MD Do I have enough clinical experience to apply or should I take another gap year?

[b1ochem]

1. cGPA: 3.97 sGPA: 3.9 (Biochem Major)
2. Haven't taken, but have scored 510/510/511 on 3 NS FL and have ~2 mo. to study
3. Small Public Liberal Arts College (not relevant, but graduated in 3 yrs)
4. Clinical experience
   1. 50 hrs as a Hospice Volunteer
   2. 30 hrs as a medical reserve volunteer
   3. (Not a lot I know, trying to get more during this gap year, but it's been difficult)
5. Research experience
   1. 500 hrs in an undergraduate chemistry lab
      1. 2 presentations
   2. 500 hrs over the summer in a neuroimaging lab (Scholar program)
      1. 2 presentations, 1 poster award
   3. Currently working in an MRI research lab will get ~4000 hrs by the time I apply
6. Shadowing
   1. ~150 hrs in person, most in Radiology, EM, and Anesthesiology, but I've shadowed 10 different specialties total including radiation oncology, physiatry, and orthopedic surgery
   2. ~50 virtual shadowing hrs from webshadowers and eshadowing (by the time I apply)
7. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. ~500 hrs as a volunteer ESL teacher and coordinator (incredibly meaningful experience)
   2. ~50 hrs teaching chemistry to kids (leadership position)
   3. ~70 hrs as a volunteer chemistry tutor
8. Other extracurricular activities
   1. currently in a paid postbac program at a research institution as mentioned earlier
   2. ~200 hrs in organizations +leadership roles(AMSA, chem organization, and bio organization)
   3. ~50 hrs as a paid tutor
9. Relevant honors or awards
   1. 2 awards within the chemistry department
   2. outstanding senior in my major award
   3. President's List all 3 years
   4. 3 grants (2 for research, 1 for ESL)

I have my letters of rec in order and a drafted personal statement. I'm currently on my first gap year, planning on applying this upcoming cycle (will have 2 gap years total thus far). But, wondering if I should delay to get more clinical experience? Was thinking of becoming a Red Cross Blood Donor Ambassador or Crisis Text Line volunteer this month, but I'm not sure I'd get enough hours before I apply? I'm a Missouri Resident and thus far my school list only includes:

Mizzou
UMKC
SLU

I only plan on applying MD at the moment. I appreciate any advice. Thank you for your time.

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[TheIndianMamba]

1. cGPA: 3.97 sGPA: 3.9 (Biochem Major)
2. Haven't taken, but have scored 510/510/511 on 3 NS FL and have ~2 mo. to study
3. Small Public Liberal Arts College (not relevant, but graduated in 3 yrs)
4. Clinical experience
   1. 50 hrs as a Hospice Volunteer
   2. 30 hrs as a medical reserve volunteer
   3. (Not a lot I know, trying to get more during this gap year, but it's been difficult)
5. Research experience
   1. 500 hrs in an undergraduate chemistry lab
      1. 2 presentations
   2. 500 hrs over the summer in a neuroimaging lab (Scholar program)
      1. 2 presentations, 1 poster award
   3. Currently working in an MRI research lab will get ~4000 hrs by the time I apply
6. Shadowing
   1. ~150 hrs in person, most in Radiology, EM, and Anesthesiology, but I've shadowed 10 different specialties total including radiation oncology, physiatry, and orthopedic surgery
   2. ~50 virtual shadowing hrs from webshadowers and eshadowing (by the time I apply)
7. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. ~500 hrs as a volunteer ESL teacher and coordinator (incredibly meaningful experience)
   2. ~50 hrs teaching chemistry to kids (leadership position)
   3. ~70 hrs as a volunteer chemistry tutor
8. Other extracurricular activities
   1. currently in a paid postbac program at a research institution as mentioned earlier
   2. ~200 hrs in organizations +leadership roles(AMSA, chem organization, and bio organization)
   3. ~50 hrs as a paid tutor
9. Relevant honors or awards
   1. 2 awards within the chemistry department
   2. outstanding senior in my major award
   3. President's List all 3 years
   4. 3 grants (2 for research, 1 for ESL)

I have my letters of rec in order and a drafted personal statement. I'm currently on my first gap year, planning on applying this upcoming cycle (will have 2 gap years total thus far). But, wondering if I should delay to get more clinical experience? Was thinking of becoming a Red Cross Blood Donor Ambassador or Crisis Text Line volunteer this month, but I'm not sure I'd get enough hours before I apply? I'm a Missouri Resident and thus far my school list only includes:

Mizzou
UMKC
SLU

I only plan on applying MD at the moment. I appreciate any advice. Thank you for your time.

I honestly think you should take another gap year and get more clinical experience. Maybe you can look into becoming a medical assistant or something in a hospital. I'm also a Red Cross Blood Donor Ambassador, and while it's a great experience, I don't think it counts as clinical because I'm not working with patients - just blood donors. Crisis Text Line is also great, but again, not clinical because it's not in person. Can you keep doing your Hospice volunteering?

 

[celtic6643]

If I were you I would do it this way. Finish studying for and take the MCAT before picking up any other opportunities. As someone who had to take it twice, the first time I studied for 5-6 months while doing volunteering and full time lab work and courses at school, it was too much and I had to take another gap year to take it again, the second time I studied for 2 months and was able to constantly keep improving, but was studying ~8 hours a day and that's the approach I recommend you use with the remaining two months you have because you can increase that score by 4-6 points in two months from my experience. Just keep doing questions and learning from each set of questions, make sure you are looking for patterns.

As for EC's, I would take another gap year and apply towards the end of it so you have a total of 3 gap years before starting, because you could pick up and MA job or phlebotomy if you don't mind taking a course to get a license. However, I will say as a second time applicant I was also light on clinical experience, I had no paid clinical experience only volunteer, and I got accepted into an MD program this cycle.