<p>I was basically wondering the quality/quantity of research opportunities or internships for pre-med students at Columbia? Is the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons open for undergraduates to participate in research or shadow a physician? Is it common for pre-med students to intern at an nyc hospital or do research in the area? How accessible are all of these resources?</p>
<p>Great question, I'm wondering the same.</p>
<p>I will say that research as an undergraduate, even as a freshman or sophmore, is easy to get in science and engineering departments on the main campus. You have to keep looking and apply whenever spots open up, maybe even meet a professor or two, and you'll land something nearly for certain. I don't know of anyone who's tried to get research in science/engineering and has failed for a long time. You'll obviously get monotonous work at first, but you can work your way up. There's a lot of pre-med research done on campus, I have a friend working on protein structures in the orgo lab since his freshman year he might have moved on though.</p>
<p>Columbia has the cerf program for research during the summer, I have sophomore friends who got into this for the coming summer. In terms of working at hospitals and at the medical campus, I had two friends do medical research over the summer last year, one worked on the medical campus and one worked at a hospital on the upper east side, both were pretty smart and driven kids though, they seemed pretty happy with their work. In general researchers and profs like to see kids who are smart (highish gpa) and very interested in their field, this too is very important to portray in a meeting or on a resume.</p>
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Columbia has the cerf program for research during the summer
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<p>its SURF...summer undergraduate research fellowship</p>
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In terms of working at hospitals and at the medical campus
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<p>the closest hospital to columbia is st. luke's...many opportunities there....the most common of which is the Academic Associates program in the emergency department...you get to shadow ER docs and enroll people in studies....but it is by no means the only opportunity there. In addition there are several hospitals in and around Manhattan that you could probably find opportunities at. </p>
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In general researchers and profs like to see kids who are smart (highish gpa) and very interested in their field, this too is very important to portray in a meeting or on a resume.
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<p>well...if you are a freshman or sophomore they don't expect TOO much most times since they're mostly looking for potential....freshman grades don't really mean too much and they don't expect you to have particularly meaningful experience in HS</p>
<p>The profs also hate pre-meds who are just doing research for a line on their resume. They want the type of student who is interested in getting a PhD (or even MD/PhD) and really loves/enjoys/has a long term commitment to doing research.</p>
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The profs also hate pre-meds who are just doing research for a line on their resume. They want the type of student who is interested in getting a PhD (or even MD/PhD) and really loves/enjoys/has a long term commitment to doing research.
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<p>no, i don't think this is true at all....the main thing that most profs are looking for in undergrads doing research for them is a meticulous person who doesn't mind putting in lots and lots of hours for no pay in the hopes of getting a good recommendation. premeds fit this description very well. PhDs and MD/PhDs aren't really considered by underclassmen very much so profs would really be doing a disservice to themselves by having that aspiration be one of their criteria.</p>
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PhDs and MD/PhDs aren't really considered by underclassmen very much so profs would really be doing a disservice to themselves by having that aspiration be one of their criteria.
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<p>Um, I totally disagree. A lot of people I knew long wanted to go on and get PhD's. You maybe hung around the premed wannabes.</p>