An opportunity has arisen for this summer where I could participate with a group which monitors the effects of invasive marine species in the Caribbean on several characteristics of the environment (i.e. populations of native fishes, ecology of coral reefs, etc.). I am passionate about marine biology and I plan on participating. Although this research opportunity is in the field of marine biology, it isn’t the typical pre-med biology research opportunity that I picture where students work on a more standard form of biological research in a lab setting. Do research opportunities need to be centralized in a more “medically-related” field to be listed on the medical school application? For some other background, I am a college freshman.
No.
GFP, one of the most important proteins in all of biomedical research, was discovered by a marine biologist (for which he won a Nobel Prize).
Research experience is a process that can be transferred from one field to the next. As long as you’re learning about generating hypotheses, record keeping, experimental design, data analysis, data presentation and such it’s a valuable experience.
I think you do this because you are passionate about marine biology, already say you are going to participate, and well, being on the water in Caribbean sounds a lot more fun that staying in a clinic or hospital all summer. And, unless you have a inbox full of interesting summer research opportunities, this one is likely the best one …
If after this summer, you find you cannot ignore your passion for marine biology, that is fine too, or if you find yourself thinking more about medicine that is fine too, and you can work next year at finding a more traditional opportunity for next summer.
Plenty of time for medically-related research experience later. The medical research doesn’t have to be the only research experience you have. This sounds relevant in terms of learning techniques and skills. And interviewers at med school like to talk to applicants who have other interests besides the usual ones. Make the most of your summer - sounds like fun.
Thank you all for your input!
research matters for pre meds for one reason: most of “top” med schools in terms of reputation/US news rankings tend to be research heavy institutions- that means a lot of faculty members are researchers and their core mission in terms of education side is to train clinicians who can use latest evidenced based medicine. That’s why those schools will care about research.
If you don’t care about going to med school with “prestigious names”, then you may not even have to do research mostly because those schools, their focus is on education instead of research (not that you won’t be a great doctor if you go to less higher ranked schools).
Obviously if you aiming for cornell, harvards, hopkins, etc medically relevant research weighs more, but you are still a freshman so you will have time.
But most important, what matters the most no matter what types of research for admissions is productivity aka number of publications/posters. If you ask me which one is better- one who does marine biology research with multiple publications vs one who conducts cancer research with 0 publication, first one would be a lot more competitive