Fulbright Gap Year and Med School Apps

[tizzle91]

So here is my situation. I am a junior in college who just went premed this year. I should be able to just barely finish all my requirements by the time I graduate, but I haven't done any clinical volunteering or anything yet (I plan to do so over the summer and throughout next year). Due to my late start, I would like to take a gap year, and apply during that gap year (my fear if I apply this year is that I would have pretty minimal clinical experience and wouldn't do well in admissions). As for the nature of that gap year, I have recently started studying monkey psychology in a lab at my school and would love the chance to study monkeys in their natural setting. This is not something I plan to incorporate into my future career--I just find the way monkeys behave intrinsically interesting right now from an intellectual standpoint.

To that end, I have thought about applying for a Fulbright Fellowship later this year to fund such an excursion (probably to someplace in South America). However, I suspect this would rather complicate my medical school plans. I realize that winning the Fulbright in the first place would be tough, but in the interest of planning ahead, I basically have two questions:

1) If I apply during my Fulbright year, how would I go about completing interviews? Would it be possible for me to do interviews before leaving for South America, or during a two week break back in the USA?

2) When should I try to do my MCAT? At the end of this summer? Right before applying? Sometime during next year?


I'm not entirely familiar with the med school admissions process yet, so any other advice would be much appreciated.

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[Brachyury]

So here is my situation. I am a junior in college who just went premed this year. I should be able to just barely finish all my requirements by the time I graduate, but I haven't done any clinical volunteering or anything yet (I plan to do so over the summer and throughout next year). Due to my late start, I would like to take a gap year, and apply during that gap year (my fear if I apply this year is that I would have pretty minimal clinical experience and wouldn't do well in admissions). As for the nature of that gap year, I have recently started studying monkey psychology in a lab at my school and would love the chance to study monkeys in their natural setting. This is not something I plan to incorporate into my future career--I just find the way monkeys behave intrinsically interesting right now from an intellectual standpoint.

To that end, I have thought about applying for a Fulbright Fellowship later this year to fund such an excursion (probably to someplace in South America). However, I suspect this would rather complicate my medical school plans. I realize that winning the Fulbright in the first place would be tough, but in the interest of planning ahead, I basically have two questions:

1) If I apply during my Fulbright year, how would I go about completing interviews? Would it be possible for me to do interviews before leaving for South America, or during a two week break back in the USA?

2) When should I try to do my MCAT? At the end of this summer? Right before applying? Sometime during next year?


I'm not entirely familiar with the med school admissions process yet, so any other advice would be much appreciated.

I'm more than happy to answer these questions, but before I invest time, I have a few questions for you. What's your GPA? How good is you Spanish or Portuguese? Which South American country do you plan to apply to? Will you apply for an ETA or research?

 

[capn jazz]

take time off.
dont rush your MCAT/ECs.
get a well-rounded app ready.

i interviewed during a 2-week trip home and was fine.

 

[ps9891]

Definitely doable on your Fulbright year, although it may also depend on how flexible your research and your advisor are. I personally did two 2-week trips for a total of 8 interviews, but I am also an MD/PhD applicant and most of my interviews were two days long.

As for doing interviews before leaving, I did hear from my pre-med advisor that she had two students (one doing Fulbright, one going off to Peace Corps) who turned in their apps REALLY early (i.e. AMCAS in early June and secondaries soon after) and were able to snag August interviews at like 3 or 4 schools. This is probably rare, however, and would require some carefully worded, unpretentious communications with the schools. And, to be honest, would also depend on how strong of an applicant you are.

Getting your apps in early is also crucial to maximize your chances of getting interviews and of getting enough flexibility to schedule them around your trip back home.

If you have any more questions you can always PM me and I'd be happy to help!

 

[tizzle91]

Thanks for the responses so far!

What's your GPA?

3.86 at big-3 Ivy League school, hope to raise to 3.9 by the time I graduate

How good is you Spanish or Portuguese?

Taken highest level conversational Spanish at my school

Which South American country do you plan to apply to? Will you apply for an ETA or research?

Probably Brazil or Argentina, although it would depend on where people are doing research in the monkeys I'm interested in. I would apply for research.

 

[MelMelisqueen]

I wasn't able to do it, as my Fulbright started on August 18th, and I was only allowed to travel back to the US once due to visa restrictions. Mine was in Germany, though. If you apply to medical school your senior year, it would be very easy to defer for a Fulbright--schools are very understanding about things like that when they feel like they're getting some secondary prestige 😉

 

[Sailor Senshi Dermystify]

Definitely doable on your Fulbright year, although it may also depend on how flexible your research and your advisor are. I personally did two 2-week trips for a total of 8 interviews, but I am also an MD/PhD applicant and most of my interviews were two days long.

