Spending the summer studying and working

[medicalmnt]

I'm currently finishing up my Spring Semester Junior year. I plan to take a gap-year before applying.

I worked at a lab last Summer totalling about ~400-500hours and received a very strong LOR and I plan to do research at my university this upcoming Fall/Spring semester.

I was planning to spend this summer studying for the MCAT (take it over winter break) and work a blue collar job and spend some time shadowing an MD. My main focus is to rock the MCAT because I don't think I can bring my GPA above a ~3.55 or get into the ~3.6 range by the time I graduate.

Would this be a fine alternative to going back to the summer internship I had last summer?
Do you see a possible cause for concern in doing this?

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[Yoseph101]

Speaking from personal experience: I worked full time in lab for 12 weeks (40ish hours a week) while also studying. While I ended up doing well on the MCAT (35), I ended up feeling quite burnt out and the following semester was definitely not my most productive. If I had to do it over again, I would work part time and study. I think the blue collar job might be nice as it would take your mind off science for a portion of the day so you don't get too sick of the study material.

 

[NeuResurgens]

It sounds like you've thought this out a bit, so I think it would be a fine idea. If possible, I might shadow multiple MDs as well.

 

[MrLogan13]

I don't see why you couldn't do both, plenty of people do.

 

[frodo25]

I think that's a fine plan, one that I am doing as well this summer. Full time research is exhausting and studying for the mcat while doing this can certainly lead to burnout. Obviously some people are able to do both and that's fine, but if you believe you need to focus on mcat studying for most of the summer, then I don't really see a problem with it.

 

[medicalmnt]

I don't see why you couldn't do both, plenty of people do.

I really want to kill the MCAT as my final cGPA/sGPA will be around a 3.5-3.6 range. And the lab I did research at last summer is in Baltimore and can't afford living expenses there. Mainly a financial situation.

Will adcoms ask why I chose to continue my research? Will this make me look weak that I was scared to take on the load? (My schedule has consistently been 3-4science classes per semester since freshman year)