Help! Need help deciding if I should quit my research lab do to an internship instead

[decisionsdecisions97]

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Hi,

I joined a research lab this summer (~400 hrs at a public university) and started volunteering at a domestic abuse shelter. The domestic abuse shelter has a semester internship that I would love to do. However, if I do it I would have to quit my research lab as both require ~15 hours a week and I'm studying for the MCAT this upcoming semester.

The research that I'm doing now isn't quite what I expected based on the research summary on the website. I don't enjoy it as much as I enjoy volunteering. Since, I won't have to worry about taking the MCAT next summer, I would like to do an REU next summer. I'm just worried that if I quit my research lab, I'll no longer be able to apply to my dream school as its a research-focused school.

Other stats:

GPA: 4.0
Tutoring: 300 hrs
URM
Domestic abuse shelter: 70 hrs by end of the summer (325 by end of next semester if I'm selected for the internship)
Hospice: 100 hrs
Non-clinical volunteering: 200 hrs thus far
TA-ing: 3 semesters so far
Research: 400 hrs + poster
I'm in 4 clubs and have leadership positions in 2 of them

 

[hypophora]

Are you not enjoying your research experience as much because you're not working in an area you like or do you think you generally might enjoy clinical work more than research? If the latter is true I'd have to ask if your research-focused dream school is necessarily the ideal school for you.

Actually I feel like making pre-med decisions based on how you think it'd look to a single dream med school is not necessarily ideal anyways. Consider how your decision would impact your overall readiness to apply to medical school. Which experience would you be most proud to have on your application? Which experience do you think you'd be able to write and speak most compellingly about?

I think it would also be helpful to know which year in college you are and when you want to apply. If you really want to be a research-strong applicant, it would be good to know if you have more time to do research in a better-fitting lab for you after the semester internship at the shelter is over. And it would be good to know if you're close to publishing in the lab you're currently in.

 

[decisionsdecisions97]

@hypophora I am going to be a junior, so I'll be applying summer of 2018. I'm not close to publishing and the lab's focus isn't quite what I thought it would be.

 

[hypophora]

Think about your personal "narrative". Why are you applying to medical school? What are your career goals? What kind of doctor do you want to be? Choose the activity that is congruent with your answers to those questions.

I'll be applying summer of 2018

Ok, so it looks like if you take the internship, you have one semester at most to do extra research before applying. If you are totally committed to being a more research oriented applicant, then you either should keep on trucking at your lab or switch to a new lab ASAP. One summer of research is good and valuable to put on your application, but not overwhelmingly impressive.

On the other hand, you could probably be an equally compelling candidate if you take the shelter internship, and hopefully parlay that into continuing to work with the group in your junior year second semester. If you keep up your GPA and do well on your MCAT, I do not think going this route would really hurt your chances at any medical school (even a "research-focused" one, unless you are applying MD/PhD). Many people get into medical school without significant research.

Third possibility is applying in 2019 and taking a gap year. This is if you really want to try to "have it all" for some reason. You could beef up your research chops during your senior year. But given your high GPA and hopefully a good MCAT that would probably not be necessary.