Does LENGTH of Research Make a Difference?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>I'm currently planning on doing a clinical research project at a med school this summer. Does the length of time I'm committed to the project make a difference? It's for a Intro to Research class (with minimum of 4 weeks of research with a faculty member + final paper at the end), but I figured that is probably too short to get any meaning experience/results. Would it be viewed more positively if say, I committed 10 weeks to it, or would it not make much of a difference? </p>

<p>Also, is research viewed in any lesser terms if it is technically for a class (unpaid) and not a formal internship?</p>

<p>And if I were to commit the 10 weeks to research, am I expected to do anything else during the summer in addition to a research project? (I could volunteer and job shadow a bit)</p>

<p>thanks in advance for any responses</p>

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<p>I think 10 weeks is a better idea. Length of research does matter in that commitment to a lab is good but for a summer research project 10 weeks is good. 4 weeks is really pushing it. </p>

<p>Research for a class is fine as long as you get something out of it and you’re actually doing stuff and not just shadowing or something all summer.</p>

<p>If you’re doing research that can be full time but shadowing/volunteering never hurt.</p>

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<p>so is it true that the longer time the better? e.g. 10 weeks full time commitment more preferred than 6 weeks?</p>

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<p>Ideally (if you are interested in research that is) you would want to stick to a lab for a 2 or 3 years and get a publication out of it.</p>

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<p>^right. If you’re wanting to do real research, it’s a long term commitment.</p>

<p>I definitely would choose the 10 week option if you’re just looking to get some experience in. Very little is accomplished in 4-6 weeks when it comes to research.</p>

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<p>Oh ok thanks. Also does it matter which type of research we conduct - I am choosing between bench research on brain cancer vs. reseach on nutrition among prisoners or testing a medical intervention computer system for HIV patients (more public health, kind of clinical?). If I were talking about this in an interview or application in the future for med school would doing research similar to public health not be as relevant as bench or more categorically "clinical"research? aka is there a better choice?</p>

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<p>Type of research (clinical vs bench) does not matter, however I would argue that research conducted for a class will definitely not be looked upon as favorably as research done for its own sake.</p>

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<p>Is there even a major difference between clinical Research and the public health research u were talking about?</p>

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<p>

clinical = public health research.</p>

<p>bench > clinical, long-term >> short term.</p>

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<p>“bench >clinical” that true in every case? And greater to a large degree? What if I’m more interested in exploring clinical?</p>

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<p>Do whichever interests you more or fits in your schedule. I wouldn’t hesitate to do either given an interest and the time.</p>

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