<p>So because of this class I'm taking in high school next year I have a chance to be part of an article in a medical journal but it will be a TON of work and it would be around the time of AP classes and finals next year so I'm deciding whether or not it will be worth it to do that and not do as well on finals and APs, what do you think? Also, how good will that look for colleges? and how will it look for med schools since it will have been in high school when I wrote it?</p>
<p>It will look good, even to med schools, to an extent, because pubs are for life. You have to beware though, optimism is rampant in research labs. Just because they say you will get published doesn’t mean it will happen. Often the data isn’t interesting enough or voluminous enough and by the time it gets written up you will be long gone and forgotten. If this is a completed project and they just need help writing and refining, that would be more of a better bet.</p>
<p>^^^ lol, I agree. Sometimes PI’s might “talk” about publications to make sure the kids working in the lab, work really hard on the project. </p>
<p>This summer I am doing research in a lab in a med. school in Texas and my PI mentioned something about a publication at the start of the project. First couple of weeks into the project I was skeptical about a publication, but then he asked me to write a an article on my research. I am still skeptical because maybe the article won’t be good enough to get published. I guess we will see at the end of the summer. </p>
<p>My point is work hard in your research lab and you may get published, but don’t kill yourself working for the research lab with the hope that you will get published. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out. </p>
<p>Also I remember a veteran poster on this forum saying that publications in college will also help out with residency applications. So they can stay on your CV for a long time.</p>