Gap year job

[TigerLilies]

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Is working as a biology lab research technician at a university considered an acceptable "year off" job for med schools?

Thanks!

 

[DrYoda]

Yes it's perfectly acceptable, in fact I would say pretty much any job is acceptable. You should do stuff to strengthen your app, but it doesn't necessarily have to be your full time job.

I would personally take the highes paying job I could find.

 

[fireflygirl]

I agree wtih DrYoda - take whatever you want to do or whatever is financially stable for you. My brother spent his glide year working in advertising since he had always wanted to try it and knew he never would have the chance again. He is now at Dartmouth Med. So it really doesn't matter what you do....

 

[mmmfood]

i work as a lab technician at the moment and i will be starting medical school next year! i think its a great job for your year off.

 

[CCLCMer]

Is working as a biology lab research technician at a university considered an acceptable "year off" job for med schools?

Thanks!

If you want to go to a research-oriented school like mine, it's a very good job, especially if you will have opportunities to work on your own projects. A lot of my classmates took off a year or two to do research before they came to med school.

 

[savant]

Yes, often times people start out as a technician, and then they build rapport with their PIs (or postdocs if you have a large lab), and then you get assigned independent projects with the prospect of publication as an author, which people say is a nice bonus for admission into a research-oriented medical school🙂

 

[Live4Life]

For those of you that graduated this December, what types of jobs are you looking at for this spring and summer? I need to make some money, but after working at a real job for a few years and then taking off a year to complete the pre-reqs, it's going to be really hard to take a job that pays less than $25-30/hour. Any suggestions on jobs where I can make at least $15-20/hour that won't require a long term commitment since I will be starting med school next fall?

 

[TX_NFS]

Any suggestions on jobs where I can make at least $15-20/hour that won't require a long term commitment since I will be starting med school next fall?

Bump since I'm curious and job hunting as well... 👎

 

[jyukim]

Bump since I'm curious and job hunting as well... 👎

Here are some jobs my friends and I applied for:
Instructor at a prep school (SAT/PSAT/MCAT/etc.)
Assistant/Receptionist at dental/medical offices
Lab tech for universities/hospitals

My friends and I looked at craigslist and newspapers (this can be broken down to regional/local and even ethnic-based if you know the culture/language).

What's great about them is that a lot of undergrads do them. It's decent pay and you get experience/skill that's relevant for med school. Also, they expect students to leave within a couple of years for education/careers.

Hope this helped.

 

[229141]

Is working as a biology lab research technician at a university considered an acceptable "year off" job for med schools?

Thanks!

Yeah great job! I like this or working in the hospital imo...good choice though I've grown fond of lab work