Long story short I am a current 4th year student in a 0 to 6 PharmD program. I completed a premed minor last year, and after much deliberation (see my previous posts if curious), I have decided to pursue medical school following graduation.
I am currently in the honors program and must decided on a faculty mentor to conduct a research project with. We have the option of choosing from faculty of both faculty and clinical science disciplines.
I was initially approached by one of our basic science faculty members earlier in the semester. His project revolves around the incidence of kidney stones with certain heavy metal exposures. We will primarily be working with cell cultures and fly models. I will have opportunities to perform various experiments and tests including cultures, assays, flowcytometry, etc.
More recently I have been talking with a clinical faculty member. I pursued him because he specializes in critical care, which is my main interest. I shared with him that I would like to become an anesthesiologist and he offered me shadowing opportunities at his site. He does not have an ongoing project but mentioned that if I choose to work with him the project will most likely involve retrospective analysis of a recently implemented protocol in the setting of the ICU.
After considering my options over my spring break I decided that it would most likely be best to work with the clinical faculty member given my interests. After informing the basic science faculty member he requested to meet with me to discuss my decision further. He informed me that a basic science research experience/publication would be more beneficial for me when applying to medical school. However, I discussed this idea with several past honors students and they felt that this was not the case.
So with all this being said, does admissions have a strong preference for one area of research experience over another?
EDIT: I should also add that this project will be conducted over 2 years, so I want to make sure that I am making the correct decision.
I am currently in the honors program and must decided on a faculty mentor to conduct a research project with. We have the option of choosing from faculty of both faculty and clinical science disciplines.
I was initially approached by one of our basic science faculty members earlier in the semester. His project revolves around the incidence of kidney stones with certain heavy metal exposures. We will primarily be working with cell cultures and fly models. I will have opportunities to perform various experiments and tests including cultures, assays, flowcytometry, etc.
More recently I have been talking with a clinical faculty member. I pursued him because he specializes in critical care, which is my main interest. I shared with him that I would like to become an anesthesiologist and he offered me shadowing opportunities at his site. He does not have an ongoing project but mentioned that if I choose to work with him the project will most likely involve retrospective analysis of a recently implemented protocol in the setting of the ICU.
After considering my options over my spring break I decided that it would most likely be best to work with the clinical faculty member given my interests. After informing the basic science faculty member he requested to meet with me to discuss my decision further. He informed me that a basic science research experience/publication would be more beneficial for me when applying to medical school. However, I discussed this idea with several past honors students and they felt that this was not the case.
So with all this being said, does admissions have a strong preference for one area of research experience over another?
EDIT: I should also add that this project will be conducted over 2 years, so I want to make sure that I am making the correct decision.
