Advice Needed: Whether to apply this year or take extra gap year?

[Moon_Star]

Hello everyone,

Thank you in advance for those who are kind enough to take their time to read this post and reply.

I am a 22-year old female (about to turn 23) who graduated with a B.S. Bioengineering last May 2015. My overall GPA is 3.67 and I am preparing to take the MCAT in April 2016.

I am currently in my first gap year (because I have decided to apply to MD-PhD quite late in my undergraduate in the beginning of my senior year) doing full time research and volunteering on the weekend. I was wondering if I should apply this upcoming cycle or do an additional gap year to really polish my application.

By the time I apply, I would have:
1. Around 4 years of research in the same field (but 2 different labs and some industry experience) - I would have submitted 2 papers by June 2016, but not first authors. I am also working on my own project now that I would be done probably near the end of the year.
2. Around 150 hours of volunteering total.

I am wondering if I should take an additional gap year. I understand it will highly depend on how well I do on the MCAT in April. I will for sure take another gap year if (1) I do not do well on the MCAT, (2) both papers get rejected and I cannot resubmit before June 2016, and (3) I do not feel like I have sufficient shadowing experience.

Does anyone have any advice on whether taking an extra gap year would be helpful or not, in my case?

Thank you so much!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Fencer]

You are doing well, and could do 10-15 hrs of physician shadowing this coming year, but if you already have 30-50 hrs, don't do any more. You already did 150 hrs of volunteering. Was that associated with clinical activities? If so, stop... research, research, research, study for the MCAT. As you apply in June 2016, you will be able to enter until June 2017. It doesn't matter if papers are rejected or not. Non-first author papers will help you, but it is more important that you are working on own project.
The MCAT is still very important for MD/PhD admissions (despite that they no longer appear in the T32 tables, GPA does appear).

 

[Lucca]

Checkout the Neuronix sticky on MD PhD chances at the top of the forum. It looks like your research experience will be in the "excellent" category when you apply. Focus on getting a strong MCAT score as Fencer mentioned and making sure there is some proof on your app of clinical exposure and you will be golden