Help with Gap Year Plans & Research

[eggyolk4826]

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I will be graduating this upcoming December from my undergrad, and I’m very conflicted about what I should do during my gap year. I’ve been involved in research since my freshman year of school, however I don’t have a lot of hours (about 200) for how long I’ve been in the lab. I do research in neuroscience using EEG, and it’s a very interesting topic that I would love to talk about with med schools, but the overall productivity of the lab is very slow (especially with our grants now being cut). I’m from Ohio, so I will most likely be applying to some more research heavy schools like OSU, UC, and Case. With that being said, I am hoping to get more research experience during my gap year that I hoped to have gotten in undergrad. Would it be better for me to work as a research assistant in a hospital, or as a clinical research assistant? I’m not sure which one will be better for productivity and learning about the topics I’m researching. I only have one poster that I wasn’t even able to present with my team for research (due to illness), so I would like to also gain more experience with presenting and even maybe even getting authorship on a pub. The only downside to working more with research is that I was originally planning to focus more on clinical hours during my gap year, however I will have 1000+ hours prior to my graduation and could technically continue working at my clinical job with a full-time job since I am PRN and only contracted to work 16 hours per month. If anyone could give me any input on what to do, I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I will be graduating this upcoming December from my undergrad, and I’m very conflicted about what I should do during my gap year. I’ve been involved in research since my freshman year of school, however I don’t have a lot of hours (about 200) for how long I’ve been in the lab. I do research in neuroscience using EEG, and it’s a very interesting topic that I would love to talk about with med schools, but the overall productivity of the lab is very slow (especially with our grants now being cut). I’m from Ohio, so I will most likely be applying to some more research heavy schools like OSU, UC, and Case. With that being said, I am hoping to get more research experience during my gap year that I hoped to have gotten in undergrad. Would it be better for me to work as a research assistant in a hospital, or as a clinical research assistant? I’m not sure which one will be better for productivity and learning about the topics I’m researching. I only have one poster that I wasn’t even able to present with my team for research (due to illness), so I would like to also gain more experience with presenting and even maybe even getting authorship on a pub. The only downside to working more with research is that I was originally planning to focus more on clinical hours during my gap year, however I will have 1000+ hours prior to my graduation and could technically continue working at my clinical job with a full-time job since I am PRN and only contracted to work 16 hours per month. If anyone could give me any input on what to do, I would greatly appreciate it!

What does your gap year day-to-day/work schedule look like if you were to continue working as a PRN? How would you fit in a "real research job"? How about community service? Don't forget you need sleep. I don't know if you have taken your MCAT, but there's also that.