Usnish Majumdar is a 3rd year student, studying Neuroscience and Bioethics. He applied and was accepted to the Mount Sinai Ichan School of Medicine FlexMed program as a 2nd year student and he is Chair of the Undergraduate Research Network at the University of Virginia.
Research as a Pre-Health Student
Disclaimer: All opinions below are my
own and do not reflect the views of UVA or of Health Professions Advising.
It seems as
if undergraduate research has become a commodity in the pre-health community. This
is hardly surprising, as there is mounting pressure from medical schools to
have more and varied experiences upon application. In the US, research and
medicine are tightly bound - all of the most competitive medical schools are
also veritable research powerhouses. While the consequences and motives
surrounding short medical or volunteering trips to developing countries have
been hotly debated over the
past few years, I think little attention has been
paid to motives behind student involvement in research.
After years
of working in a laboratory and a summer of working in the field, I can’t help
but wonder why we don’t have more conversations about research as pre-health
students. My path has been a meandering one, but along the way I’ve learned
that involvement in research can be everything from horrible to wondrous, from
entirely narcissistic to purely humanitarian. Many of my peers are themselves
researchers, and many more undergraduates have contacted the Undergraduate
Research Network (with whom I work) for help in finding positions at UVA. In my
interactions with potential researchers, there seem to be many important
questions that are usually left unanswered.
How do you
discern between a year of mindless pipetting and a year of meaningful inquiry?
Between a month of “volunteerism” and a month of humble service or research?
The line between the two is often blurred. Often the choice is determined by
another question that is rarely asked: What are your motives in doing research?
What motivates you to continue?
I’ve spent hundreds of hours at a laboratory bench since coming to UVA, and sometimes the work I must do is objectively boring. But I’ve also been fortunate to have a little autonomy in pursuing a question I am extremely curious about, and that makes almost any amount of drudgery worth it. Getting to this position is difficult and often involves luck in finding a mentor. The same goes for research in the field. This last summer, I worked in Zambia on a pediatric disability project. Nearly every day in Zambia we questioned the motivations and pondered the consequences of our actions, often reaching impasses that took much courage to move from. The project is a difficult one, but our work is motivated by the prospect of improving the lives of disabled children and their families.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours at a laboratory bench since coming to UVA, and sometimes the work I must do is objectively boring. But I’ve also been fortunate to have a little autonomy in pursuing a question I am extremely curious about, and that makes almost any amount of drudgery worth it. Getting to this position is difficult and often involves luck in finding a mentor. The same goes for research in the field. This last summer, I worked in Zambia on a pediatric disability project. Nearly every day in Zambia we questioned the motivations and pondered the consequences of our actions, often reaching impasses that took much courage to move from. The project is a difficult one, but our work is motivated by the prospect of improving the lives of disabled children and their families.
Without such
motivations, research is easily one of the most difficult things I have ever
done. Many peers and undergraduates I’ve worked with have had experiences that
have caused research, a typically large commitment of time and energy, to
become entirely unfulfilling or even injurious to their mental health. I think
this is dangerous but perhaps avoidable.
If research
is this confusing, difficult experience that is most rewarding when motivated
by innate curiosity or a social cause, let’s ask: Why do research at all as an
aspiring physician? Let’s ignore for a moment the pressures exerted by
admissions committees. I think it still makes some sense to value research
experience in preparing to be a physician. To be effective in our health
system, you have to be comfortable and confident in the culture of
evidence-based medicine. Demand is also driven by the fact that the number of
new physician-scientists entering the workforce is steadily declining. The ability to think critically and
systematically about new knowledge in biomedicine is crucial to many medical specialties.
For those concerned about global health and social justice, most new health
policies and interventions are supported via research produced by economists
and experimentalists.
But how likely are you to gain relevant research skills in a lab setting? In the field? I think we should be more amenable to alternatives - advocacy groups and nonprofits that promote social causes typically also require similar skills in research. Research positions unrelated to personal interest or devoid of glimpses at the logic of the research group are often suboptimal, and perpetuate the stereotype of “miserable premeds slaving away at lab”. With careful consideration of motives and skills in relation to a potential career as a physician, genuinely rewarding experiences in research become far more probable. I think it’s time we become more critical of the research experiences we seek.
Advice for Engaging in Research:
- When considering involvement in research, consider your motives with relation to the project at hand.
- Discuss these motives in as much detail as possible with your mentor (i.e. “I’m very interested in maternal health because ___” is far more useful than only “I’m planning on applying to medical school.”).
- Be wary of the commitments you make, research in particular can easily balloon to a part-time job’s worth of work.
- Consider alternatives like advocacy or nonprofits (these organizations also tend to do significant research).
Usnish can be contacted with any
questions/comments/concerns at usnish@virginia.edu
.
