Is it a red flag to start AMCAS experiences so late?

[mreyno18]

While medical school is always something that was on my mind, I went into college focusing on engineering instead. I changed my mind when I was a sophomore (which was the school year 2019-2020).
While some of my volunteer experiences started in high school or in my sophomore year of college (late 2019), most of my volunteering got cut early due to COVID. Therefore a lot of both my clinical experience and volunteering either started in late 2019 / early 2020 and then have since halted or the new opportunities I was available to get during COVID started in August 2020 or I will be starting very soon.

I was also supposed to do research last spring which got canceled. I was able to do very little of it this fall, but will be doing my project in the spring along with another research opportunity at the same time that was given to me.

Last summer I was supposed to be doing a medical internship at a hospital where I was going to be involved in clinical research and lots of physician shadowing / rounding with residents. It was canceled, but I will be doing it this year.

I plan on applying this upcoming cycle. I worry that the adcoms will think that I am just trying to squish my experiences in in the last minute, since everything will be in the last 6-12 months before I apply when in reality COVID is the reason that my experiences are so late.

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[KnightDoc]

While medical school is always something that was on my mind, I went into college focusing on engineering instead. I changed my mind when I was a sophomore (which was the school year 2019-2020).
While some of my volunteer experiences started in high school or in my sophomore year of college (late 2019), most of my volunteering got cut early due to COVID. Therefore a lot of both my clinical experience and volunteering either started in late 2019 / early 2020 and then have since halted or the new opportunities I was available to get during COVID started in August 2020 or I will be starting very soon.

I was also supposed to do research last spring which got canceled. I was able to do very little of it this fall, but will be doing my project in the spring along with another research opportunity at the same time that was given to me.

Last summer I was supposed to be doing a medical internship at a hospital where I was going to be involved in clinical research and lots of physician shadowing / rounding with residents. It was canceled, but I will be doing it this year.

I plan on applying this upcoming cycle. I worry that the adcoms will think that I am just trying to squish my experiences in in the last minute, since everything will be in the last 6-12 months before I apply when in reality COVID is the reason that my experiences are so late.

I don't think it's going to be a red flag per se, since lots of applicants always come to the game later than others. The issue will be the disadvantage you will be at as compared to the people who were gathering hours since freshman year.

In a world where 2/3 take at least one gap year, it's going to be tough to stand out while "squishing" ECs into a single year due to COVID and also trying to "squish" an application in with no gap years. You really sound like a perfect candidate for at least one gap year.

 

[candbgirl]

Slow down and do it right. As @KnightDoc said there will be lots of applicants that have perfect applications. And FYI anything you did in HS stays in HS unless you continued it on into college. So you need to seriously think about at least one gap year.