USC or Yale????

An important strategy for preparing for medical school is to use your summers effectively. Luckily for premeds, there are literally TONS of programs that exist, which offer the opportunity for pre-meds to conduct biomedical research in labs, during the summer. And, unlike many other pre-professional internships, these positions typically offer housing, room, and board and pay a stipend! The AAMC has a list of summer programs affliated with medical schools here: https://www.aamc.org/members/great/61052/great_summerlinks.html and they also have a list of programs geared toward prospective MD/PhDs: https://www.aamc.org/members/great/169782/mdphdsummerprograms.html.

(It should be noted that the two aforementioned lists are in no way comprehensive and that there are tons of other programs with a more clinical emphasis and non-medical school affiliated summer programs as well.)

    
  I recently was accepted into two such programs. One program is the Science, Technology and Research Scholars (STARS) Program run by my home institution and the other is the Bench to the Bedside Program operated by USC's Keck School of Medicine. Both programs are great and offer incredible opportunities, but right now I am finding it hard to choose between the two. At the Yale program, I have the benefit of being near many of my friends from school, who will also be in New Haven during the summer. But USC's program does have the appeal of Los Angeles, which is infinitely more desirable than New Haven. Ultimately, I am leaning toward the STARS program because I have already met the Principal Investigator (PI) of the lab, in which I am going to conduct research. His lab focuses on diabetes research, but my specific project would relate to cancer biology, as I would be studying isoforms of the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase kinase. In beta cells, the PEPCK (that was alot easier and quicker to type) is present in the inactive dimer form, but in cancer cells PEPCK is present in the active tetramer form, and I have to figure out why. As nerdy as it seems, I'm really excited to finally get the opportunity to work in a lab, although I was sadden by the fact that the mice in the lab are killed after testing. Nevertheless, I am leaning towards this position. The only thing that might change my mind is if the Keck Program offers me significantly more money for the summer.

  
USC's University Hospital                                     The Anlyan Center, where the lab at Yale is located.