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How do medical schools view directed studies research projects and literature reviews?


MedMaybe3563

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Hello everyone, I am a psychology major in 4th year and have a few literature reviews published in the undergraduate psychology journal of my university. I am also doing a research project under the supervision of a professor which I hope to publish the results of.  I've also been considering submitting some of my writing to a few journals specializing in the humanities.  How do medical schools view this? It is not anything overtly related to biology or chemistry or anything but the psychology stuff is related to health overall. Should I include this in my application when I eventually submit? 

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Medical schools care if it is peer-reviewed or not. Anything regarding the field or topic is not as important because what they are really interested in is that you understand the process and that applicants who say they have "research" experience have an appreciation of how to conduct and publish it. If you have nothing else to include under "Research", you could add publications in an undergraduate journal, but I wouldn't put much stock into it.

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I don't understand why you wouldn't... anything you put time into that doesn't make you look bad (i.e. playing video games, hanging out with friends, drinking), you should put. Putting any sort of research on a med school app seems like a no-brainer to me. This is not the time to be modest about your accomplishments. 

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On 9/23/2018 at 1:09 PM, Edict said:

I don't understand why you wouldn't... anything you put time into that doesn't make you look bad (i.e. playing video games, hanging out with friends, drinking), you should put. Putting any sort of research on a med school app seems like a no-brainer to me. This is not the time to be modest about your accomplishments. 

 

For sure, I guess I was just curious if med schools view different types of research differently.  I suppose since I'm coming from a non hard science background I just have so many doubts about my application. 

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This is generally an interesting question and I would also love some input from anyone who has worked with admissions. Coming from a basic research background, original research papers (i.e. not reviews), hold much more weight when it comes to applying to grants and scholarships despite both being peer reviewed. And frankly the reason for this is quite valid as reviewing the literature does not fully speak to one's research ability. Going through the process of experimental design, failed experiments, and peer review is much more involved and intense when publishing an original research paper compared to a literature review paper. 
From what I gather, med admissions doesn't really care about this (although maybe they should) and holds all peer review publications to the same standard. Would be interested in other individual's thoughts on this. 

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On 9/22/2018 at 2:08 PM, vino said:

Hello everyone, I am a psychology major in 4th year and have a few literature reviews published in the undergraduate psychology journal of my university. I am also doing a research project under the supervision of a professor which I hope to publish the results of.  I've also been considering submitting some of my writing to a few journals specializing in the humanities.  How do medical schools view this? It is not anything overtly related to biology or chemistry or anything but the psychology stuff is related to health overall. Should I include this in my application when I eventually submit? 

Of course :) Your psychology research will make you stand out ( more so than the typical tissue culture research) :)

Best of luck :)

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