<p>^^ question in title.</p>
<p>I asked one of the CC-ers how pre-Med was at P,Y, and S and this was something she brought up that I hadn't considered before.</p>
<p><a href="http://web.princeton.edu/sites/hpa/%5B/url%5D">http://web.princeton.edu/sites/hpa/</a></p>
<p>There's your guide. Lots of pre-meds at Princeton, majoring in all sorts of subjects, doing research, shadowing physicians, etc. Also, a new program has started whereby students can get a combined M.D./Ph.D. with the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Princeton. Here's the link, though the Prince's server is down today: <a href="http://clickit.go2net.com/search?pos=9&ppos=2&plnks=2&uplnks=18&cat=web&cid=239171&site=srch&area=srch.noncomm.google&shape=textlink&cp=info.cablev&cluster-click=0&pd=0&coll=1&query=princeton%2C+robert+wood+johnson%2C+ph.d.%2C+medical&rawto=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/02/22/news/12104.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://clickit.go2net.com/search?pos=9&ppos=2&plnks=2&uplnks=18&cat=web&cid=239171&site=srch&area=srch.noncomm.google&shape=textlink&cp=info.cablev&cluster-click=0&pd=0&coll=1&query=princeton%2C+robert+wood+johnson%2C+ph.d.%2C+medical&rawto=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/02/22/news/12104.shtml</a></p>
<p><em>super-big hug</em> mucho gracias!</p>
<p>it doesn't hurt your chances of getting into medical school. It does limit your opportunities though substantially of doing good medical research as an undergraduate save for going away during the summer. This is one of the unperceived benefits of a pre-med going to a college with a good med school - namely, much more exposure to medical school if you want it. And the MD-PhD program with UMDNJ doesn't yet have NIH MSTP funding, and it wouldn't anyway have bearing on the undergraduate experience since that's a Rutgers based program mooching off Princeton's name (and as such will finally get NIH funding). Also, UMDNJ is really not a top notch program that Princeton pre-meds salivate over (its a good med school, just not harvard/JH/Duke caliber, or anywhere near that caliber). Its part of Rutgers University.</p>
<p>Just one department where you can see examples of undergrad research opportunities available at Princeton:<br>
<a href="http://www.molbio.princeton.edu/undergrad.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.molbio.princeton.edu/undergrad.php</a> Lots of links on that page to undergrad's research opportunities, stories about their own experiences, and publications. Most or all juniors in that department spend the summer on campus doing research full-time. Of course, premeds also major in other departments and do research there. Because Princeton students write junior papers and senior theses and because there is so much grant money available, undergrad research opportunities for premeds are plentiful.</p>
<p>But, there is a big difference between molecular biology and clinical research. Princeton definitely has very strong basic science research. It doesn't have much of any clinical research or research areas found at medical schools like pathology, pharmacology, anatomy/physiology, epidemiology, clinical trials. So a Princeton student might be a lack for want of exposure to the more used and applied fields which relate to medicine instead of basic sciences. Of course there are MD's who do research in molecular biology, biochem, cell bio... but really those fields, while important, don't make up the "bread and butter" of medical research, nor do they constitute more than 5% of medical school curricula (which many would argue is unfortunate and needs to change).</p>