Hospital Internships vs EMT vs Research

meandshoe
Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:26:29 +0000

Hi, I’m a high school senior preparing for premed in college, and I’m wondering how valuable the experience of interning at a hospital/clinic is to the med school admissions process. I know med schools definitely look for that in an applicant, but is it true that you need to have three years of experience as hospital intern? Also, exactly how much do you gain from the internship and how can you acquire the one that’s right for you? I volunteered a lot at hospitals, but I mostly did patient support and clerical work, because I was unable to catch an interning opportunity, and even though I definitely gained experience in that kind of a setting, I didn’t learn anything relevant to my career.

So how can I get the most out of a hospital internship? I’m interested in a career either in surgery or anesthesiology with emphasis on academia.

Second, I’m also thinking of getting certified for EMT and doing volunteer EMS to get experience in an emergency setting, but people say it’s useless if you aren’t extremely active, and I’m wondering how time consuming EMS work can be?

Would you learn more from a hospital internship or from doing hands on EMT work?

Thirdly, I’m interested in doing research in biomedical field, like biochemistry. There are tons of summer programs for research, and we can help professors with their research as well, but how can we get the most out of doing research? By committing a lot of time in a project that spans more than a year, even two years, and having it either turn out a success or a flop, or trying various projects and have them turn out all right?

I really want to make use of all the opportunities that college gives, so how can a premed student get the most out of the extracurricular activities offered without sacrificing grades? What’s the right balance?