<p>Hello, I am a upcoming freshmen in a premed (biology) major, and i was wonder how i would go about research. Not only does research look good on your educational background for medical schools, but i am genuinely interested in researching. My problem is that my school doesn't have a research department (from what i know). So if my school doesn't have a research department, what should I do?</p>
<p>Also, is it possible to do any kind of research of the brain within a college? The brain is the only thing that truly interests me to research. Thanks!</p>
<p>I would also love to hear other Fall freshmen research ideas and how they plan to go about it. :)</p>
<p>Colleges do not “research depts”. Research is done by individual professors within the dept of their academic discipline. (IOW, biology professors do research within the biology dept; physics professors do research within the physics dept.)</p>
<p>I would suggest that you wait a bit before trying to find a research position. You first need to decide what fields you’re interested in (biochemistry, genetics, neuroscience, organic chemistry, psychology etc) and you usually need to develop some useful basic lab skills and/or some math/programming skills before looking for a research position.</p>
<p>It’s also important to focus on your academics during your freshman year. Trying to do too much too soon is a great way to screw up your GPA.</p>
<p>Once you have a semester or two of college under your belt and feel confident in your ability to balance school work with ECs, and you know what research fields you’re interested in working in and you’ve learned basic lab skills and have gotten to know some of your professors—that’s when you start contacting individuals professors either in person or via email and asking them if they will consider taking you on as a research volunteer in their lab. When you compose your email, be sure to individualize each one, explaining why you’re interested in that particular lab/project and what skills you can bring to the project. Be sure to include your resume with your email.</p>
<p>(If you don’t have a resume and don’t know how to write one, your college’s career center will have samples you can look at as guides.)</p>
<p>Based on the way your post is written I sure hope english is not your first language - although if you’re not an american citizen i would get on that NOW because applying to med school as an international makes things much harder.</p>
<p>WoWMom - Thanks so much for the advise! I was considering to dive right in but your advise seems a lot more rational haha</p>
<p>-IWBB Sorry if my lack of English skills offended you that much : P
English was never my strong suit lol</p>
<p>^^So English is not your strong suit… still IWBB has a point. You need to be able to communicate effectively (and correctly) both orally and in writing in order to successful in college. (And later on during the medical school admission process.) You will be judged on how well you can present yourself in your writing.</p>
<p>The errors in your original post are very typical of kinds of errors that most non-native English speakers frequently make. (I know because I used to teach college English classes and saw the kinds of errors you’re making all the time. Now I work with many foreign research scientists and I edit their rough drafts for grants and such.)</p>
<p>IWBB is also correct in that if you are an international student your odds of getting into a US medical school are quite poor to start with. And with poor written communication skills----med school isn’t going to happen for you.</p>
<p>Not offended at all - as WOWmom said, your mistakes were just very typical of a foreign speaker (my experience comes not from teaching but from interacting with foreign coaches in my sport and foreign scientists) instead of just pure ignorance. Your english is far better than my whatever your first language is.</p>
<p>Sadly English is my first language 
I think I was just trying too hard to not sound like a total idiot haha. I think I did OK in my college English dual credit class. I ended both semesters with a 95%+. But thank you both for giving me a reality check, it seems like I really needed it :p</p>
<p>spitfire - what type of college are you attending?</p>
<p>It’s a small private school near my home town. They have a pretty good acceptance rate for medical school applicants and it was rather cheap to attend so it seemed like a good fit for me haha</p>
<p>Do they have graduate school? If not, are there other universities near you?</p>
<p>They’re associated with a graduate school about 2 hours from where I live. They have a incredible scholarship with the graduate school that gives you free room and board, along with 60-80% of your entire medical school tuition paid. That’s the main reason I wanted to go to this school. And there’s a few other universities around where I live. They’re a little pricey though.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with the idea that you should wait to find a research position. If you want research, definitely get on that as soon as possible before the labs are full (although I think some professors have a GPA requirement). Start doing some research in various fields and looking at some professors’ research interests. And maybe start emailing some professors?</p>
<p>spitfire - if you go through the website for your college and look up the professors, it should tell you whether they do any research in the school. If not, you have to go through any other major college close by to you to see if there are others who do work that interests you.</p>
<p>Looking for research work is mostly undocumented since in a lot of cases it does not pay. So you have to send emails to lot of professors asking for work that may be essentially unpaid. Some times bigger hospitals around you also have researchers who will let you work in their labs.</p>
<p>I would advise you not to be picky and look for only brain related research. It is better to take work from those who need you more than those you want. Those who need you give you enough work to make it real for you to make a resume out of it.</p>
<p>I never heard of “research” department. Normally, research is part of some Grad. School and usually open for UGs to work there. D. had no problem gaining internship in Med. Research lab at her UG. It took one email to person in charge of the lab and then she was invited to interview where they mostly discuss her Music Minor (later it would be the most common topic in her Med. Schools interviews).
Anyway, she could not get anything outside of her UG, so she did most of her ECs during school year. they alll were long term commitment (most lasted for 3 years) and resulted in great recognition at graduation and great LORs.<br>
The freshman year is a bit too early though. Adjust, establish yourself as a good college student, then look around. D. actually was in brain related research and she was dealing with her favorite mice as subjects, she had experience working with them from her HS years.</p>
<p>Prowlings - That’s what i was planning to do but my schedule is a little full so i may just wait until next semester to see if i can handle it or not</p>
<p>Texaspg - I went to the website and found the list of professors and under one of them it said, “Director of Prospect Research” i’m not entirely sure what this position is. If you could clarify that for me it would be greatly appreciate 
EDIT: Nvm, i looked up the job description</p>
<p>And i understand I shouldn’t be too picky, research is research I suppose haha</p>
<p>MiamiDAP - The only reason i called it department was because I saw a previous thread where someone called it that haha but you D. is extremely lucky! That sounds like an amazing opportunity! But i’ll take your advice and just wait it out until next year and go from there.</p>