Conflicted…..

[orangecremely]

.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[LindaAccepted]

Gap year applicant here (on my 2nd gap year)

I’m at a 507-504 for the mcat (yes used aamc FLs 1, 2, respectively) and decided to push it back to January. I work 3 days (full day) a week, volunteering for about 9 hours per week, and have an organization that I founded that needs at least part-time dedication (5 hours per day for 4 days a week) from me.

That leaves me with a delimma. My schedule is p.a.c.k.e.d.

I wad told that I need to extend my mcat studying hours and reduce my volunteering time. Should I do that? My biggest concern is that I haven’t been able to get many hours last year during COVID, so I need to get 800-1000 hours in each category (as referred to by LizzyZ’s metrics) of clinical and no clinical hours this gap year.

What should I do?

The advice sounds sound, but I have a few questions before I respond to your question.

* Are you applying DO or MD?
* How is your GPA both overall and science?
* Does your work or volunteering provide clinical exposure?
* Could you give a little info as to what your foundation does or what you do at work?
* What did you do during your first gap year?
* Did you have any clinical exposure or community service experience before COVID?

 

[LindaAccepted]

MD. Aiming for mid tiers.
3.66, 3.61
Yes. Work does give clinical exposure and my work is at a hospital. I’m working as an medical assistant
I studied for the mcat, worked part time at a cuisine place because I really couldn’t get a clinical job OR volunteering position, and started my non-profit but that didn’t gain much traction because of the pandemic. I’m still working on this nonprofit
Yes. I had 400 clinical hours before COVID and 160 shadowing before COVID

Focus on the MCAT and reduce your volunteer hours. You need the higher MCAT more than volunteer clinical hours to have a successful MD app.

 

[M&L]

focus on MCAT and you can add more hours between January and May, after you take it

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Get quizlet and study on the go. Even if you can do 15 minutes 8 times per day, that’s 2 hour late per day

 

[proudofmykids]

At current stats mentions, it doesn’t appear you need more ECs for either MD or DO.
But, with these stats you mention <510 3.6x , I think you should definitely want to include DO applications to increase your acceptance chances to avoid a second cycle.