Gap Year - Ideas on making the most of it?

[A_knight_to_remember]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello everyone.

I was enrolled in a university for two years completing pre-reqs, but this summer I relocated to a vastly different area. I'm taking a gap year here, and plan to return to university in this area, in the fall of 2020.

Before me are many options...
1) I happen to live a block away from the substantial medical district here, and could possibly try to become a scribe, med assistant, or volunteer, try to get clinical hours etc.,
2) study for the MCAT this year and really try to prepare myself for when I eventually take it
3) join a community college asap and try to get more coursework knocked out before returning to university
4) some other route?

I want to make the most of this year, and I'll have a lot of free time I want to fill up with meaningful medical activities. I feel I didn't complete enough medicine-related business in my two years of undergrad. When I did volunteer in a hospital and got to meet doctors and healthcare professionals, I enjoyed it immensely and learned things that were interesting and relevant to medicine, and am very thankful for that experience.

-I have about 150 hours of non-clinical volunteering, half of which was in a hospital, a further 20-25 hours in a different hospital, and the rest in an environmental-conservation and repair organization.
-No letters of rec
-No clinical volunteering
-No shadowing
-I did fairly well in the pre-reqs I've taken

What are your thoughts?

 

[Shunsui]

I would personally go for a clinical job so you could make money while racking in the clinical hours. If you can manage, I would also recommend taking gen ed credits at your CC to save money alongside the medical job (online courses to do in your free time). Certain days you have off or no exams, you could always fit in a few hours shadowing if you can find a physician. Idk how hard it'll be for you to find a job for only a year where you're at but if you can't, then getting a clinical volunteer position with the purpose to attain as many clinical hours possible is the alternative because you don't just want to get 50hrs and have it seem like you're box checking even though you're not (unless you're going back to this area over summers and whatnot). Lastly, I would not introduce MCAT material until you have your study plan down and test date otherwise I feel like it would be wasted effort and minimal information retained. LORs gonna have to come from your uni profs. Also plan ahead and try to contact uni profs in summer 2020 for a research position if you don't already have research experience.

Sound like you're determined not to let this gap go to waste so whatever you choose will be good but that was my 2 cents.

 

[A_knight_to_remember]

Thank you for your thoughtful reply Ultravox Vienna! That answered just what I needed to know and was incredibly helpful. 😀
My understanding of your message boils down to this:

-Clinical job or failing that, clinical volunteer position for as many hours as possible
-Community College classes to check off gen ed credits
-Possible shadowing if a physician is found
-Too early to start studying for MCAT
-LOR's & Research position at University when attending

Now, I was planning on trying to be a scribe. Many pre-meds take this route I think. Would that satisfy the clinical job?
Because the scribe companies should be hiring right about now (september to october when the senior scribes leave for their schools) and I've seen 5 or 6 positions open around where I live. Being a scribe puts me in a position where LOR's may come from the doctors I work with that would hopefully appreciate my help! I've heard scribing is a lot like shadowing too, and perhaps I could arrange to shadow one of the docs I would work with?

Like you said before, they might not offer positions to someone who only will be here a year. I know of companies that like to hook people in with longer terms like two years, but I think someone can leave before that? I read somewhere of a person who had a poor experience with scribing that had a 2 year term but left after five months. I've also read of people on here only doing it for 6 months to a year.

 

[Shunsui]

Thank you for your thoughtful reply Ultravox Vienna! That answered just what I needed to know and was incredibly helpful. 😀
My understanding of your message boils down to this:

-Clinical job or failing that, clinical volunteer position for as many hours as possible
-Community College classes to check off gen ed credits
-Possible shadowing if a physician is found
-Too early to start studying for MCAT
-LOR's & Research position at University when attending

Now, I was planning on trying to be a scribe. Many pre-meds take this route I think. Would that satisfy the clinical job?
Because the scribe companies should be hiring right about now (september to october when the senior scribes leave for their schools) and I've seen 5 or 6 positions open around where I live. Being a scribe puts me in a position where LOR's may come from the doctors I work with that would hopefully appreciate my help! I've heard scribing is a lot like shadowing too, and perhaps I could arrange to shadow one of the docs I would work with?

Like you said before, they might not offer positions to someone who only will be here a year. I know of companies that like to hook people in with longer terms like two years, but I think someone can leave before that? I read somewhere of a person who had a poor experience with scribing that had a 2 year term but left after five months. I've also read of people on here only doing it for 6 months to a year.

Looks great to me! Yeah I mean if there’s multiple job offerings, you’ll be fine to work only a year. Just don’t mention that during the job interview. And yes, scribe is a popular clinical job so that’s a perfect occupation to get worthwhile clinical experience while making money and being around physicians. Hope this helps !

 

[A_knight_to_remember]

Okay! I just had two interviews today for scribe positions. Thank you for the guidance Ultravox Vienna. 🙂