How To Best Maximize My Gap Year

[Don Jon]

I am a recent graduate who plans to take a year off before I apply. I decided to take the year off because mentally I did not feel ready to apply as I had doubts on whether or not I wanted to pursue this path. However after taking some time off, I realized this is what I want to do and am committed to applying next year. My main question was what would be the best way to maximize my gap year. I have been applying to some clinical jobs, research jobs(ideally I’d volunteer at a clinic to get my hours up), and clinical research jobs, and would love to hear from others on what they did or recommend. I posted the gist of my current application below, and let me know if you have any more questions.

My situation:

GPA: 3.93(cumulative, and science is similiar) at a Top-30school

MCAT: 513

Volunteering: So I have a lot of hours doing Meals on Wheels weekly through my Local Hospital and Tutoring kids from low-income areas, and these activities I have done since my freshman year of school.

Clinical Experience: I have a 100 hours basically being an unpaid Medical Assistant at a Private Practice Clinic - I roomed patients, took their vitals, did EKGs, put on Holters, reminder phone calls, basically everything. That’s it for clinical experience. I think as far as quality it is as good as it gets, but I am not sure if this is enough.

Shadowing: I’ve shadowed three specialties now: Urology, Interventional Radiology, and Physical Med and Rehabilitation.

Research: I have a poster in a Rheumatology-based study and I was part of an exercise physiology lab. I also have worked with a public health agency for quite some time and have helped with a variety of projects - whether its vaccine hesitancy, food insecurity, etc. Recently, I am helping a study that focuses on psychedelics, and could potentially be a co-author on the publication(potentially).

Other: I have a podcast about one of my favorite Sports teams, and recently I became a writer for that team on a blog site.

This is kind of the gist of where my application is at, and I would love to hear from you guys on what would be the best path forward to maximize this upcoming year before I apply?

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[GoSpursGo]

Please quantify your nonclinical volunteering hours.

Your clinical experience is objectively low, and in terms of quality it's "fine" but nothing special. It is essentially in line with what most applicants have. Do not oversell the quality.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Where are you? Have you contacted the medical schools closest to you and where you are most likely to apply? How about your letters? Casper/Preview?

 

[Don Jon]

Please quantify your nonclinical volunteering hours.

Your clinical experience is objectively low, and in terms of quality it's "fine" but nothing special. It is essentially in line with what most applicants have. Do not oversell the quality.

I probably have around 400-500 nonclinical hours. I deliver meals to elderly citizens and I tutor kids from low-income areas. So would getting a MA or Scribe position be the best bet?

 

[GoSpursGo]

I probably have around 400-500 nonclinical hours. I deliver meals to elderly citizens and I tutor kids from low-income areas. So would getting a MA or Scribe position be the best bet?

It would probably be equivalent to a paid MA job. I don't see it as meaningfully better or worse than scribing. It's totally fine, I'm just saying it's an experience that many applicants have.

I would say "best" is something where you have independent responsibility like EMT. But obviously it is quite involved to do anything like that, so you shouldn't feel like that's necessary.