<p>Hi guys,</p>
<p>So although I've always been passionate about science, specifically genetics (I'm a junior bio/biochem major), I didn't realize that I wanted to seriously follow the MD/PhD track until recently. Specifically, over the past year and a half I've dealt with a debilitating injury that was misdiagnosed multiple times before I saw a doctor who recognized how to treat me properly. I'm doing much better now, but the whole experience made me realize that I don't just want to do genetics research, I want to treat people with genetic diseases as well. I've talked a lot with my advisor over the past eight months or so and she's helped me realize what I ultimately want to do is aim for the MSTP program.</p>
<p>That said - I'm worries about my lack of long-term research experience. Last summer (between sophomore and junior year) I originally had a pretty cool research job lined up, but I ended up being in the hospital virtually all summer because I had major reconstructive surgery for the aforementioned injury, and was more or less incapacitated from June through August (as in completely immobilized/in bed) and had to spend the few weeks I had left working full-time to help my family pay for the surgery. This summer I have a pretty great research fellowship lined up, but it'll only be for one summer, although I might gain an invitation to go work there for a year after graduation before I head to grad school (fingers crossed). I started doing genomics research with one of my professors last fall, but she ended up leaving my school about a month ago to go work for the NSF, so the project was scratched. I've also been doing some research with the Mayo Clinic as a Mayo Scholar, but again, that just ended, as it was only a six-month program. So right now I'm more or less in the flux.</p>
<p>I guess my ultimate question is: how can I make myself more competitive on the research front? I'm not applying to MSTP this cycle; I want to take a year off before I go so I'll be applying next year (end of my senior year), but I feel like I've seen time and time again that it's important to have a long-term research project that you've been involved in, and frankly, while I have a lot of short-term, interesting research experience I definitely don't have long-term experience, although I might get a paper out of my research this summer. I always take the advice of pre-med students at my school with a grain of salt (because it tends to be along the lines of "OMG, if you don't get straight As/get a perfect MCAT score/have 23948234923847293 hours of experience you're screwed!") but there are quite a few posters on this board who seem knowledgeable about the process, so I thought I'd ask. </p>
<p>Also - is there a way to explain special circumstances (i.e. why I basically did nothing last summer) on applications?</p>
<p>I'm fairly set on MSTP, my question is more along the lines of how important long-term research is. Thanks and sorry for the long post :)</p>