<p>I'm interested in going to a research heavy med school and hopefully a md/phd program (i know they're impossible to get into but i can at least try). Should I start research my sophomore year or wait till the summer before junior year and continue through junior year?</p>
<p>Start as early as possible. If you start real early (eg freshman or sophomore) you’ll probably be, for the most part, relegated to less interesting or menial tasks. But you’ll get a feel for how things work and develop relationships with your PI and lab members. Once you start to get some experience and coursework under your belt, it’ll ease the transition into more meaningful stuff (hopefully!).</p>
<p>Of course, a lot of PIs don’t like to take undergrads in their first year or two. I wasn’t able to find a spot in a lab until beginning of junior year.</p>
<p>If you want an MD/PhD program, you need to start ASAP.</p>
<p>I agree with starting early. It takes a while to “set in” a lab for most people. I didn’t really get going on my project until this summer. Now I’m having a ton of fun with research.</p>
<p>You can also accelerate yourself by taking the initiative to read as many of your professor’s pubs as you can, as well as anyone he or she seems to cite or collaborate a lot with. Or, you could just ask what other authors would best prepare you for the lab. I used to keep a journal of questions to ask the professor based on my reading and work. Some times those q’s had yet to be answered and I got my research project out of such musings.</p>
<p>What exactly is the criteria to being competitive for PhD/MD Schools? Lots of people do research, but how do you exactly separate yourself from the rest?</p>
<p>Be better at it – judging from LORs, possible publications, and your ability to speak/write intelligently on it – than the “lots.” Do more of it than the “lots.” Have a better application in the other ways than the “lots.”</p>
<p>A 39S+ MCAT score is a great way to help too ;)</p>
<p>Sooner the better. The longer you have been involved with research, the better your analytical skills, the better your overall gains from research.</p>
<p>The topics are not as critical as the act of being involved, planning experiments, reviewing results, interpreting, and evaluation of results. Your insights are enhanced with more experience.</p>
<p>Get started as soon as possible! My main regret in college is not starting research freshman year. I can’t even believe how much I learned in one Summer at my professor’s lab. I was thrown immediately into a meaningful project but I think that is rare for most labs. Find a professor doing something interesting and go to them immediately. If you don’t get in right away, it is likely that there is a senior in the lab that you can replace. I had to do that sophomore year to get a spot for this year. As far as MD/PhD programs go, wait until you know whether or not you actually like doing research first and see how your coursework turns out.</p>