Is it ok to do healthcare consulting at McKinsey or some other renowned consulting firm for your gap year? I was considering applying to consulting, but people told me that med schools might think that you are not committed towards medicine or that you may have ulterior motives. Thoughts would be appreciated.
Gap Year Thoughts?
- Thread starter hugh2012
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That's fine as long as you fulfilled other important ECs like clinical experience, shadowing, volunteerism and possibly have some research and leadership experiences. Many applicants here did consulting in their gap years and were successful. Granted this was for top/upper mid tier schools, so service-focused/lower tier schools probably won't like consulting
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This perhaps as much as anything is where two of SDNs favorite cliches are most applicable
a) Do what you are passionate about not what you think others want you to be passionate about
b) Pretty much any EC can be a positive or negative one that helps your candidacy, it's a matter of how you present it and what it shows about you.
Might there be an ADCOM here and there who is stubborn about something like this and sees McKinney and automatically starts questioning your desire for medicine? Maybe. Are there evaluators who if you present it in a compelling way that highlights favorable characteritics about you and make it part of your why medicine story will view it positively and recognize the positive characteristics/traits doing something like this brings? Sure.
Again, what you highlight about it, what you say about it and how it helps show "Why medicine" is what matters. At the absolute bare minimum how you address/quell the "Why not medicine" thoughts some might have about this is what you should care about. It's not an issue of "Harvard will be fine with it, but Creighton or some lower tier wont be".
ADCOMs arent stupid. They know the benefits of choosing a job like this over being say a scribe for $13/hr are. Do what's best for you and what you are passionate about, not dictating things around "What will an med schools approve". An experience like this could absolutely help you and teach you valuable skills used by those in medicine. More than that, it can provide tons invaluable opportunities well beyond prepping you for medicine to carry with you for life. If the idea of "I need to become a scribe/research assistant etc over a job like this just to appease ADCOMs" sounds stupid, then yes, it is.
a) Do what you are passionate about not what you think others want you to be passionate about
b) Pretty much any EC can be a positive or negative one that helps your candidacy, it's a matter of how you present it and what it shows about you.
Might there be an ADCOM here and there who is stubborn about something like this and sees McKinney and automatically starts questioning your desire for medicine? Maybe. Are there evaluators who if you present it in a compelling way that highlights favorable characteritics about you and make it part of your why medicine story will view it positively and recognize the positive characteristics/traits doing something like this brings? Sure.
Again, what you highlight about it, what you say about it and how it helps show "Why medicine" is what matters. At the absolute bare minimum how you address/quell the "Why not medicine" thoughts some might have about this is what you should care about. It's not an issue of "Harvard will be fine with it, but Creighton or some lower tier wont be".
ADCOMs arent stupid. They know the benefits of choosing a job like this over being say a scribe for $13/hr are. Do what's best for you and what you are passionate about, not dictating things around "What will an med schools approve". An experience like this could absolutely help you and teach you valuable skills used by those in medicine. More than that, it can provide tons invaluable opportunities well beyond prepping you for medicine to carry with you for life. If the idea of "I need to become a scribe/research assistant etc over a job like this just to appease ADCOMs" sounds stupid, then yes, it is.
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