FloridaPanthersFan
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- May 19, 2025
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Hello everyone,
First time on SDN!
I need some general advice and critiquing on my game plan for this upcoming "gap year" as well as my current experiences/stats.
I am fine with MD or DO and this will be my first application cycle. ^v^
Stats/Education:
Undergrad: Health Sciences Major 3.87 GPA (Cum Laude if that matters?) (Only B's were in Chem 2/Orgo 1/Med Biochem 🙁 )
Would have been a higher GPA but AP credits made me skip a large amount of Gen Eds that would have boosted my GPA.
Masters: Chemistry (with Thesis) 3.98 GPA (JUST GRADUATED 😀 and all Medical Grad-Level Coursework were A's just an intro class gave me an A-)
MCAT: Not taken, planning for January-Aprilish? Have been studying intermittently over the last year.
ECs:
Paid Clinical: None but currently in EMT classes which will be done in August and will work as an EMT through the entire application process so 1000+ (hard to estimate)?
Clinical Volunteering: Currently 200+ at local hospice but will be volunteering throughout the entire application process also so ~700+ by application time?.
Leadership: President of a Chemistry Club for an academic year and Secretary for an esports club for an academic year.
Research: Completed a Master's thesis that is on track for publication in the Fall. Co-author on other ongoing projects unknown publication timelines.
Not sure about the exact number of hours but I did it nearly full-time for about a year and a half. Oh, also around 4-6 poster presentations and 2 oral presentations at fairly large conferences (ACS Spring for one of them as part of a symposium).
Non-Clinical Volunteering: ~200 hours running video game tournaments for kids/students at local University and another ~50 hours assisting at a research conference free to students at my university. Not quite your soup kitchens or other traditional volunteering to be frank.
Shadowing: 20 hours currently with the geriatric/internal medicine physicians at the hospice I volunteer at but will improve let's say ~50-80?
Hobbies/Other Work: I have some artistic pursuits in designing and making synthetic resin artworks with my friend/his business selling them and I work per-need at my parent's restaurant during holiday times or with absences. Definitely experiences that I would most likely include.
Game Plan:
- Continue volunteering/complete EMT Program from now to late August (end of EMT program). (I volunteer about 24 hours/week with 12 hours/week in EMT classes)
- Work as an EMT from September to June and throughout and chop down volunteering to 1-2 days per week.
- Study MCAT throughout the September-onwards stretch till practice scores are in an acceptable range then take.
- Work on publishing currently outstanding projects throughout this entire period.
- Pre-write/Practice Interviewing/Pick up leather-working and ice-skating throughout the entire year.
- Attend the first winter classic hosted by the Florida Panthers after they win their 2nd Stanley Cup back-to-back against the Dallas Stars in a few weeks or so.
Questions:
Where I live (Florida), single-certification EMTs usually need about 4-6 months of interfacility transport (IFT) experience before they move onto 911. Should I make that leap to 911 during that February-April stretch or do you think keeping steady with IFT would be more advisable? I would imagine there would be a significant leap in terms of new skills/training that could eat into pre-writing time. The experiences in 911 would be significant but I have many strong experiences I can write about in my hospice volunteering already.
My 1st/2nd years of undergrad were deep into the COVID-era which makes non-science LoRs almost impossible. I have strong rapport with several of my masters/undergrad STEM professors (and my PI), but I legitimately have no feasible way to find a non-STEM professor to write a viable letter. Are there any remedies or will I have to accept that may be a flaw of my application?
I currently volunteer at my local hospice, and I have many many different roles. I sometimes work as a receptionist, sometimes I sit down with patients near death/are alone as a companion, sometimes I work in purely chart/data entry, sometimes I go to homes to visit at-home patients as a companion for "respites". I definitely have "clinical" aspects to my volunteering, but I equally have some aspects where I am not directly interacting with patients. Is that fine to label the hours as clinical volunteering overall? I, of course, do not perform any medical interventions but I do help move patients on the occasion or fetch medical supplies and get to spectate the nurses/doctors/medical personnel at work which has given me really great insight on palliative care in general.
Do you have any suggestions to try to bolster my application any further? I had already delayed applying last year due to my lack of paid-clinical experience, and I really want to make the most out of the gap year to be as competitive as possible.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! <3 I apologize for being so verbose!
