A little nervous/confused about next steps to take.

[crispr504]

A little nervous/confused about my next steps.

So, I’ve been having some personal/family issues that have been holding me back from moving forward with preparing for medical school. And in the past, other things have prevented me from doing so, as well.

I’m doing well in my classes and everything, but MCAT has been put on the back-burner. I’m planning to take the March test.

At this point, I feel conflicted. I have done really well in school and I graduate next May, which I’m excited about! But I also am just NOT prepared for medical school. I haven’t taken the MCAT, I have very limited shadowing experience, no research, no potential letters of recommendation (outside the doctors I’ve befriended in shadowing), and no ECs.

I’m so disappointed in myself that I didn’t prepare correctly. I could be accepted into medical school right now if I would’ve done things right. At this point, I know I need to focus on maintaining my grades and MCAT, but what about everything else?

How do I even begin to make up for all of those missed opportunities like researching and ECs? Obviously I’m going to have a gap year, but what do I even do? Should I just wait until after I graduate?

Really would appreciate some advice.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Dr panda]

I would start early, find couple good clinical and nonclinical positions and stick to them for couple years.
For clinical side try: hospitals, hospices, rehab units, EMT/CNA/scribe (only if you really want it!).
For non clinical: homeless shelters, food banks, something like that.
For research: search this forum how to get that.
When it comes to hours, if you are willing to sacrifice at least 6 hours per week for both activities (3 and 3 respectively for clinical and non clinical ECs) then by the time you will be applying you will have around 250 hours in each category which is pretty solid, but start right now, don't delay till graduation (the longer the commitment the better it looks, at least a lot better than 160 hours crammed in 3 weeks).
For opportunities try volunteermatch or use google and text organizations directly.
Good luck!

 

[Moko]

To add onto panda's recommendations:
- LORs should be from faculty members who taught you or directly oversaw your work. Apart from DO schools and some MD schools, most do not care about shadowing letters (they're useless imo)
- Also think about adding in some teaching experiences (if the time and opportunity arises) as teaching is also looked up on highly during the admissions process
- Don't bother taking the MCAT during the academic year. Take it after you graduate to allow for dedicated study time.
- Most people take gap years, and many do not apply until their mid- to late-20's (if not later), so you're by no means late. It's good that you possess the insight to not rush to apply this coming cycle, as that likely would not end well without the appropriate ECs. Good luck

 

[clinicallabguy]

A little nervous/confused about my next steps.

So, I’ve been having some personal/family issues that have been holding me back from moving forward with preparing for medical school. And in the past, other things have prevented me from doing so, as well.

I’m doing well in my classes and everything, but MCAT has been put on the back-burner. I’m planning to take the March test.

At this point, I feel conflicted. I have done really well in school and I graduate next May, which I’m excited about! But I also am just NOT prepared for medical school. I haven’t taken the MCAT, I have very limited shadowing experience, no research, no potential letters of recommendation (outside the doctors I’ve befriended in shadowing), and no ECs.

I’m so disappointed in myself that I didn’t prepare correctly. I could be accepted into medical school right now if I would’ve done things right. At this point, I know I need to focus on maintaining my grades and MCAT, but what about everything else?

How do I even begin to make up for all of those missed opportunities like researching and ECs? Obviously I’m going to have a gap year, but what do I even do? Should I just wait until after I graduate?

Really would appreciate some advice.

Good responses so far. I'll add my 2 cents, and my input may be worth just that, take it or leave it.

Were I in your shoes, I would try to do everything I could to put together an application to submit next summer. Your MCAT scores should have returned by that time. You can get some of the experience that you mentioned. You can try and get a clinical research project under your belt in that time. If this is just too much, then I understand. But from my perspective, 2 years is a long time to wait to start medical school after your graduation in May.

I asked for LORs from professors I interacted with a lot during their class and that I had done well in. If you're doing well in your classes, can you reach out to faculty that taught courses that you did well in for LORs?

I don't know the personal issues that you are facing, so I acknowledge that this may be unrealistic. But from the perspective of someone near the end of training and looking to start life as an attending it would be really nice if I would have been able to shave a year off of this whole process.

 

[crispr504]

Good responses so far. I'll add my 2 cents, and my input may be worth just that, take it or leave it.

Were I in your shoes, I would try to do everything I could to put together an application to submit next summer. Your MCAT scores should have returned by that time. You can get some of the experience that you mentioned. You can try and get a clinical research project under your belt in that time. If this is just too much, then I understand. But from my perspective, 2 years is a long time to wait to start medical school after your graduation in May.

I asked for LORs from professors I interacted with a lot during their class and that I had done well in. If you're doing well in your classes, can you reach out to faculty that taught courses that you did well in for LORs?

I don't know the personal issues that you are facing, so I acknowledge that this may be unrealistic. But from the perspective of someone near the end of training and looking to start life as an attending it would be really nice if I would have been able to shave a year off of this whole process.

Thank you for this and I genuinely appreciate you reaching out and responding to me. As far as gap years go, I know I definitely will need a year but I did not want to go over that... Setting the goal to apply by next summer honestly seems like a good one to me and I feel like that would be a realistic time frame to set up a fairly competitive application.

As far as LoRs go, although I have done pretty well in some classes prior to now, part of me feels like it might be too late to go back and ask for that... however I do have a whole semester left in which I can potentially get some LoRs.

I guess my biggest fear is not knowing exactly what to do during the gap period. Like how to even go about researching, getting some experience... Things like that.