<p>I am a sophomore at the University of Rochester, majoring in Biology. I am also considering an English Literature minor. I am also a Rochester Early Medical Scholar (REMS). REMS is Rochester's dual degree program for undergrad and medicine. As a pre-med student, I have taken all of the pre-requisite classes for medical schools (biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and math). I am also involved in doing research at the University of Rochester Medical Center. I started working in a lab at the medical center my second semester at UofR. I have worked both in the clinical setting and in basic research. Currently, I am working on an independent study looking at an animal model of traumatic brain injury. On campus, I am co-cultural chair for a South Asian Cultural Awareness Group, a medic assistant for the Medical Emergency Response Team, and am a tour guide.</p>
<p>If you guys have questions about being pre-med or any other questions, feel free to ask. I'd be happy to answer any questions I can.</p>
<p>Despite being an excellent university, with great research opportunities on campus, I was surprised by the relatively average acceptance rate to medical school, i.e 50-60%.</p>
<p>Many schools (JHU immediately comes to mind) “pre-screen” their medical school applicants by refusing to provide these necessary letters unless the committee believes the student is an outstanding candidate for acceptance. In other words, many other schools artificially manipulate their statistics.</p>
<p>Besides, I wouldn’t call 60% “average”–nationally the med school acceptance rate is closer to 30%.</p>
<p>oc1979
I don’t know too much about the statistics aspect on this. I do know that UofR provides a lot of support to all of the students who want to apply to medical school starting from day one. You can meet with our pre-health advisers and they can help you figure out how to stay on track so that you can realize your goals of getting accepted to medical school.</p>
<p>oc19179, the typical figure that we use is 75% of pre-med students onto medical school, but the statistic varies from year to year. Regardless, if you do well at Rochester you will get in to a good medical school. The following URL lists where students from the class of 2008 enrolled: <a href=“Applying to Health Professions Programs : University of Rochester”>Applying to Health Professions Programs : University of Rochester. NYU, Hopkins, Cornell, Tufts, UCLA, and Emory are just a few schools on the list. I hope this helps.</p>
<p>I’m a currently a second semester freshman at UR and am interested in finding some sort of biomedical research position/lab work either on campus or across the street at the Med Center. How did you go about this your first year?</p>
<p>Go to the URMC website ([Research</a> - University of Rochester Medical Center](<a href=“http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/research/]Research”>http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/research/)). Go to the webpages of the various researches. Most have pretty good summaries of stuff they are researching. Mark the ones that appeal to you (you will need quite a few).</p>
<p>Send out emails to each of the researchers. Explain your situation and the type of work you’re interested in. Attach your resume. Ask if you could meet with each one. </p>
<p>Expect maybe half to reply and maybe half or less of those to want to meet with you.</p>
<p>Go meet with ones that want to meet. Bring your enthusiasm.</p>
<p>Do not expect to be paid (if you do, it wont be much.)</p>
<p>Do not expect to have your own research project 1st year. You will be doing ****** work for a while until you are given something more independent. </p>
<p>2) </p>
<p>Go to the career center. Ask for paid positions at the med center. They will give you a list. All of these are, again, scut work.</p>
<p>This will, however, get your “foot in the door,” so to speak. After doing this all summer and kissing the lab’s a**, ask the PI (principal investigator) you work for for a more research-oriented position.</p>
<p>3) </p>
<p>Go see professor Manly in the Engineering Department. He is the new coordinator for Undergraduate Research. This is a totally brand new thing this year. </p>
<p>He helps undergraduates hook up with researchers. </p>
<p>This is all I know about 3) so far since, like I said, this is a totally brand new thing this year. </p>