<p>I am a freshman biomedical engineering pre-med student and currently volunteering in a research lab about fifteen hours a week. I started in January and have already found that this is extremely time-consuming, making it difficult to juggle this with my demanding schedule and multiple other extracurricular activities such as volunteering. I plan to continue working in this lab over the summer and throughout the semester later this fall; however, since I'll have to really cut down on my hours fall semester in order to continue my work, the only way I could really graduate in four years is if I quit research after December. I know research isn't 'required' for med schools, however, would this give me enough of a research commitment to include as a competitive factor on my med school applications, or is a year not long enough? Do I need closer to two years to stand out among applicants, or to show that research was important to my undergraduate experience? I'd rather pursue work in a clinical environment as an upperclassman and based on the number of classes my major requires, completing those courses and working in the lab more than one semester of my second year here would be very difficult. Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>work at nights? work weekends? tell your advisor you can’t really commit to more than x hours per week and hope he/she understands? if you don’t want to do research then don’t do it. working in a lab will definitely not make you stand out among applicants. if, however, you produce tangible results, that’s a different story.</p>