As for doing interviews before leaving, I did hear from my pre-med advisor that she had two students (one doing Fulbright, one going off to Peace Corps) who turned in their apps REALLY early (i.e. AMCAS in early June and secondaries soon after) and were able to snag August interviews at like 3 or 4 schools. This is probably rare, however, and would require some carefully worded, unpretentious communications with the schools. And, to be honest, would also depend on how strong of an applicant you are.

Getting your apps in early is also crucial to maximize your chances of getting interviews and of getting enough flexibility to schedule them around your trip back home.

If you have any more questions you can always PM me and I'd be happy to help!

How far back did you push your interviews because I am applying this application cycle. I wanted to push all my interviews to December and January since that will be my vacay time. Would I be at a disadvantaged especially if some schools are rolling admission?

 

[ps9891]

How far back did you push your interviews because I am applying this application cycle. I wanted to push all my interviews to December and January since that will be my vacay time. Would I be at a disadvantaged especially if some schools are rolling admission?

I did mine in December and January as well (first one 12/5, last one 1/13). Honestly, I have no idea whether it put me at a disadvantage, or at how much of a disadvantage, in terms of acceptances. I will say that I have gotten acceptances to a few rolling admissions schools.

But in terms of scheduling flexibility, it was kind of at a disadvantage. I also had the same idea of "Oh, holidays + interviews, two birds one stone." BUT it somehow slipped my mind that med schools are also on holiday. So, for example, if you were home for 4 weeks around Christmas/New Years, only 1.5-2 weeks of that would be valid interviewing time, i.e. less schools. I don't know how much vacay time you have, but I personally did not want to take 6 full weeks off (hence my decision to do two 2-week trips). If you have plenty of time, I'd say go for it.

ALSO, I ended up having to turn down an interview from a school I was fairly interested in, and I got an interview invitation from one of my top choices on the last day of my second trip, when it was really too late to do anything, and I definitely could not afford another international trip. 🙁

So long story short: idk, but kind of yes. Hahaha.


EDIT: Are you also an MD/PhD applicant? I don't mean to keep bringing this up but, to my understanding, the interview process really is different. As an MD applicant, you might have more flexibility since there are a lot more interview dates available, whereas some MD/PhD programs have significantly fewer interviews, and they are generally set dates.

 

[Sailor Senshi Dermystify]

I did mine in December and January as well (first one 12/5, last one 1/13). Honestly, I have no idea whether it put me at a disadvantage, or at how much of a disadvantage, in terms of acceptances. I will say that I have gotten acceptances to a few rolling admissions schools.

But in terms of scheduling flexibility, it was kind of at a disadvantage. I also had the same idea of "Oh, holidays + interviews, two birds one stone." BUT it somehow slipped my mind that med schools are also on holiday. So, for example, if you were home for 4 weeks around Christmas/New Years, only 1.5-2 weeks of that would be valid interviewing time, i.e. less schools. I don't know how much vacay time you have, but I personally did not want to take 6 full weeks off (hence my decision to do two 2-week trips). If you have plenty of time, I'd say go for it.

ALSO, I ended up having to turn down an interview from a school I was fairly interested in, and I got an interview invitation from one of my top choices on the last day of my second trip, when it was really too late to do anything, and I definitely could not afford another international trip. 🙁

So long story short: idk, but kind of yes. Hahaha.


EDIT: Are you also an MD/PhD applicant? I don't mean to keep bringing this up but, to my understanding, the interview process really is different. As an MD applicant, you might have more flexibility since there are a lot more interview dates available, whereas some MD/PhD programs have significantly fewer interviews, and they are generally set dates.

No I am applying to MD only I was interested in MD-PhD but not anymore, lol. I have 6 weeks vacation but only 2 weeks can be used to go to America but I will take as long as possible to go on medical school interviews. Once I make my trip that's it! Can't fly back and forth to America like it's in Florida, lol.

 

[ps9891]

Haha yea not so easy to hop on international flights repeatedly, but it sounds like you'll be fine, and it seems capn jazz above also made it work in a 2 week period.

Best of luck!

 

[capn jazz]

yea, i did 4 interviews in 2 weeks. i could have done it in 1 week, but it was my first time in america in over 2 years and i kind of wanted to hang out with friends and family a bit!

 

[phltz]

I know several people who have successfully applied from abroad while doing to Fulbright. They've all flown back sometime in November or December for their interviews. It takes a lot of planning to make it work, and you might not be able to interview at every school that invites you.

If you want to do the Fulbright, apply. If they take you, go. It'll only help your med school chances. It'll be a lot of extra work. But if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.