NIH Postbac??

[eargeek]

So, I was originally planning to apply this cycle, but decided that I wanted to strengthen my application and do a post-bacc of some sort. For reference:

GPA: 3.6 cGPA/3.4 sGPA
MCAT: TBD but aiming for 515+

EC's
2000 hours as pathology lab assistant in a hospital (with patient interaction)
300 hours as an undergrad research assistant in an auditory lab
~50 hours for a semester as a gen chem II peer tutor/TA
150 hrs clinical volunteering in patient transport in a cancer center, pharmacy and ED in a community hospital
non-clinical volunteering at a farm (just started)
3 leadership positions in marketing/media:
- two are in a research student org/student research journal
- one was in a pre-health organization that did competitions at regional/state level as well as philanthropy
submission in a health humanities journal (IP)
hobbies include photography, writing, reading (goes along with leadership positions)
80 hours shadowing two specialties (IM and vascular surgery/hyperbaric medicine)

I am debating whether or not I should do a post-bac at NIH, or simply apply this cycle. Any thoughts are appreciated. Ultimate goal is to do MD/PhD.

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[LizzyM]

If your goal is PhD in addition to MD, I do think that a year (or two) in a wet lab would go a long way. I was at the NIH this past summer for a really excellent grad fair that included lots of panelists on getting into graduate and/or professional degree programs.

as an aside: What does non clinical volunteering at a farm entail? If buffing your application is a goal, your time might be better spent working with people experiencing extreme hardship.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I wanted to strengthen my application and do a post-bacc

Could you highlight what activities were part of your postbac plan?

 

[eargeek]

Could you highlight what activities were part of your postbac plan?

All the activities I listed are what I've done in undergrad up until this point. The postbac would just be another 1 or 2 years where I am doing full time wet lab research

 

[Breadman10]

good luck getting an nih postbacc position right now, many of the major institutes are in a hiring freeze.