D
deleted1180676
Hi! I received 2 offers for my gap year position and need help choosing. Things to note:
- I have no clinical experience other than shadowing and volunteering at my local hospital for 2 summers. I know shadowing doesn't count, and I don't really plan to talk about the volunteering at all because it iss negligible. I will address this deficiency by working at a nursing home on the weekends for ab 10 hours per week. I'm applying in May (2 gap years) for 2026 cycle so I should have about 500 hours by then and another 500 projected. I didn't want to go the MA route because I feel like it's basic and would rather do something more research based as my main position.
- Second, I have about 200 hours (no pub) in health disparities research from undergrad. Again, I wanted more of a research focused position for my gap year because a) 200 is barely anything and b) I wanted more wet lab based research. I also want a shot at a T20, so 200 research hours is probably not going to cut it. But regardless of the T20 or not, I'm interested in research and would like an adequate amount of experience with it.
With that being said:
1. Clinical Research Coordinator at a top 5 med school's oncology center - sounds really cool, however, they already prefaced that it's very administrative and not really much patient-interaction. That's fine, but they were ambiguous about how much actual research exposure I'd get. It's a lot of writing IRB protocols, but also of collecting patient data info and consolidating/maintaining their charts and files. The person I was hired to replace did get into med school and the PI (an MD) said it was a great position for premeds, but I don't really know what "admin" means because everyone has a different opinion about this position.
2. HIV Research Assistant - this is at a popular military/govt hospital, and its very wet-lab based working with HIV vaccine clinical trials. 60% wet lab, 20-30% data analysis and the rest meetings, presentations etc. This is a pure research position, and I'm leaning towards this but asking for your advice regardless.
Thanks for your help. I've mentioned the CRC position in an older post and got mixed opinions, so I'm hoping having the 2 options may clear it up.
- I have no clinical experience other than shadowing and volunteering at my local hospital for 2 summers. I know shadowing doesn't count, and I don't really plan to talk about the volunteering at all because it iss negligible. I will address this deficiency by working at a nursing home on the weekends for ab 10 hours per week. I'm applying in May (2 gap years) for 2026 cycle so I should have about 500 hours by then and another 500 projected. I didn't want to go the MA route because I feel like it's basic and would rather do something more research based as my main position.
- Second, I have about 200 hours (no pub) in health disparities research from undergrad. Again, I wanted more of a research focused position for my gap year because a) 200 is barely anything and b) I wanted more wet lab based research. I also want a shot at a T20, so 200 research hours is probably not going to cut it. But regardless of the T20 or not, I'm interested in research and would like an adequate amount of experience with it.
With that being said:
1. Clinical Research Coordinator at a top 5 med school's oncology center - sounds really cool, however, they already prefaced that it's very administrative and not really much patient-interaction. That's fine, but they were ambiguous about how much actual research exposure I'd get. It's a lot of writing IRB protocols, but also of collecting patient data info and consolidating/maintaining their charts and files. The person I was hired to replace did get into med school and the PI (an MD) said it was a great position for premeds, but I don't really know what "admin" means because everyone has a different opinion about this position.
2. HIV Research Assistant - this is at a popular military/govt hospital, and its very wet-lab based working with HIV vaccine clinical trials. 60% wet lab, 20-30% data analysis and the rest meetings, presentations etc. This is a pure research position, and I'm leaning towards this but asking for your advice regardless.
Thanks for your help. I've mentioned the CRC position in an older post and got mixed opinions, so I'm hoping having the 2 options may clear it up.
