Is this an ok idea for my gap year(s)?

[LeftHandedArnold]

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I'll be a graduating senior this December. It has always been my plan to take at least one gap year prior to applying to medical school. While I have a good GPA (3.92), my EC's are still very incomplete. While I'm still very interested in pursuing medicine and always have been, I've begun to have some intruding doubts if this is the right path for me.

I worked my way through college so in addition to my GPA I have about 5000 hours of work experience. I also started volunteering this year and will accumulate ~190 hours by the time I graduate.

Here's my tentative plan:

- Find a salaried job that utilizes my degree (biology) and allows me to save up some money and get more real-world experience. This could be anything really, sales, marketing, etc.
- Either get my EMT certification or find a scribing job that allows me to pick up a few shifts per week. Also get my shadowing done.
- Continue my current volunteering gig into the next year to get to ~400 hours by the time I apply
- Study for the MCAT

It seems like it's kind of atypical for premeds taking a gap year to get a salaried position with their degree. Do you guys foresee any issues with this? The way I see this is that it would be a way for me to kind of hedge my bets. If I get the necessary clinical experience and find out that being a doctor isn't for me, then at least I have a career to fall back on. I would feel somewhat exposed just being an EMT during my gap year. If med school ended up not working out I would have a somewhat irrelevant degree and a huge gap on my resume. Maybe it also ends up that I enjoy the working world and just end up doing something unrelated to medicine.

Is this too much on my plate? Would I need two gap years to squeeze all of this in? Let me know what you guys think, thanks.

 

[chzsux]

It would really depend on the type of job, but honestly finding a full-time salaried job that would allow you time to work part-time as a scribe/EMT would be very difficult. IMO if I were you, I would try to just get a full time clinical job (MA, EMT, scribe, CNA, etc.) and volunteer on the weekends/nights

 

[LunaOri]

There are clinical research coordinator jobs that will give you clinical experience as well as job security if you decide not to go to medical school.

 

[amm16]

I think scribing really helped me feel confident in my decision to pursue medicine, and luckily allowed for the flexibility to study for the MCAT and volunteer without feeling too overwhelmed! Scribing/EMT/MA could also open doors to clinical research (from what I've seen) assuming you can sell that research experience+patient contact=great research coordinator.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

I work in finance and have got interviews so it’s definitely possible. With that being said, I’ve probably had more explaining to do on why medicine during the interviews.

 

[LeftHandedArnold]

I work in finance and have got interviews so it’s definitely possible. With that being said, I’ve probably had more explaining to do on why medicine during the interviews.

How many gap years have you taken between now and applying? Just curious.

 

[LeftHandedArnold]

It would really depend on the type of job, but honestly finding a full-time salaried job that would allow you time to work part-time as a scribe/EMT would be very difficult. IMO if I were you, I would try to just get a full time clinical job (MA, EMT, scribe, CNA, etc.) and volunteer on the weekends/nights

Yeah that was my original plan. Do you think I would need to be worried about not really having a backup plan in case I don't get into school or I end up not really enjoying medicine? I think that scenario is probably unlikely, but it would give me some peace of mind to have a backup.

 

[chzsux]

Yeah that was my original plan. Do you think I would need to be worried about not really having a backup plan in case I don't get into school or I end up not really enjoying medicine? I think that scenario is probably unlikely, but it would give me some peace of mind to have a backup.

I mean like another poster mentioned, you could try to find work as a clinical research coordinator, either for a research institution or in industry. I just think that you should be wary of putting too much on your plate, especially since you plan on studying for the MCAT as well