<p>What type of volunteering and research should I begin on? I'm in the summer after my freshman year and was thinking on just doing some ordinary volunteering at a hospital like a nurse's assistant, and trying to find a neurosurgeon to shadow. I'd like to know other types of volunteer work I'd be able to do other than this, something that stands out more and can be done before the summer is over(so EMT is ruled out here).</p>
<p>As for research experience, I'm completely lost. What I want to do is some of my own independent research at my own house that is related to the medical field but not to neurosurgery. Would this count against me as it isn't related and I might end up failing at trying to find what I was looking for?</p>
<p>Also, is long hair looked down on in medicine as being unhygienic? I don't want problems in finding work if it is...</p>
<p>I have a question
I’m going to school next year but if I got decent grades (3.5+) and a decent mcat score (30-32+), and did the basic EC’s, lead some clubs, played a sport, volunteer, shadow, tutor, and research, and being a black male, would that give me a good chance at SOME medical school somewhere. Not necessarily the BEST but certainly not the worst either, although it is very subjective.</p>
<p>I mean, above that, is there anything that you are supposed to do or will stand out more than something else?
It sounds very traditional but there is nothing else that I think I can think of to be special in college.</p>
<p>How about above-average grades (3.9+, pretty sure about this number, unless a disaster happens for some of my post-pre-reqs courses) and an above-average mcat score (say, 32-34, predicted numbers based on my SAT 1580? score in the past), joined 2 clubs for 2+ years but had no leadership in them, volunteer at 2 hospitals (a few hours only per week for 1 year), shadow, and research for a year-long senior project (as a graduation requirement), and being an Asian American, would that give me a good chance at SOME state medical school in Texas? (Is a resident there.) Thanks.</p>
<p>Bigredmed, I’m a transsexual. Still hoping for answers on if my research is useless if it is done alone and what the best type of volunteer work would be…</p>
<p>If you look like a man, short hair is best. If you look like a woman, short or long hair is fine. In any situation, your hair should appear to be clean and well-groomed.</p>
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<p>I can’t understand why people think it’s appropriate to threadjack. If you ask me, it’s rude.</p>
<p>Volunteering and shadowing is fine. Frankly, I’m not sure you’d be allowed to do much more than that without further training (eg. EMT, etc.).</p>
<p>I believe I have made a mistake of being a threadjacker. I apologize for this. Thank you for teaching me an online etiquette. It is never too late to learn this social etiquette in the new cyber world. (Believe it or not, when I first used the computer/Sun workstation provided by the company, only a selected few were given the priviledge to go online. We need to apply for approval before we were enabled to go online – was called usenet then. We only had email sevices.)</p>
Well, I’ll be reading up on all information possible related to the subjects being researched. I’ll be working on two different projects, one related to the medical field and the other to physics. The physics project is more of a hobby of mine, and I’ve discovered a few things worth publishing after more detail is added on. </p>
<p>By at my own house, I meant that it’s independent research.</p>
<p>The medicine related project will need chemicals that are possibly not attainable at a store, so I’ll be most likely getting materials from my own university and possibly have to ask for permission to use a lab. Test subjects such as mice will probably be needed as well. However, I’ll be working alone and not for anyone. I might fail in my findings and nobody would know the work I put into it, but if I am successful, it’ll be well worth the effort. Should I find a professor to supervise me(I think they’ll force me to have one) or something just so I can have some kind of proof of my efforts in case of failure or is the research useless if nothing useful is found anyway?</p>
<p>It’d be better to have research that’s got a faculty advisor. I know of university programs where that’s the end goal…usually a two year experience, the first working on a faculty project, then the second year you work on an original project of your own with their assistance. Doing research on your own is not “useless” but I do think you lose a lot of the benefits that comes from research. </p>
<p>Professionalism is extremely important, and appearance does matter.</p>
<p>The more I think about it, the more problems I have with doing research unofficially and on your own. From ethics to purpose to learning issues to follow through and so on, I don’t think it’s a good idea.</p>
<p>It is not a good idea to be doing research on your own. Currently, the PhD + postdoc system is where people are trained to be primary investigators. Undergraduate education simply isn’t adequate here. </p>
<p>Any research done on your own is likely to be treated with a great deal of skepticism. Because your techniques, methods, and experimental design are going to be treated with suspicion, none of your results will be taken seriously. In addition, your reasoning for doing research on your own is going to be questioned - people may assume that you did it because you couldn’t find a research mentor (for whatever reason) or were foolish enough to believe that you could conduct good research on your own. Neither of the two are good things to have hanging over your application.</p>