Hi all. I'm having difficulty in deciding whether or not to apply this cycle. My base stats are competitive, but my extracurriculars are heavily focused on research and are not diverse. Apologies for the wall of text in advance.
Rundown of my stats:
As you might guess, I thought for a while that I wanted to go into research as a career path. After many hours spent on various research projects in different fields, I eventually came to the difficult (but well informed) decision that research would is not a good career choice for me. I do enjoy research, but it's certainly not my passion due to reasons I won't elaborate upon here.
Medical school had always been on my mind as a possibility based upon my curiosity involving medical science, but research took up most of my free time. I am loving my new position as a medical scribe - it allows me to hold a valuable position in the ER, see a broad spectrum of diseases/traumas, and regularly interact with both doctors and patients.
That said, I feel that I would be an incomplete applicant this cycle. I plan on keeping this job and starting other volunteer/leadership activities in the coming year. If I had more hours logged in my scribe position, I would feel more confident about my clinical experience. I suppose I can always write an update letter.
Any advice? Should I wait until next year and apply as a much stronger applicant? I figure that if I'm going to go through the arduous process of applying, I want a good chance of going where I'd like to. I was also considering applying narrowly to my top schools (saving $ and time) and simply apply broadly again next year as a stronger applicant if I don't make it in anywhere.
Rundown of my stats:
- Graduated a mid-tier UC in March of this year, majored in biology
- GPA of 3.78 (sci GPA is similar) showing an overall upward trend
- MCAT: 34Q
- Freshman/sophomore year: 2 years as a paid tech/research assistant in an ecology lab (10 hrs a week), no papers
- Junior/senior year - 1.5 years as an unpaid research assistant in a respected neuroscience lab (~15 hours/wk). Research is finishing up and a publication is in the works, but won't be submitted for another few months at least.
- Webmaster/Officer of a general biology club on campus, 1.5 years
- Starting working as an emergency medical scribe a couple months ago, a rather competitive position here. 30hrs/week. I follow an ER doc's full shift and speak with over a dozen patients/day in the ER and create a detailed workup of each patient/doctor interaction.
- Smattering of interesting hobbies/interests
- Expecting strong letters of rec
As you might guess, I thought for a while that I wanted to go into research as a career path. After many hours spent on various research projects in different fields, I eventually came to the difficult (but well informed) decision that research would is not a good career choice for me. I do enjoy research, but it's certainly not my passion due to reasons I won't elaborate upon here.
Medical school had always been on my mind as a possibility based upon my curiosity involving medical science, but research took up most of my free time. I am loving my new position as a medical scribe - it allows me to hold a valuable position in the ER, see a broad spectrum of diseases/traumas, and regularly interact with both doctors and patients.
That said, I feel that I would be an incomplete applicant this cycle. I plan on keeping this job and starting other volunteer/leadership activities in the coming year. If I had more hours logged in my scribe position, I would feel more confident about my clinical experience. I suppose I can always write an update letter.
Any advice? Should I wait until next year and apply as a much stronger applicant? I figure that if I'm going to go through the arduous process of applying, I want a good chance of going where I'd like to. I was also considering applying narrowly to my top schools (saving $ and time) and simply apply broadly again next year as a stronger applicant if I don't make it in anywhere.
