Summer Research and Internship Opportunities

The importance of an internship experience cannot be overstated. In today’s world, many medical school admissions officers favor potential students who have not only done an internship but multiple internships. Internships are a verified way to gain the appropriate knowledge and experience needed to excel in one’s field of interest and there is never harm in starting very early. There are many benefits to doing a medical internship: for one, it plays a big role in one’s application when seeking medical school admission, it reflects and demonstrates one’s sincere interest and independent learning skill in a subject area, and it’s capable of exposing participants to the complexities of medical care and medical education. Most of all, the connections gained from such internships/programs would prove to be very fundamental when applying to medical school.

One of MAPS’ mission statements is to transform its underrepresented members into a more competitive medical school applicant. Due to this, MAPS urges all its members to apply to as many summer programs of interest as possible. It’s imperative to not just apply to a program for the sake of having it on your resume or having admissions officers read it. Always do a research program or a program in general that taps on your interests.

Some of the programs our past members have been able to get into are the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (SMDEP), the Research Initiatives for Student Enhancement-Undergraduate Program (RISE-UP), Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), NIH internship, NGO internship and many more. These programs are each unique in their own way and have a lot to offer for no cost. SMDEP, a universal program every underrepresented pre-medical student applies to offers academic enrichment in the basic sciences and quantitative subjects.

Not only that, it offers clinical exposure through small-group clinical rotations and full group clinician seminars. If you are a freshmen or a sophomore, this a program to not only apply to but also excel in because long after your program when it comes time to apply to medical school, if you apply to the site in which you did SMDEP and you get into the medical school, you get an automatic interview spot. This is to say that this program is a priceless program.

Another sister program to SMDEP is SURFs a research focused program where you work in a lab under the mentorship of an experienced faculty member. These eight weeks academic program is designed to strengthen your science, clinical and research skills; something admission officers want to see. Together with that, you get MCAT review/ testing and mock interviews, clinical rotations in the Emergency Department and a lot more that are essentially meant for your benefit as a future physician.

At the end of the day, what you choose to do with your summer all boils down to where your interest resides. If you would prefer to volunteer at a hospital rather than do research, go for it! If you would rather do some public health work, you are most definitely encouraged since public health is well encouraged by medical schools. If there are questions on ways to get about these programs, do not hesitate to ask us the E-board.