Advice on gap years

[OfMiceAndWomen]

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Hi, short-term lurker, first-time poster

I'm currently a senior, will graduate in May, decided to take two (maybe three) gap years, for a variety of personal and application-related reasons. I am mostly concerned about volunteering (clinical/non-clinical) and shadowing aspects of my *prospective* application.

For this upcoming year, I've largely decided to continue research in the reproductive bio lab that I'm in now because 1) I can continue my senior research project and try for 1st author pub/abstract/poster + other coauthor pubs with post-doc mentor, 2) I can continue to foster my relationship with my PI/post-doc, who will write strong LOR, 3) it's a paid job. My only qualm about this is that I already have ~1000 hours in this lab, and I do not want to pursue MD/PhD. I just really like the research and the community/mentorship here.

I'm worried that my ECs are very lopsided, because I don't have that much volunteering experience. I am a low-income/first-gen student at a top UG, and spent my first two years working jobs and simply trying to keep up in class. I delved into research my last two years, in addition to the jobs. By the end of this academic year, I'll have ~150 hrs clinical volunteer hours with heavy patient interaction, but no other volunteering experience, clinical or nonclinical. I also don't have breadth of shadowing experience. I have been/will be shadowing my mentor, who is an OB/GYN (REI) attending. I want to go into ob/gyn, and I will most likely craft my application around this, but is this too intensely focused on one specialty too early?

The final thing is that I do have some significant shadowing (variety of specialties) and clinical volunteering experience from high school, but am unsure if this is of any relevancy to med school apps.

My main questions are: should I opt to do a gap year that is more service-focused (e.g. AmeriCorps), or if it would be Ok to do research full-time and start volunteering at a place like Planned Parenthood (which counts as clinical or non-clinical??). And would it behoove me to seek out other shadowing experiences, and how exactly does one go about this without knowing a doctor already?

 

[deleted480308]

You don’t need two years for that, you can shadow/ volunteer plenty in 1

 

[Dwight Snoot]

I'd stick with your research and try to shadow and volunteer in your off time. You really only "need" around 50 hours of shadowing if you don't want to raise any flags. I would try to find something where you can do non-clinical volunteering one night a week or so. If you do this for two years you will get tons of volunteering experience. Try to pick something you actually care about and can put some effort into. Good luck!

 

[Noeo]

I'm currently a senior, will graduate in May, decided to take two (maybe three) gap years, for a variety of personal and application-related reasons.

Take as much time off until you feel you are ready to tackle medical school. You don't want to go into the application process or even medical school while you have a ton of personal problems hanging over your head.

Have you taken the MCAT? Do you have a decent GPA? If you check the boxes academically then find some health care related service opportunities outside of research and pursue them. Keep in mind when you apply you list the total projected hours you plan to have completed at the time of matriculation. This means that if you apply after a single gap year you will have an additional year to complete your projected hours.

I wouldn't craft your application aimed at a single specialty, just be open to everything. You can however, mention how much of an impact that OB/GYN doc has had on your life.