Gap Year Recommendation

[Giants28]

Hi yall! I graduated this past June and submitted all my secondaries between Aug 30 and Sep 20 but I haven't gotten any interview invitations so just to be safe I've started planning what I can do to build a better application for the next application cycle if worst case I have to reapply next summer.

I think the main weaknesses in my application would be a weak level of volunteering and research as I had ~150 hours in a lab but didn't really actually do any actual research, mainly ran gels and stuff. I've been working as an MA for the past 1.5ish years and have around 2500 hours of total clinical experience and LM score of 81.7 for additional context.

I was wondering if working in a research lab full time would boost my application because I think the additional research experience would definitely help but I'm worried it may look bad if I switch from doing clinical work as an MA to research. What are your guys' thoughts on this? If I were to switch to research I would still be doing clinical stuff in the form of clinical volunteering and I would be addressing my weak volunteer hours by doing a lot more nonclinical volunteering as well. Also sorry for the drawn out paragraph lol.

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[pablo213]

Hi yall! I graduated this past June and submitted all my secondaries between Aug 30 and Sep 20 but I haven't gotten any interview invitations so just to be safe I've started planning what I can do to build a better application for the next application cycle if worst case I have to reapply next summer.

I think the main weaknesses in my application would be a weak level of volunteering and research as I had ~150 hours in a lab but didn't really actually do any actual research, mainly ran gels and stuff. I've been working as an MA for the past 1.5ish years and have around 2500 hours of total clinical experience and LM score of 81.7 for additional context.

I was wondering if working in a research lab full time would boost my application because I think the additional research experience would definitely help but I'm worried it may look bad if I switch from doing clinical work as an MA to research. What are your guys' thoughts on this? If I were to switch to research I would still be doing clinical stuff in the form of clinical volunteering and I would be addressing my weak volunteer hours by doing a lot more nonclinical volunteering as well. Also sorry for the drawn out paragraph lol.

What was your school list? Any IAs? How much shadowing? If you do decide to reapply I would say to focus on nonclinical volunteering to those less fortunate than yourself and maybe research if that's something you enjoy doing. 2500 clinical hours is more than enough, unless you need the income.

 

[Hollow Knight]

More details of your app would be helpful Giants28. Like maybe in the WAMC format