I need more help!

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Thank you to everybody who responded on my other post. I'm back for more advice.
I've sort of organized my EC's and would like you take a look at them and give me more advice. </p>

<p>300 hours as an "intern" in the emergency department at a local hospital. I helped with sutures, learned the fundamentals of radiology scans, how to prepare an ekg, differentiate between different blood tubes and culture bottles, talk with patients who looked bored when the E.R. was calm, take vitals, wrap injuries, clean injuries, translate for patients, expand my horizons with regards to medical emergencies and illnesses, do CPR on a patient with heart failure. :( </p>

<p>30 hours as an advocate with keep-a-breast "i love boobies" campaign enlightening the public on breast cancer (and other cancers), how to screen</p>

<p>100 hours at a muscular dystrophy camp</p>

<p>150 hours at a local SPCA branch</p>

<p>2 years as the tzedakah (charity) chair holder in Hillel</p>

<p>Founder of Operation Mitzvah - Care packages to Israeli Soldiers (so far I have raised the money and prepared 35 packages to hand deliver next month!! yay!!)</p>

<p>I am trilingual. (English, Spanish, Hebrew)</p>

<p>Work:
3+ years of working at Starbucks
2 years of being self employed with my own jewelry/bakery business </p>

<p>Education:
University of North Texas
Double major in Anthropology and Psychology, double minor in Chemistry and Judaic Studies
GPA - 3.6
MCAT - Taking Fall 2012/Spring 2013</p>

<p>Things I am planning on doing this school year:
-continue my nonprofit organization
-start a baking club at my university
-begin research
-study abroad in either Australia, New Zealand, London, or Canada</p>

<p>***Questions:</p>

<p>Does it matter in which topic I do my research? Obviously I am most interested in both Anthropology and Psychology, and would love an opportunity to study new information in a more intimate setting, but is there a preference for medical schools? How do I approach a professor to arrange research? How would I go about trying to be published once I am involved in research?</p>

<p>Does it matter where I study abroad? Will it look bad?</p>

<p>Who should my letters be from? My anthropology/psych professors, or chemistry and biology?</p>

<p>What is the most efficient mcat prep class for somebody who is a visual learner?</p>

<p>THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYBODY!!</p>

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<p>Unfortunately I am answering on my phone so I can’t actually look at your questions while I write this.</p>

<p>As far as I know, what you do your research in won’t matter. The most important thing is that you enjoy it and you can discuss it well. Doing research that will help your app does not mean being a set of hands to do work, it means contributing to the thought process.</p>

<p>Approach a prof and tell them you want to get involved in research and are looking for a mentor.</p>

<p>I am not familiar with research in those fields but I imagine it will take at least a year of data collection and then you can analyze and then you can write and then you probably have to wait for revisions. You could get a paper out in less time if you join an existing project but then you wouldn’t be the primary author.</p>

<p>Study abroad won’t matter as long ad you can still get all your requirements done.</p>

<p>Your letters should come from professors who know you best, although I think at least 1 or 2 do you have to come from scientists.</p>

<p>I took and taught kaplan’s course so I can’t comment on that too well. It worked for me, and I guess I am sort of visual (certainly couldn’t use say just an audio recording to learn it)</p>

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<p>I doubt the field matters terribly for your research. (D1 did hadron interactions/high energy physics for her college research. Medical schools didn’t seem to care.) </p>

<p>It’s probably best to approach the prof in person or thru a personally tailored email. In person is best because profs get tons of emails and toss most of them. </p>

<p>Before you approach a prof–do some research yourself to find out what this prof is currently working on. (Past pubs in soft science fields are not necessarily indicative of current projects.) Once you know what their current interests are, then approach them in person or in a email . Be able to say why you want to work for them, tell then why you would be useful to them/their research (IOW, what useful skills do you have to contribute.) It’s also nice if you tell what your timeframe is–i.e. how long you can work for them. (summer only, school year only, 2 school years, etc), Attach your resume to your email and have one in hand to give to the prof when you contact them in person.</p>

<p>Don’t get discouraged—if you’re doing cold contacts (i.e. not approaching one of your current instructors), expect to be turned down a lot. </p>

<p>FYI, you won’t arrange publication–that’s the PI’s job. To decide if the research is publishable and where it ought to be submitted. And you probably won’t get a pub out your research so don’t sweat over it.</p>

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<p>It doesn’t matter where you go. (So long as you don’t cause an international incident, get arrested, etc.)</p>

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<p>At least 2 LORs must be from BCMP profs. Letters from profs who taught one of your pre-req classes, if strong, are especially valuable. If you do join a research group, a letter from your PI is pretty much expected also.</p>

<p>As for best MCAT prep class–everyone has their own preferences. D1 did Kaplan because it was the only in-person class available locally. (She doesn’t like on-line classes.) D2 is doing Kaplan GRE because her summer program paid for it.</p>

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<p>Thank you both. I will begin contacting professors about research.</p>