<p>What did you guys do during your summer after freshman year of college? Do most people do research programs and internships? i dont have too many ECs and good teacher recommendations right now so i don't know if i should be putting too much hope into getting into those programs. is there any other good ways to spend a summer with something related to medicine/healthcare/science? would not doing research or an internship hurt me in the med school application process?</p>
<p>any takers? any advice is appreciated!</p>
<p>I worked at disneyworld because I needed the money for college. Next summer I studied embryology in Bermuda biological station through chapel hill. Did not seem to make a difference with med school applic since I did the volunteer stuff in the school year</p>
<p>That summer my D went to Spain in a language immersion program, and shadowed and volunteered (pretty much full-time) the rest of the summer. All the experiences were valuable.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in doing research at all, the summer is a good time to start. It allows you plenty of hours per day/week to get accustomed to the lab, train up on skills you need, and then start doing some actual research. I got a job with one of the profs at my school, and I research for pay during the summer and academic credit during the school year. It’s a pretty sweet deal in my opinion, and the hours are flexible. I have also learned a lot in my experience there!</p>
<p>I did a Summer NSF REU.</p>
<p>Some of my friends either did research or volunteered at clinics and what not.</p>
<p>Best of luck</p>
<p>Frosh summer I went home for a month, did research (continued research at my school’s lab that I work during the semester) for a month, and went to Central America with a group of doctors (like Doctors Without Borders) for a month as their Spanish interpreter.</p>
<p>Soph summer I had a 8-week paid internship at a public health clinic and did a MCAT course.</p>
<p>I would say frosh year it’s really hard to get good letters of rec esp if your intro classes are huge with hundreds of students, so look for opportunities at school / around your community first. Also, there is NO requirement that you’ll have to do research to get into med school. Plenty of students don’t, especially if you want to focus on primary care. I personally also think research is overrated for premeds because everyone does it, so unless you get a first-author second-author publication it really doesn’t mean much, and you might as well invest your time pursuing something that you truly love in the realm of medicine (working at a vaccination clinic, for example). I think the key is to do something that you are passionate about, and something that you can defend if people were to ask you why you did what you did. If you have that, I think whatever you choose to do is a good choice.</p>
<p>Volunteered at my local hospital, took classes, worked as a pizza delivery driver, did research. Busy summer, to be sure.</p>
<p>My D taught tennis and also worked for a doctor setting up a data base and organizing data for a research project. She shadowed as well.</p>
<p>I did some hiking and camping.</p>
<p>And I shadowed a couple of doctors.</p>
<p>does it look better to med schools if you did research with one of those summer internships/programs? or is it the same if i find a mentor at a local university who is willing to let me do some research? </p>
<p>and does it matter what type of research? (eg. is molecular biology more recommended that ecological biology?)</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>good question…</p>
<p>If I shadowed doctors, volunteered and maybe took a class in community college, would this be as productive as doing a research program at a university? I’m a freshmen and all the applications ask for two LOR and they are due in like 3 weeks and I don’t think I can fill out many applications or get the LOR’s I need. Should I just do research programs when I’m soph or junior instead (b/c getting into them is hard I presume?)</p>
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<p>Substantial research is more about how much you get out of the experience, rather than where/how it’s accomplished. Summer programs are going to look good, but so will doing research at your university. What matters is being able to talk intelligently about what you worked on. Summer programs can be really well run, so you’ll probably get in a good project, but 2-3 months is pretty short in the research world. Working at a lab part-time over a longer time period offers the advantage of really getting substantial work done.</p>
<p>Any kind of research is going to be fine, do what interests you. My friends who did research in ugrad and are now in med school say that ultimately what was important was being able to talk intelligently, not necessarily what they studied or where they did the research.</p>
<p>Also, I work in a lab that takes summer program undergrads, and they all have had prior experience, so you may have to at least wash some dishes and get that PI recommendation before you’re competitive for top summer programs. I don’t know much about other programs, so maybe others are less competitive, but that’s been my experience.</p>