What medical research opportunities do community college students have?

[ogruskie]

I just finished my first year of community college. My ultimate goal is to major in a biological science (I'm currently focused on neuroscience, but I still have my options open). Since I live in California, I'm aiming for the UC's, but if that doesn't work out the CSU's will do.

I'm genuinely interested in doing something within the medical field while I'm attending community college. All of my friends in the UC's are getting very high class research positions at prestigious universities. One guy I know goes to UC Berkeley and got a summer job as a research assistant at Stanford Medical Center. Another guy got a job at a Biophysics researcher at Cal. Clearly the "legitimate" university students are getting heavy-weight positions.

But what can a community college student do? There are several hospitals in my area, but summer internships are exclusively for high school students. I'm really kicking myself for not taking advantage of this back in high school. The best I could do is volunteer. I mean that's not bad, but I want a JOB that relates to my interests. Working at Starbucks really isn't giving me any exposure to science.

So are CC students at a disadvantage here? Do I have to wait until I'm at a 4 year college before applying for research positions? Thanks.

 

[ollinger]

Focus on your studies for now. I'm guessing you may not be an extraordinary student if you're at a community college currently. One year of college doesn't make you very useful to anyone in research yet. Your goal is ultimately grad school, I presume, where you'll have all the opportunity you need to get involved in research. Grad schools are more interested in seeing exceptional grades than seeing that you hung out in someone's lab for a few months.