- Joined
- Feb 24, 2015
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- 218
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Hey everyone, so I'm a little bit lost because I'm not sure what to do.
I've been in research in a bio-pharmaceutical/bioengineering lab for three years (2300+ hours) during my undergraduate years studying what are essentially novel platforms for drug delivery for treatment of various cancer types. I just graduated this past December. I managed to get a second authorship on TWO manuscripts (and expect that they are going to be published in some relative medium-to-high impact factor journals) that are complete and currently sitting on my PI's desk... Only problem is that the first one has been sitting there for over half year now while the second one has been there for over 4 months now.
I am planning on taking the MCAT on May 13th and will subsequently submit my primary applications as soon as my score becomes available (assuming I do well enough). However, I don't feel like my PI has plans to push these manuscripts out by the time mid-June comes around. As i'm sure you're aware, the peer-review process is quite lengthy and he's still "reviewing" it.
I'm worried because research has to be a focal point in my applications. I've done one research poster presentation (these don't qualify as something "productive" do they?) but otherwise i've been banking on having publications to present, so i'm worried that my three years of research will be essentially for nothing. If it's true that publications really push you over the top, I might even postpone applying until next cycle as obviously in that case i'm not the "best applicant I can be".
However, it's quite possible that they would be published DURING the process of medical schools reviewing my applications, so what i'm really wondering is this, how is the process of submitting updates to medical schools and in your experience do they really help? My neuroticism might be taking over, but I have this feeling that if you don't submit everything at the beginning of the application cycle the schools will essentially never open your application again.
PLEASE HELP!
I've been in research in a bio-pharmaceutical/bioengineering lab for three years (2300+ hours) during my undergraduate years studying what are essentially novel platforms for drug delivery for treatment of various cancer types. I just graduated this past December. I managed to get a second authorship on TWO manuscripts (and expect that they are going to be published in some relative medium-to-high impact factor journals) that are complete and currently sitting on my PI's desk... Only problem is that the first one has been sitting there for over half year now while the second one has been there for over 4 months now.
I am planning on taking the MCAT on May 13th and will subsequently submit my primary applications as soon as my score becomes available (assuming I do well enough). However, I don't feel like my PI has plans to push these manuscripts out by the time mid-June comes around. As i'm sure you're aware, the peer-review process is quite lengthy and he's still "reviewing" it.
I'm worried because research has to be a focal point in my applications. I've done one research poster presentation (these don't qualify as something "productive" do they?) but otherwise i've been banking on having publications to present, so i'm worried that my three years of research will be essentially for nothing. If it's true that publications really push you over the top, I might even postpone applying until next cycle as obviously in that case i'm not the "best applicant I can be".
However, it's quite possible that they would be published DURING the process of medical schools reviewing my applications, so what i'm really wondering is this, how is the process of submitting updates to medical schools and in your experience do they really help? My neuroticism might be taking over, but I have this feeling that if you don't submit everything at the beginning of the application cycle the schools will essentially never open your application again.
PLEASE HELP!