Gaining some research experience for premedical students is important to make them a competent medical school applicant. It is a great opportunity for medical school hopefuls to increase their knowledge and develop important skills. Fortunately, the trend of virtual research is gaining huge popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virtual research allows students to polish important skills and improve their medical school application. Unlike traditional research opportunities, virtual research offers a lot of flexibility to medical students, making it easier to gain hands-on experience during their undergraduate studies.
In this post, you will learn how finding virtual research opportunities can help you build the important skills, get valuable information and increase your chances of acceptance to medical school. Let’s explore the benefits of doing virtual research and how to find virtual research activities.
Why Premeds Should Gain Research Experience?
Research experience is not a medical school admission prerequisite, but still it can have a significant impact on your medical school application. Medical school admissions officials prefer students that have at least one research activity mentioned in their application. Students with research activities are more attractive compared to those with no previous research experience.
According to a survey conducted by the Association of American Medical Colleges, more than 60% of premedical students are involved in laboratory research during their undergraduate studies. It clearly shows that you need to stand out among the pool of medical school applicants by gaining research experience.
Virtual research opportunities are the easiest way for premedical students to participate in different projects from the comfort of their homes. These activities allow students to learn scientific research methodology, present and publish different findings. Similar to traditional research opportunities, virtual research opportunities are guided by a team of researchers and physicians who are ready to help students during the whole process.
Type of Research Projects Premeds Should Use
When it comes to getting involved in research opportunities, you need to focus on the quality of research. Choosing the right research projects is important for premeds to bolster your chances of acceptance. Virtual research opportunities allow students to build their critical thinking and reasoning skills by inquiring, hypothesizing and exploring different fields. Premeds can gain a wide range of research experience such as basic sciences, social sciences, clinical sciences, humanities, biomedical and much more.
Exploring the Benefits of Virtual Research Programs
More Convenience
Virtual research programs give premedical students a chance to perform independent research or participate in a wide range of projects. You can work with a team of experts and learn how to perform research experiments under their supervision. These professionals provide additional support to students and help them understand complex things.
Lab Work
Unlike traditional research opportunities, virtual research opportunities allow you to observe lab work. But these activities don’t let students be directly involved in the lab work. You can only learn how to perform the experiment, so it might not be a better option for students who want to gain hands-on experience. However, students involved in virtual research projects will learn how to perform literature search, data analysis, research manuscript creation, scientific communication, and research presentation.
Offer a Lot of Flexibility
One of the major benefits of performing virtual research programs is that they offer a lot of flexibility. These independent research programs are guided by medical experts. Students can choose when to work on these projects as per their study schedules. This way they can easily manage their research projects in their busy schedule and set aside time for absorbing important information.
Hone Important Skills
Just like in-person research experience, virtual research projects also give you the opportunity to improve your skills. The goal of gaining research experience is to provide students with a diverse range of knowledge and skills. During virtual research projects, students work with researchers and professors. They will develop critical reasoning, time management, and other valuable skills by working with medical experts.
Developing important skills will help you become a competitive medical school applicant. Furthermore, working with researchers, professors and medical experts allow you to collect letters of recommendation, which will improve your medical school application.
Finding the Virtual Premed Research Programs
Finding research opportunities for premedical students sounds easier said than done. Many premed students are unaware of the available opportunities and find it hard to choose the right research program. Fortunately, there are a number of ways that let premeds find the right virtual research project.
Search Online
Since it is a virtual opportunity, you will definitely find the project through the internet. Nowadays, many medical schools, universities, laboratories and research institutes offer research programs. They look for undergraduate students to complete their projects. Perform a Google search and you will find a list of premedical research programs that will find your academic interests.
Look for Summer Research Opportunities
Many schools and colleges offer summer research opportunities, providing medical school hopefuls a great opportunity to work with researchers. Undergraduates can take this opportunity and enroll in summer virtual research programs to perform medical research.
Look for Quality Projects
There are many virtual research opportunities available for undergraduate students, choosing the one that offers many learning opportunities is a sensible approach. Go for projects that offer a lot of guidance and offer workshops, webinars and other activities to get research experience.
Conclusion
Virtual research experience is a great opportunity for premedical students, giving them a great chance to improve their medical school application and give you valuable research experience. Similar to in-person research experience, virtual research programs give students an opportunity to conduct research on relevant and most important topics in the field of interest. ???????
