GAP Year Job Advice

[Luckycharms2024]

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Graduated with a 3.85. Did wet lab research and social research. A few posters and one publication. I have ~100 hrs as a volunteer at a hospital with patient interaction. The plan was to study for MCAT and take a summer class to finish my second semester physics class which I was unable to take. All other courses were at my home institution. I just recieved a job offer for to be a MA with a local derm practice that has a 12 month gap year program for pre health students. ln the long run I want to work in academic medicine- teach, practice and do research. Should I wait and just apply to Clinical research jobs or take the MA position? Would one job be better than the other? Appreciate any advice. Thank you!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Is there a reason why you don't want the MA position? You only have 100 hours volunteering at a hospital; you can use more. I'm assuming you have plenty of hours in bench and social research.

 

[Luckycharms2024]

Is there a reason why you don't want the MA position? You only have 100 hours volunteering at a hospital; you can use more. I'm assuming you have plenty of hours in bench and social research.

I would love the position! It’s close to home and I would be give real responsibility ( learning EHR, helping with procedures, etc). Plus I can use the year to mature and build on previous volunteer work. The reason I am asking for advice is because I read somewhere that what you do during your gap year reveals to med schools what your goals are. So my only concern is, would this decision have any bearing on showing medical schools that I want to do more academic medicine. I want to do clinical research in my career. I find it interesting and valuable. So should I just look for a clinical research position? Or am I just overthinking? I agree that I do need more clinical hours and this job seems amazing. I have about 600 hrs of other research wet lab and social.

 

[14zip]

I would love the position! It’s close to home and I would be give real responsibility ( learning EHR, helping with procedures, etc). Plus I can use the year to mature and build on previous volunteer work. The reason I am asking for advice is because I read somewhere that what you do during your gap year reveals to med schools what your goals are. So my only concern is, would this decision have any bearing on showing medical schools that I want to do more academic medicine. I want to do clinical research in my career. I find it interesting and valuable. So should I just look for a clinical research position? Or am I just overthinking? I agree that I do need more clinical hours and this job seems amazing. I have about 600 hrs of other research wet lab and social.

I may be wrong but I don't think med schools place strong focus on prospective students desires to participate academic medicine or clinical research. You already have wet lab research which can demonstrate your interest in research.

If this MA position will provide a lot of direct patient contact and a lot of face-to-face time with physicians and you can write well about your experiences in that position then that will help your application. You can discuss how your experiences impacted you and led you to want to pursue academic medicine and clinical research if you'd like.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I may be wrong but I don't think med schools place strong focus on prospective students desires to participate academic medicine or clinical research. You already have wet lab research which can demonstrate your interest in research.

I think it's a given that most medical schools "expect" students to participate in academic medicine, but it's a question of whether one wants to stay in academic medicine. 🙂 Clinical research is a little different, and some programs will offer master's degrees to help people become more savvy with the nuances of running clinical research.

 

[Luckycharms2024]

I may be wrong but I don't think med schools place strong focus on prospective students desires to participate academic medicine or clinical research. You already have wet lab research which can demonstrate your interest in research.

If this MA position will provide a lot of direct patient contact and a lot of face-to-face time with physicians and you can write well about your experiences in that position then that will help your application. You can discuss how your experiences impacted you and led you to want to pursue academic medicine and clinical research if you'd like.

Thank you this is exactly what I was looking for. I really didn’t know if worrying about what type of career I would want to have if I was accepted to medical school even makes sense at this point.