Gap year idea

[Stpierre9696]

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Hello ! So I’ve been posting on the forum a lot lately and I figured out that I want to take the MCATs late May or early June and apply in the next cycle. The last year , after graduation, I’ve been working for a clinical research organization. I’ve been able to work with large pharma companies (Pfizer, Novartis, etc) and coordinate their drugs and overall studies for them. In addition, to serving as a study coordinator, I’ve also been able to learn tons of lab techniques.

However , I feel as if this won’t help my app much. Thus , I am open to the idea of leaving in January (wouldn’t have to pay my signing bonus back). I am open to moving from my current city as well.

Does anyone have an idea of something that I can do while also studying for the MCATs. I’m not too worried about shadowing hours because I currently have over 80.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Your experience working in what looks like clinical research is not insignificant! This is a pretty crucial aspect of medicine and is definitely a good talking point. If you can get publications out of this experience, then you should definitely stick with it.

You should look closely at your application and think about what you think your weak points are. It's too late now to get involved in wet-lab research, but it looks like you have a pretty significant research experience already. If you need clinical hours or volunteering hours, you could try to become a scribe (you would need to start early since there's a lot of certifications you need to finish), or you could do hospice volunteering. It's more important that you're able to talk about your experiences and relate them to medicine.

If you're looking for something you can also do next year during your glide year, you could try to find a job at a private practice. Many private practices hire aspiring medical students as informal medical assistants, which will give you a pretty significant clinical experience.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[Stpierre9696]

Your experience working in what looks like clinical research is not insignificant! This is a pretty crucial aspect of medicine and is definitely a good talking point. If you can get publications out of this experience, then you should definitely stick with it.

You should look closely at your application and think about what you think your weak points are. It's too late now to get involved in wet-lab research, but it looks like you have a pretty significant research experience already. If you need clinical hours or volunteering hours, you could try to become a scribe (you would need to start early since there's a lot of certifications you need to finish), or you could do hospice volunteering. It's more important that you're able to talk about your experiences and relate them to medicine.

If you're looking for something you can also do next year during your glide year, you could try to find a job at a private practice. Many private practices hire aspiring medical students as informal medical assistants, which will give you a pretty significant clinical experience.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

Thanks for the response ! During my undergraduate years I worked at an oncology research lab located at the Primate Center at my university. Unfortunately, didn’t get published but did work on several different projects.

I don’t know how significant this is but I was able to tour South Asia and work at several different medical centers through a non-profit I was affiliated with. The same non-profit I worked for with my help was able to set up SAT and AP tutoring courses throughout the NYC area.

And besides my work with the clinical research org this year , I’ve also helped coach a youth baseball team.

I have been thinking about getting into scribe but it is very saturated in the city that I am in.