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deleted826437
Hello all,
Like many others, I am wrestling with the decision as to apply this cycle hold off for an additional year. My GPA (3.83) and MCAT(522 (practices)) are both competitive for T10s and I feel that I have a fair amount of extra curriculars under my belt already, however, I am concerned about the sufficiency of my clinical exposure/shadowing.
Explicitly, I probably only have ~ 10 hours shadowing a specialist at a research hospital; however, I do have some other clinical experience:
- I have recently (December) started volunteering in a homeless clinic at the nurse’s station so I take/place phone calls and interact with nurses and patients that way (15 hours total (once every other week)). I plan to continue until matriculation.
- Additionally, I have access to several “clinical rounds” meetings at my place of employment (NIH) and have been able to sit in on 15-20 hours worth of those meetings. Only ~8 of those hours had patients present, however, but I think it was valuable to get to see physician collaboration behind the scenes.
- Finally, while in undergrad I volunteered and worked as a behavioral mental health caseworker which required me to transport clients to and from physical health and psychiatric doctors appointments. For certain patients, I accompanied them into their appointments to take notes and communicate with the physicians (10-15 hours in appointments + many hours transporting and sitting in waiting rooms). Also scheduled appointments and managed medications for our clients. Note: I worked only with LCSWs in the office but dealt with physicians at appointments externally.
Based on the descriptions above, do you think the clinical experiences I have accumulated thus far will be enough to convince adcoms I know what the medical profession is like, and therefore, not hold me back? (Assuming I am unable to get any additional experience prior to submitting my application). I know that clinical work is less important for an MSTP application, but I don’t think that fact is universal across all programs and I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot by being impatient.
Additionally, my current research position (NIH post-bacc) is obviously less productive than I had hoped it would be as I will not be able to go back to work until the virus subsides. In undergrad I was reasonably productive during my 3 years (researched year-round, 2 international conference posters) but I did not have a publication and at this rate, it does not look like I will be able to pull together a publication prior to applying this year either. In terms of time in the lab, I know my experience is sufficient, but I am not sure how my “lack of productivity” will look to adcoms.
If I postponed an additional year, I would volunteer in hospice as well as increase my explicit clinical shadowing. Additionally, I will have had more time to be productive in my current lab.
Postponing is not the end of the world if you think I am not currently competitive at top programs based on my clinical experience and research project but if it seems like I have a good shot at T10-T20 programs with my current application, my preference would be to apply this cycle to avoid a third gap year.
Thanks for your help!
Like many others, I am wrestling with the decision as to apply this cycle hold off for an additional year. My GPA (3.83) and MCAT(522 (practices)) are both competitive for T10s and I feel that I have a fair amount of extra curriculars under my belt already, however, I am concerned about the sufficiency of my clinical exposure/shadowing.
Explicitly, I probably only have ~ 10 hours shadowing a specialist at a research hospital; however, I do have some other clinical experience:
- I have recently (December) started volunteering in a homeless clinic at the nurse’s station so I take/place phone calls and interact with nurses and patients that way (15 hours total (once every other week)). I plan to continue until matriculation.
- Additionally, I have access to several “clinical rounds” meetings at my place of employment (NIH) and have been able to sit in on 15-20 hours worth of those meetings. Only ~8 of those hours had patients present, however, but I think it was valuable to get to see physician collaboration behind the scenes.
- Finally, while in undergrad I volunteered and worked as a behavioral mental health caseworker which required me to transport clients to and from physical health and psychiatric doctors appointments. For certain patients, I accompanied them into their appointments to take notes and communicate with the physicians (10-15 hours in appointments + many hours transporting and sitting in waiting rooms). Also scheduled appointments and managed medications for our clients. Note: I worked only with LCSWs in the office but dealt with physicians at appointments externally.
Based on the descriptions above, do you think the clinical experiences I have accumulated thus far will be enough to convince adcoms I know what the medical profession is like, and therefore, not hold me back? (Assuming I am unable to get any additional experience prior to submitting my application). I know that clinical work is less important for an MSTP application, but I don’t think that fact is universal across all programs and I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot by being impatient.
Additionally, my current research position (NIH post-bacc) is obviously less productive than I had hoped it would be as I will not be able to go back to work until the virus subsides. In undergrad I was reasonably productive during my 3 years (researched year-round, 2 international conference posters) but I did not have a publication and at this rate, it does not look like I will be able to pull together a publication prior to applying this year either. In terms of time in the lab, I know my experience is sufficient, but I am not sure how my “lack of productivity” will look to adcoms.
If I postponed an additional year, I would volunteer in hospice as well as increase my explicit clinical shadowing. Additionally, I will have had more time to be productive in my current lab.
Postponing is not the end of the world if you think I am not currently competitive at top programs based on my clinical experience and research project but if it seems like I have a good shot at T10-T20 programs with my current application, my preference would be to apply this cycle to avoid a third gap year.
Thanks for your help!
