Best Gap Year Options

[redeiffel97]

Hello!

So, I graduated with a BS in Biology last May and I am currently working on completing my MS in Biomedical Science. I'll be finished with that in August, and then I'll be taking 1-2 years off before starting medical school. I am strongly considering an MD/PhD because I love research as much as I love the idea of working as a physician. I am wondering what the best job options are for someone who has a master's degree during time off before medical school. I can find lots of options for students who are straight out of undergrad, but I am looking specifically for options that might be more relative to someone who has a graduate degree.

Thanks for any help!

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[Doctor-S]

Hello!

So, I graduated with a BS in Biology last May and I am currently working on completing my MS in Biomedical Science. I'll be finished with that in August, and then I'll be taking 1-2 years off before starting medical school. I am strongly considering an MD/PhD because I love research as much as I love the idea of working as a physician. I am wondering what the best job options are for someone who has a master's degree during time off before medical school. I can find lots of options for students who are straight out of undergrad, but I am looking specifically for options that might be more relative to someone who has a graduate degree.

Thanks for any help!

Suggest you reach out to different research labs (e.g., universities, NIH, etc.) for salaried job opportunities in hypothesis-driven experiments.

Working in a research lab should provide you with more in-depth research experience, and strengthen your critical analysis and reasoning skills, and may also provide you with publication opportunities. Plus, you can request a LOR from PI who can assess (and attest to) your potential to become an independent researcher.

I realize you may also have gained research experience from your MS in Biomedical Science program.

However, you did not say whether you had any in-depth research experience in your original post. So, I won't make that assumption at this time. Just so you know.

For MD-PhD program, you need to show school that you can think scientifically, and continue advancing in your evolution as a scientist-researcher, combined with receipt of the MD degree. In MSTP programs, you are mainly training for a research-driven professional career (because many MD-PhDs spend more time in funded research than in clinical medical practice). Your 1-2 gap years working in a dedicated research lab will also provide you with sufficient "thinking" time to decide whether you do, in fact, want to apply to MD-PhD program, or only to MD program, or only to PhD program.

Best of success to you!