does what i do over winter break matter?

[chocchipcookie]

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i have a few options, but the ones i'm really going between are interning at the pharmaceutical company i interned at last summer and traveling. i WANT to travel, but i don't know if i should intern again for the sake of having more experience. i would either being doing the same stuff as last time or working in a new department, but i won't know about that until i start. i do feel a little burnt out and i don't do anything half-assed, so if i intern i'll be putting in at least 50 hours a week, which isn't exactly going to help my burnt out state. but if it looks good, then i'll do it.

sooo... intern or travel?

 

[JustMeditate]

I'd travel. Being burnt out is not good for your prospects next semester, either in terms of GPA or extracurriculars. If you need the time off, I say, take it. Especially since you can use your experiences traveling to make yourself look unique and awesome in interviews. Extracurriculars, official clubs or not, are needed to make you an appealing applicant. My suggestion is, of course, based on my asusmption that you will still have some intern experiences on your resume from the summer months or school year. If this is your only time to get such experiences on your resume, you may need to suck it up, but if not, take some time off. Winter break is only a little over a month anyway...three months of summer work is way more impressive.

 

[chocchipcookie]

it's not traveling for anything though, it's just going to europe to fart around and be annoying. i could probably shadow some docs over there. but other than that it's not a trip for anything specific, just to be away.

 

[doctorshateher]

How much time do you have for winter break? I only ever had three weeks so I never did much of anything beside recover from exam week and spending time with family and such.

 

[doctorshateher]

Also, I wouldn't do anything if I were you. Unless you have 8 weeks of break, no adcom is going to look at your app and say "well, this is good. but what did you do during winter break?"

I had burn-out really bad at the beginning of my sophomore year because I filled every possible day/week with some sort of "productive" activity and never gave myself any actual break time.

 

[promethium]

Volunteer. Get clinical experience.

Nobody cares about interning unless it entails dealing with patients.

 

[coyotelime]

Do you see volunteering/clinical experience as "work"? If so, take the time off. You probably need it.

 

[theseeker4]

it's not traveling for anything though, it's just going to europe to fart around and be annoying. i could probably shadow some docs over there. but other than that it's not a trip for anything specific, just to be away.

It is ok. You will not be denied admission to medical school because you did something unrelated to health care or medicine during one of your breaks during college. Go travel, I wish I had the opportunity to do so. Do something, sometime that is done without an eye to "will this look good on my application?"

 

[deep122]

I would say to enjoy your life.

 

[intj]

Winter breaks are the BEST because nobody expects you to do anything.
Over the summer, people are compelled to find jobs/internships/research/experiences.

I miss college winter breaks .___.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

Travel. In my case I'm going to try and CLEP out of Calculus.

 

[chocchipcookie]

looks like i'm going to europe 🙂 whootwhoot! i'm going to have the best winter break, then. disney world first, home for a week, then europe for 3 weeks :-D

life is good