<p>Is taking honors classes (to form the relationships with honors professors) the best way to get good/paid experience for med school in the three types of involvement in the title or can anyone find them by personally looking andf inquiring regular professors, classifieds, etc.?</p>
<p>Any student has access to these opportunities.</p>
<p>Volunteering:
If you’re referring to clinical volunteer opportunities in area hospitals, profs definitely are not going to help you–that’s something that you’ll have to look into on your own. Ads for volunteers may sometimes appear in the Pitt News, but I’d recommend checking out websites for individual hospitals at which you’d be interested in volunteering and go from there.</p>
<p>Research:
There are many ways to find research opportunities. You could look online at the Bio/Chem/Neuro/etc. websites and read the descriptions of each faculty member’s research and contact those whose work appeals to you. You could also use this link: [University</a> of Pittsburgh Interdisciplinary Biomedical Graduate Program - Faculty Members](<a href=“http://www.gradbiomed.pitt.edu/faculty.aspx]University”>http://www.gradbiomed.pitt.edu/faculty.aspx) to find a faculty member whose research is of interest to you and then contact him/her. You could also consult your actual profs–honors or regular–to see if they’d let you work in their labs or know of any other profs who are looking for undergrad researchers.</p>
<p>Internships:
If you’re hoping to get an actual internship for credit, you’ll likely have to consult a departmental advisor. For instance, if you wanted a bio-related internship, you’d need to contact the advisor for the Bio Dept to see what kinds of internships they have available. Alternatively, you could talk to profs–again, honors or regular–but it’s likely that the departmental advisor would have a better idea of all of the available internships. I am not trying to discourage you from seeking out internships, but med schools are more interested in volunteer experience and research experience than internships. With that said, if there’s some kind of extracurricular experience that appeals to you–regardless of whether or not you think med schools “want” to see it on your application–pursue it. It’s great to be able to show interests/pursuits outside of their expectations–it will make you a well-rounded applicant. So do not discount internships if they are of interest to you.</p>
<p>Honors science courses are typically smaller than regular science courses, so it’s likely that an honors prof will get to know you over the course of the semester. However, if you are proactive about going to office hours, consulting your profs about your interests and future plans, and demonstrating actual interest in the material, you should have no problem forming relationships with profs who teach non-honors courses.</p>
<p>There aren’t internships in the biosciences anywhere. What you have is volunteering in a lab, finding a work-study or student employment position as help in a lab, or doing independent study/research in the lab for credit. Generally, you don’t get paid if you are getting credit. I did both, actually at the same time. I had a job in a neuropathology lab in the med school and I did independent study/research in the Dept. of Neuroscience (which was my major).</p>
<p>The other thing you could try, if you can find a faculty/clinician that would let you, is contact them to ask if you could shadow them on the clinical rounds. It would give you a great experience as to what they actually do, but also allow you to perhaps build a relationship with them.</p>
<p>But what you want to do is look on the websites to find out which professors and labs are doing research you are interested in them and then contact them. A good way to get you foot in the door, especially if you are early in your career and have a specific lab you are interested in working in, is to offer to volunteer. These can turn into paid positions if you prove your worth and the lab has money. There are also postings of student employment positions in labs, but they may not match your interests as well. If you are in the biology or neuro departments, they will have advisors to help get you started in undergrad research. You should check out this link too: <a href=“http://www.undergradresearch.pitt.edu/[/url]”>http://www.undergradresearch.pitt.edu/</a></p>
<p>Thanks divel for breaking down the three possibilities and showing that it depends more on the student’s will than the differences between regular/honors classes in finding opportunities. Hey wgmcp101 do you mind sending me a PM me about your experiences because I’m interested in Neuorscience/research in that field too? What you have done so far sounds very interesting and I would like to know how everything went for you. So no internships but I understand many other choices are available still? Thanks for the link. If you have any other links, they would be much appreciated too.</p>