Gap Year, Awards to Win?

[MagicSkittles]

Hi all,

I'm on my gap year. Anyone know of any awards (prestige isn't too big an issue)? I've got a lot of time to take care of the nitty gritty for the awards right now. It seems like a lot of awards are school-based and since I'm out of school, not sure what to do. I've seen some awards like Fullbright, but any other ones I'm missing?

Thanks!

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[Caffein3]

Truman, Fullbright, Rhodes, Goldwater, Gates Millennium Scholars, Amgen Scholars, etc.

Not to mention a lot of universities do "summer internships" which are very prestigious. Also there are summer research programs such as SURF, Mayo's CRISP, etc.

 

[ridethecliche]

Lol at resume inflation.

 

[13132]

Lol at resume inflation.

I typically think of resume inflation as adding meaningless stuff like "Biology Club" or "Premed Club".

 

[2Pints]

Hi all,

I'm on my gap year. Anyone know of any awards (prestige isn't too big an issue)? I've got a lot of time to take care of the nitty gritty for the awards right now. It seems like a lot of awards are school-based and since I'm out of school, not sure what to do. I've seen some awards like Fullbright, but any other ones I'm missing?

Thanks!

Not 100% on the others but Fulbright is almost as time intensive of an application as medical school. The people I know who have gotten it are actually working on their dissertation. You would have had to start the application/research process a little while back. Find out if you got accepted around November and then start your year abroad around August of next year. Just FYI.

 

[2Pints]

Oh and with Fulbright you have to speak the language of the country fluently. I applied for Ecuador and had to demonstrate with my Spanish instructor multiple areas of fluency. You also have to coordinate with people in that country and develop your plan of action to execute research abroad. English speaking countries are more competitive.

 

[InsertUsername]

Most competitive gap year scholarships (Rhodes, Churchill, Marshall) only take applications from students nominated by a college or university, even then the application process for nomination often takes place in March or April. If you want to try to apply to those contact your alma mater's awards office and see if you can still be considered for nomination. (Gates Cambridge is the only exception, the apps for this open on September 1st for 2015 and funds one year of studies at Cambridge, its a sweet program and pretty prestigious so definitely check that one out)

However, even if you were to get one of these awards, it wouldn't take place until the next academic year when I'm assuming you want to be matriculating at medical school. You would need to take two gap years to actually carry out the award studies. Some schools will defer your acceptance (especially since these awards are so prestigious) to their medical school so you can carry out the studies, but you still have to decide if you want to put all that time and energy into applying for those or for medical school.

I would second msquaredb, go for a research position and try to crank out a publication during your gap year.

 

[ridethecliche]

I typically think of resume inflation as adding meaningless stuff like "Biology Club" or "Premed Club".

The OP said they don't care about prestige, so I'm guessing this is just fluff for the most part. If they don't know about the other ones (or haven't been nominated), I doubt they're going to get them.

 

[masaraksh]

Try to get ***MVP*** in your lab. (Most Valuable Pre-med)

 

[neilpryde21]

Most competitive gap year scholarships (Rhodes, Churchill, Marshall) only take applications from students nominated by a college or university, even then the application process for nomination often takes place in March or April. If you want to try to apply to those contact your alma mater's awards office and see if you can still be considered for nomination. (Gates Cambridge is the only exception, the apps for this open on September 1st for 2015 and funds one year of studies at Cambridge, its a sweet program and pretty prestigious so definitely check that one out)

However, even if you were to get one of these awards, it wouldn't take place until the next academic year when I'm assuming you want to be matriculating at medical school. You would need to take two gap years to actually carry out the award studies. Some schools will defer your acceptance (especially since these awards are so prestigious) to their medical school so you can carry out the studies, but you still have to decide if you want to put all that time and energy into applying for those or for medical school.

I would second msquaredb, go for a research position and try to crank out a publication during your gap year.

