<p>I'm a junior, and want to be premed. I'm very interested in development in children, and coauthored a paper on the topic that most likely will be published in a medical journal. Will this help me at all in college admissions?</p>
<p>well you arent getting into med school with that attitude.</p>
<p>huh? 10 char</p>
<p>no, publishing your opinion in a medical journal will not help you at all in college admissions. everyone does that.</p>
<p>It’s always impossible to answer “how much will it help.” But publishing a paper is better than not publishing a paper. It’s not significantly impressive but it will look nice on your profile.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if rhume123 is being sarcastic or not (I think they are), but I’ll throw my two cents in and say that it seems pretty impressive to have a published paper in a medical journal as a high school student, provided it’s a legitimate medical journal that not just anyone can get published in. I don’t think it would get you in to a school, but it would definitely give you an extra boost when adcoms are looking at EC’s/awards.</p>
<p>^meh not if the OP’s doing it just to get into college. Honestly it shows. A lot.</p>
<p>^I have no idea wth the dude up there is talking about. You don’t “just” publish a paper, provided this is in a peer-reviewed professional journal. That’s equivalent to (in my opinion) an Intel STS finalist project (varies with impact factor of journal). Keep in mind when you submit papers to journals, you’re competing with professors and postdoctoral fellows. And plenty of these accomplished people get rejected by the journals.</p>
<p>And if you are publishing in somewhere with high impact like PNAS, Cell, Nature, Science, or NEJM, then that is like the pinnacle of your scientific career. Professors would love to be published in one of these at least once in their lifetime (either one of S, C, or N).</p>
<p>How I know? I’ve published papers and I recently submitted a paper to Cell (very prestigious journal) and another to Veterinary Research (ranked 1/140 in field). The time and effort put into doing this isn’t something you do JUST to get into college. You’ve gotta have some interest and passion.</p>
<p>@awesomesauceness</p>
<p>And I bet everything you’ve done in high school has been out of passion and not out of an interest in getting into a good school. Please. Don’t be ridiculous.</p>
<p>It was a peer-reviewed medical journal, not my opinion, it was a systematic review…it had to go through a revision process. But no, its not to get into college. It is an issue I feel strongly about because of personal issues. I was just wondering if it would be a boost, that’s all.</p>
<p>Selective colleges are looking for significant individual achievements outside your high school setting. This is one, so it’s a boost. How much of a boost depends on a lot of factors, such as what the journal is, how much of the work was yours (as opposed to the co-author), etc.</p>
<p>The journal does not have the highest impact factor, but it is the best fit for the paper. I had a large part in the paper and the statistics.</p>
<p>bump 10 char</p>