Gap Year Question. 1 year unemployed and only volunteering look bad (Two gap year total)?

[shaishai1926]

Hi guys and gals,

I'm freaking out. I feel that I'm in a bit of a predicament when it comes to whether or not what I'm doing during my two gap years looks bad, because for the first gap year, it looks like I wont have a job until May 2020. I graduated from college May 2019, and planning on taking my MCAT in January. I'm planning to start applying to med schools May 2020 or whenever the application first opens in 2020.

Little background
I want to start working as a medical scribe for any scribe company ( ScribeAmerica, PhysAssist,etc.) in February 2020 after my MCAT, but from what I've seen online its not guaranteed that there will be spots available during February because most people leave their scribe positions June/July and that's when spots opens. So it means that there may be a chance I won't even start training until May depending on whether or not scribe companies have spots available. So even thought I want to start scribe training in February, it doesn't mean its guaranteed that I'll be able to get a position and start training that exact month( from what I've seen online in discussions in the pre-med forums on reddit and sdn about the medical scribe application process).


For these last two months I've been continuing to volunteer in a hospital where i've volunteered these past 1-2 years and will stop in two weeks. And from now until August 2020, I'll be volunteering as a Crisis Text Line counselor but thats only 4-5 hours a week ( I could increase it to 10-12 hours after I finish my mcat).

My question was about the scribe issue, if I dont get a scribe job until May 2020, does that look very bad on my amcas application or to the eyes of med school committees?

Any feedback would be appreciated, god i suck so hard.

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[907914]

Hi guys and gals,

I'm freaking out. I feel that I'm in a bit of a predicament when it comes to whether or not what I'm doing during my two gap years looks bad, because for the first gap year, it looks like I wont have a job until May 2020. I graduated from college May 2019, and planning on taking my MCAT in January. I'm planning to start applying to med schools May 2020 or whenever the application first opens in 2020.

Little background
I want to start working as a medical scribe for any scribe company ( ScribeAmerica, PhysAssist,etc.) in February 2020 after my MCAT, but from what I've seen online its not guaranteed that there will be spots available during February because most people leave their scribe positions June/July and that's when spots opens. So it means that there may be a chance I won't even start training until May depending on whether or not scribe companies have spots available. So even thought I want to start scribe training in February, it doesn't mean its guaranteed that I'll be able to get a position and start training that exact month( from what I've seen online in discussions in the pre-med forums on reddit and sdn about the medical scribe application process).


For these last two months I've been continuing to volunteer in a hospital where i've volunteered these past 1-2 years and will stop in two weeks. And from now until August 2020, I'll be volunteering as a Crisis Text Line counselor but thats only 4-5 hours a week ( I could increase it to 10-12 hours after I finish my mcat).

My question was about the scribe issue, if I dont get a scribe job until May 2020, does that look very bad on my amcas application or to the eyes of med school committees?

Any feedback would be appreciated, god i suck so hard.

If you are doing nothing but 4 hours of volunteering a week plus MCAT studying for 6 months...then you are doing something wrong.

Just get a job now. You are a college graduate, get a job.

 

[Phoebus Apollo]

This is a tough one. Something similar happened to me, because I moved a bit before I applied and was starting out in a new city. I got lucky though, because I started getting involved with a couple orgs quickly after moving (I was unpaid), and those orgs eventually hired me. So those activities started as smaller pieces of my app that got more significant throughout the cycle. But still, for a span of several months prior to applying, I hadn’t been employed, and I was afraid that would look bad.

The key is that you need to look engaged— and unfortunately the MCAT doesn’t count in terms of busy-ness/involvedness. (That said, I took time off work to study for the MCAT, and I’m personally glad I did. If you need the time, you need the time.)

If you get started with work or significant volunteering that runs through this time you’re studying, that might help in terms of narrative, and show that you’re engaged. But it’ll be off putting if you have a big empty space of time with nothing in it.