Help me find a grand project to keep me busy and impress admissions officers.

April 29, 2008 2:43 PM

I'm a university student in search of a grand project to occupy my next year and a bit. Any suggestions?

A little bit on me: I'm a 20 year old biology major with a minor in philosophy, working in a lab this summer at a little start-up which is making membranes for a variety of purposes. Next year I'll be going to France on exchange to a university in Lyon.

I would really like to pursue some sort of "grand project", something that will not only occupy my free time (I spend way to much time watching lame TV shows), but that will also look good when I mention it on my medical school applications next year.

I speak English and French fluently, Spanish quite well, and am planning on learning Arabic next so I'm not too interested in language suggestions.

I love biology, philosophy, reading, travelling, cooking, and fitness. I'm very interested in humanitarianism although I've never really pursued that interest. I'm not very creative and don't really enjoy crafts/creative writing/photography/etc.

Any ideas of a project I could pursue while travelling around? I like the way my life is going so far, but I could really some sort of project that would be just a little bit more involved than your average hobby.

posted by snoogles to Education (9 answers total)

If you could pursue a Fulbright Grant...it would be awesome. It is quite a project to apply and you really have to work with a professor. If you get into grad school, most well let you defer to go on it.
posted by melissam at 3:02 PM on April 29, 2008

If you can do good research, I'd suggest combining medicine and philosophy to write an article for the Journal of Medical Ethics or similar. This is obviously not easy, and will take a lot of preparatory reading, but you will learn a lot and you might be able to publish it somewhere else if it's not accepted. Either way, the experience looks great, especially if you can get a grant of some sort from your school. Once you have something written, submit an abstract to an appropriate conference and see what they think.

(YMMV. I'm applying to history PhD programs and I've been doing summer research according to this Grand Project principle--as a result, I've got one article likely to be published soon and two conference presentations. The people I've met there have been extremely helpful for figuring out grad school and knowing my field in general. Med school might be a different question.)
posted by nasreddin at 3:21 PM on April 29, 2008

Have you considered doing a thesis in your field? Admittedly, (a) it's very hard work, (b) it might be hard to do while on the move, and (c) finding a professor you work well with who can also provide you with the proper direction is difficult as well, but I think real experience with biology in the form of an original piece of research will be far more impressive to admissions committees than any hobby you could cultivate. It's also the very definition of a grand project.
posted by Kosh at 3:24 PM on April 29, 2008

Oh, also, what kind of philosophy interests you? If you're into, say, the mind-body problem, you could see if the biology research you do has any implications for cognitive science. It might be very interesting.
posted by nasreddin at 3:26 PM on April 29, 2008

You might be able to look at helping in an area clinic/shelter on a fitness or nutrition education.

For a project you could do while traveling I'd look into "virtual volunteering", or "online volunteering". Example. There seems to be more opportunities for those with language skills.
posted by ejaned8 at 3:29 PM on April 29, 2008

Try to establish meaningful, lifelong relationships with people. Close friendships can help you in so many ways. You can even do this while traveling. After you meet people, you can write to them and _listen_ to them. Listening to people is a skill that will help you tremendously, too.

This may sound flip, but it's a serious suggestion. It sounds like you're so busy that you've not left room in your life for much people time. If I'm mistaken, please excuse me.
posted by amtho at 4:38 PM on April 29, 2008

Best answer: Have you actually done any philosophy OF biology? People like Hull, Ruse, Dupre, Sober? It would make for a good general thesis area, in that you could dive in quickly. Aside from the usual evolution/ID debate stuff, there's much more interesting stuff in the realm of the ontology of species, problems of supervenience, and the ongoing debate over whether genes or organisms are the true objects of study for biologists. A couple of books and something to scribble copious notes in would make for a very portable project. I can offer more specific recommendations if this sounds interesting.
posted by el_lupino at 5:23 PM on April 29, 2008

If your French is as good as you say it is, you could try your hand at translation. Maybe volunteer as a translator for an international charity of some sort. Maybe translate some poetry.
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:58 PM on April 29, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks for all the great suggestions. amtho, I get where you're coming from, but don't worry, I have a good social life and good friends. My real problem is the ridiculous amount of free time that I have, and how unproductively I seem to be spending it.
I think I might try a little research project, and philosophy of biology seems like it could be interesting.
posted by snoogles at 1:50 PM on April 30, 2008