My S is a soph. pre med (bio-chem) major and just applied to 6-8 summer research internships. He’s already working in a research lab the last two semesters at his school and really likes the professor. He’d probably just prefer to keep working there in the summer, but even that professor said it would be best to also apply to others to see his options. This professor has talked about his biggest goal to get his students into the best Med schools possible (if that’s what they want), and I think he’ll provide my S good advice if he is offered any of the positions he’s applied for. Still, thought I’d ask for thoughts here:
– Assuming good performance in the internship, is researching/interning at a particular Med school likely to provide an advantage when applying to that school?
– Would a research internship at a school that is not a medical school be at all discounted vs. at one that is?
– Assuming good performance in the internship, is researching/interning at a particular Med school likely to provide an advantage when applying to that school?
Maybe. Maybe not. While any researcher your child works for is able to write a LOR for your child, that letter may or may not be considered during the admissions process. It depends on the policies of the specific school.
While performing well as a research summer intern that is a good thing, it won’t help at all with admission of your child doesn’t already have everything it takes to be a strong admission candidate for that school–Including mission fit.
BTW, anyone who has any sort of relationship with a med school applicant is required to recuse themselves from participating in any admission discussion about that student.
– Would a research internship at a school that is not a medical school be at all discounted vs. at one that is?
Research is research. It doesn’t especially matter whether it happens at a med school or some other graduate institution so long as the results are high quality, reproducible and original.
There are some pretty prestigious summer research programs that are NOT held at med schools. The NIH, CDC and HHMI come to mind immediately.
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