First time on SDN!
I need some general advice and critiquing on my game plan for this upcoming "gap year" as well as my current experiences/stats.
I am fine with MD or DO and this will be my first application cycle. ^v^
Stats/Education:
Undergrad: Health Sciences Major 3.87 GPA (Cum Laude if that matters?) (Only B's were in Chem 2/Orgo 1/Med Biochem 🙁 )
Would have been a higher GPA but AP credits made me skip a large amount of Gen Eds that would have boosted my GPA.
Masters: Chemistry (with Thesis) 3.98 GPA (JUST GRADUATED 😀 and all Medical Grad-Level Coursework were A's just an intro class gave me an A-)
MCAT: Not taken, planning for January-Aprilish? Have been studying intermittently over the last year.
ECs:
Paid Clinical: None but currently in EMT classes which will be done in August and will work as an EMT through the entire application process so 1000+ (hard to estimate)?
Clinical Volunteering: Currently 200+ at local hospice but will be volunteering throughout the entire application process also so ~700+ by application time?.
Leadership: President of a Chemistry Club for an academic year and Secretary for an esports club for an academic year.
Research: Completed a Master's thesis that is on track for publication in the Fall. Co-author on other ongoing projects unknown publication timelines.
Not sure about the exact number of hours but I did it nearly full-time for about a year and a half. Oh, also around 4-6 poster presentations and 2 oral presentations at fairly large conferences (ACS Spring for one of them as part of a symposium).
Non-Clinical Volunteering: ~200 hours running video game tournaments for kids/students at local University and another ~50 hours assisting at a research conference free to students at my university. Not quite your soup kitchens or other traditional volunteering to be frank.
Shadowing: 20 hours currently with the geriatric/internal medicine physicians at the hospice I volunteer at but will improve let's say ~50-80?
Hobbies/Other Work: I have some artistic pursuits in designing and making synthetic resin artworks with my friend/his business selling them and I work per-need at my parent's restaurant during holiday times or with absences. Definitely experiences that I would most likely include.
Game Plan:
- Continue volunteering/complete EMT Program from now to late August (end of EMT program). (I volunteer about 24 hours/week with 12 hours/week in EMT classes)
- Work as an EMT from September to June and throughout and chop down volunteering to 1-2 days per week.
- Study MCAT throughout the September-onwards stretch till practice scores are in an acceptable range then take.
- Work on publishing currently outstanding projects throughout this entire period.
- Pre-write/Practice Interviewing/Pick up leather-working and ice-skating throughout the entire year.
- Attend the first winter classic hosted by the Florida Panthers after they win their 2nd Stanley Cup back-to-back against the Dallas Stars in a few weeks or so.
Questions:
Where I live (Florida), single-certification EMTs usually need about 4-6 months of interfacility transport (IFT) experience before they move onto 911. Should I make that leap to 911 during that February-April stretch or do you think keeping steady with IFT would be more advisable? I would imagine there would be a significant leap in terms of new skills/training that could eat into pre-writing time. The experiences in 911 would be significant but I have many strong experiences I can write about in my hospice volunteering already.
My 1st/2nd years of undergrad were deep into the COVID-era which makes non-science LoRs almost impossible. I have strong rapport with several of my masters/undergrad STEM professors (and my PI), but I legitimately have no feasible way to find a non-STEM professor to write a viable letter. Are there any remedies or will I have to accept that may be a flaw of my application?
I currently volunteer at my local hospice, and I have many many different roles. I sometimes work as a receptionist, sometimes I sit down with patients near death/are alone as a companion, sometimes I work in purely chart/data entry, sometimes I go to homes to visit at-home patients as a companion for "respites". I definitely have "clinical" aspects to my volunteering, but I equally have some aspects where I am not directly interacting with patients. Is that fine to label the hours as clinical volunteering overall? I, of course, do not perform any medical interventions but I do help move patients on the occasion or fetch medical supplies and get to spectate the nurses/doctors/medical personnel at work which has given me really great insight on palliative care in general.
Do you have any suggestions to try to bolster my application any further? I had already delayed applying last year due to my lack of paid-clinical experience, and I really want to make the most out of the gap year to be as competitive as possible.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! <3 I apologize for being so verbose!
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