Hey
This is my first week of college and I’ve already been offered a position in a large lab doing cancer and HIV research. I’m extremely excited, but I wonder if this will stand out to medical schools in the future? Is it common for freshmen to get involved this early?
It’s not uncommon among pre-meds in this day and age, but is a good thing to do. What really impresses medical school committees are publications, and working in a lab is a step in that direction.
I got involved starting early my freshman year. If the opportunity arises and it interests you (and your academics won’t suffer) I would say go for it. It will be a valuable experience.
Quite a few freshmen help in research labs – doesn’t mean it’s not a great opportunity! Congrats.
It’s a good idea to get involved in medical research early! It’s not exactly uncommon especially for freshmen who know they want to go to medical school; many of them know early that biomedical research is a nice add to their applications. But it’s certainly more common for students to start in their sophomore and junior years.
It’s true that a medical school would be impressed by a publication, but it’s also pretty unusual for undergraduates to get publications anyway. It’s more likely for someone who started as a freshman, but still unusual. Anyway, at this level a publication shouldn’t be your goal - don’t think of the research experience as a “step” towards getting a publication but as an experience that will enrich your knowledge of the health field and a way to acquire an essential skill (how to do research). Getting a publication would be like a cherry on top.