscience (5 quarters)
So I have completed 20 credits of my BCPM GPA so far, and still have 12 more credits to go. I know that my GPA will likely be on the low side, but I’m anticipating getting better grades in my final two years and have calculated that it is not that difficult for me to raise both my sGPA and my cGPA up to 3.45-3.5.
@WayOutWestMom I’m actually a guy, but thank you for clearing up some of the other commenter’s questions! And I will look into other programs at quarter system schools especially.