I got a 39 on my mcat and the person in charge of nominating students for the Churchill fellowship at my school said that my score was pretty decent but nothing special for that fellowship (the previous person selected from my school had a 3.9 and 42 mcat - now at Stanford Med School). I know someone who actually was selected for the Churchill fellowship this past year. He's insanely smart, an awesome varsity athlete in college, and before he heard back from the Churchill fellowship, he was offered spots at both McKinsey and Bain Consulting. Needless to say, that's not the type of award that you just toss your name into a hat.

I vote for a research position and try to get a publication. I definitely think my publication helped my application cycle since my interviewers always wanted to talk about it. Good luck!!

 

[lmn]

Truman, Fullbright, Rhodes, Goldwater, Gates Millennium Scholars, Amgen Scholars, etc.

Not to mention a lot of universities do "summer internships" which are very prestigious. Also there are summer research programs such as SURF, Mayo's CRISP, etc.

LOL should they add Nobel Prize into their to do list as well? That is a completely unrealistic list for 99.99% of people and applicants.

 

[shostakovich13]

If you're lookin' to travel, here's a cool opportunity!

http://www.princetoninafrica.org/

 

[ridethecliche]

Ever tried to do applications, secondaries, and II coordination while being abroad?

Yeah. No.

 

[MagicSkittles]

Great replies, thanks for the advice. How do these nomination processes work? I don't understand how some nomination processes work for certain prestigious awards (like Goldwater). I attended a huge university for undergrad (many classes > 200-300 people, at least 50 for most classes). How can professors nominate students for these awards when they probably don't even know most of their students? Or is this some sort of self-nomination process where it is further screened by professors?

I'm late to the awards stuff, so I wouldn't be applying for the ultra-prestigious awards of course for med school this cycle.

 

[Law2Doc]

... How can professors nominate students for these awards when they probably don't even know most of their students? ...

They don't have to know 99% of their students, just the top 1% to know who to nominate. Usually if you are asking about how to get nominated for these awards, rather than your school telling you how to apply, you probably already didn't make the cut. It doesn't work by you saying "I've got a gap year to fill, might as well line up a Fullbright or Rhodes scholarship".

 

[SN12357]

They don't have to know 99% of their students, just the top 1% to know who to nominate. Usually if you are asking about how to get nominated for these awards, rather than your school telling you how to apply, you probably already didn't make the cut. It doesn't work by you saying "I've got a gap year to fill, might as well line up a Fullbright or Rhodes scholarship".

Seriously. I find the original post to have a kind of weird tone, honestly. Once you graduate you're in the 'real world'. Things don't run on awards and grades anymore. Go find a job, it'll be far more worth your time than chasing after 'awards'.

 

[masaraksh]

Ever tried to do applications, secondaries, and II coordination while being abroad?

Yeah. No.

Yeah, I would suggest staying in North America during application cycle/interview season. Unless you have absolutely unlimited money.

 

[masaraksh]

Seriously. I find the original post to have a kind of weird tone, honestly. Once you graduate you're in the 'real world'. Things don't run on awards and grades anymore. Go find a job, it'll be far more worth your time than chasing after 'awards'.

Ever heard of 'Employee of the Month', Zagat Ratings, or Michelin Stars?

 

[SN12357]

Ever heard of 'Employee of the Month', Zagat Ratings, or Michelin Stars?

I assume you're kidding, right? Setting aside institutional ratings like Zagat, if you're at a job and chasing 'employee of the month' you're probably doing your job wrong. You should be working hard and doing well because it's your job, and if some meaningless award gets hung around your neck, whatever.

Chasing after 'gold stars' instead of seeing the big picture is a problem I've seen with college kids when I was hiring them; they were often totally flustered by the tiniest bit of independent thinking and just wanted a set of directions to follow like they'd done for the last 22 years of their lives in school. Follow directions, get good grades, gold star. Not a great attitude to have post-college and the OPs post certainly seemed rooted in that mentality.