Research Experience: Does it have to be science/medically related?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I noticed that a lot of scientific research opportunities are limited to science majors. As a pre-med looking to major in the humanities, I'm a bit concerned if research has to be scientifically related.</p>

2

<p>What type of research do you have in mind? There is a lot of research done in humanities relating back to health. Most epidemiology studies are more humanities than science in nature.</p>

3

<p>No, it doesn’t. You don’t really need to do research to get into med school at all, but if you are interested, start by emailing researchers outside of your university (at hospitals, etc). Psych research is also a great way to get research experience without having to be in a heavy science lab, so that might be worth looking into if you really want some experience</p>

4

<p>@texaspg right now I’m helping out in 2 literary projects, one researching and one translating. My research interests are broad and I’m willing to research about anything, but I have a bit of a soft spot in literary research.</p>

5

<p>One of best non-fiction books I have read is called the emperor of all maladies which provides the best history of progress in cancer treatment while reading like a story. Unless your literary research can provide output relevant to medicine, I would not count it contributing to the medical application. It might provide interest once you get to interviews but as a baseline for application strength, probably not. IWBB, our resident classics major turned future MD/PhD has disappeared but he could have provided better guidance in your case.</p>

6

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<p>So that does mean it has to be medically related, if I’m looking to bolster my application.</p>

7

<p>Personally, I think so. There is a lot of research one can do in humanities that is relevant to health if one is not doing science research. Some of the science research is not relevant to medicine either. </p>

<p>The other way around, how do you justify your research being in anyway relevant to your medical app? I can see it being relevant to a PhD application in literature but…</p>