I'm a senior with only have 1.5 years of molec/cell research done and I have not done anything significant for my PI to give me an honest great recommendation of my contributions to the research other than doing what everyone else did (I started research just because but ended realizing that I enjoy it just this semester). I recently decided to do an MD/PhD but I know I need a stronger research background but I'm scared I'll end up wasting alot of my years with a gap years. So, would it be good enough to do a summer internship at the NIH this summer and then apply in late June or August of the same summer? Or would the year long IRTA post bacc program and it's benefits be great enough to offset the amount of time I take before applying to MD/PhD programs? It depresses me that I will be 24 years old and just then applying to medical school