No clinical experience in Most Meaningful?

[frosty42]

Currently deciding what to choose as my most meaningful activities.

Definite:
1. AmeriCorps VISTA
2. Study Abroad

Options for #3:
Medical Assistant
Research Assistant in Clinical Psych

Working as a research assistant was personally more meaningful to me.

I built relationships with individuals with schizophrenia and had my eyes opened to the harsh reality of healthcare disparities for low income individuals with severe mental illnesses. This is the reason why I chose to do an AmeriCorps service term in a position that works to address healthcare disparities (from a nonclinical perspective).

However, I talk about this path (psych lab --> AmeriCorps) fairly extensively in my personal statement. I don't want to repeat the same thing in my activities section.

Working as an MA is my only "traditional" clinical experience. It was a great opportunity, but quite honestly I don't have that many moments that stand out from it. I do discuss it in my personal statement as part of my journey through medicine.

I'm a little concerned that some adcoms will not see my research experience as clinical enough. I've tried to make the description clear that the vast majority of my time in the lab was spent one-on-one with patients at a psychiatric hospital performing clinical interviews and neuropsychological assessments.

Could it possibly be seen as a negative that I worked as an MA but did not include it as a most meaningful experience or as a large part of my personal statement?

For reference:
MA 6 months 15hrs/wk during COVID (postgrad)
Research Assistant 3 yrs during undergrad

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[lanadelgay124]

I personally would put MA over study abroad, particularly after hearing multiple adcoms comment on studying abroad not being an advantage in med school apps, being inaccessible to lower income students (not always the case, but a generalization I've heard a few times), and being just a glorified opportunity to party abroad (also a huge generalization). Obviously this sounds very calculated, you should be honest, and I don't know the context of your studying abroad, but I think you'd be remiss to not have any clinical experience in your top three. There will certainly be many who disagree with me here.

 

[Saintman41]

I'm still a college student who hasn't been accepted (didn't apply yet), so take what I say with a grain of salt. However, based on what you said I would say select the research position as your last meaningful activity. If you have more to say and more passion about the research position, then I don't see any reason not to use it, especially since it is in your personal statement. I will say this, I've always heard that one clinical experience should be one of your three meaningful activities, but, in your case, if the MA job isn't something you could talk about as highly as the research position, I wouldn't use it. Another thing to consider is how significant your study abroad was in your premed journey. I would switch that out and replace it with the MA job. Hopefully someone who has been accepted can back me on this, but I feel that the MA job should have a bigger role in your journey to wanting to become a physician. If I stayed at my MA job longer, it certainly would have been for me, but the physician I worked for was notorious for treating the staff terribly so there was a high turn out rate.

 

[frosty42]

I personally would put MA over study abroad, particularly after hearing multiple adcoms comment on studying abroad not being an advantage in med school apps, being inaccessible to lower income students (not always the case, but a generalization I've heard a few times), and being just a glorified opportunity to party abroad (also a huge generalization). Obviously this sounds very calculated, you should be honest, and I don't know the context of your studying abroad, but I think you'd be remiss to not have any clinical experience in your top three. There will certainly be many who disagree with me here.

For a little more clarification, my study abroad experience was very personally meaningful to me.

My father is an immigrant from the country I studied in (western Europe) and it was my first time learning the language and visiting the country. My dad visited me while I was there and I got to go with him back to his hometown that he hadn't been to in almost 30 years to visit relatives and see the place he grew up. It was a super powerful experience and even though it's not directly related to medicine, I think it had a way bigger impact on me than almost all of my other experiences listed in my activities section.

Hence why I'm pretty set on using it as a MM - I really want more space to be able to talk about how it changed my perspective.

I have heard that a clinical experience should be in the MM, as well, which is why I'm hesitant to exclude my MA position.

My research position had much more of an impact on my path to medicine than my MA position. The research position was fairly clinical in nature which is why I felt like it might be ok to choose it instead of the MA position.

Basically, between the two, the research assistant position was actually more meaningful, but is borderline clinical. The MA position is definitely clinical but didn't have much of an impact on me and I'd be stretching to try to find something else to say about it that I haven't already said in my activity description and personal statement.

Thank you for your feedback!

 

[frosty42]

I'm still a college student who hasn't been accepted (didn't apply yet), so take what I say with a grain of salt. However, based on what you said I would say select the research position as your last meaningful activity. If you have more to say and more passion about the research position, then I don't see any reason not to use it, especially since it is in your personal statement. I will say this, I've always heard that one clinical experience should be one of your three meaningful activities, but, in your case, if the MA job isn't something you could talk about as highly as the research position, I wouldn't use it. Another thing to consider is how significant your study abroad was in your premed journey. I would switch that out and replace it with the MA job. Hopefully someone who has been accepted can back me on this, but I feel that the MA job should have a bigger role in your journey to wanting to become a physician. If I stayed at my MA job longer, it certainly would have been for me, but the physician I worked for was notorious for treating the staff terribly so there was a high turn out rate.

In my prior comment, I touched upon how meaningful my study abroad experience was for me (father was an immigrant from the country I studied in, it was my first time there, visited his hometown with him, met relatives, etc.). I am fairly set on including it in my most meaningful because it was had a major impact on me and I would love to talk about it in interviews.

That's why I'm between MA and research for the 3rd spot. The physician I worked for as an MA was also just not a great person and had some major ego issues. It was not a great experience all around so I just feel like I would be trying very hard to come up with additional ways to talk about my time as an MA that haven't already been said in my personal statement and the shorter activity description.

Thank you for your input.

 

[lanadelgay124]

For a little more clarification, my study abroad experience was very personally meaningful to me.

My father is an immigrant from the country I studied in (western Europe) and it was my first time learning the language and visiting the country. My dad visited me while I was there and I got to go with him back to his hometown that he hadn't been to in almost 30 years to visit relatives and see the place he grew up. It was a super powerful experience and even though it's not directly related to medicine, I think it had a way bigger impact on me than almost all of my other experiences listed in my activities section.

Hence why I'm pretty set on using it as a MM - I really want more space to be able to talk about how it changed my perspective.

I have heard that a clinical experience should be in the MM, as well, which is why I'm hesitant to exclude my MA position.

My research position had much more of an impact on my path to medicine than my MA position. The research position was fairly clinical in nature which is why I felt like it might be ok to choose it instead of the MA position.

Basically, between the two, the research assistant position was actually more meaningful, but is borderline clinical. The MA position is definitely clinical but didn't have much of an impact on me and I'd be stretching to try to find something else to say about it that I haven't already said in my activity description and personal statement.

Thank you for your feedback!

As I said, I didn't know the context of the studying abroad. I think that's absolutely worth talking extra about!

 

[Saintman41]

In that case, it's definitely worth keeping the study abroad experience. That's something I would enjoy hearing about versus a job you didn't have the best memories in. I was wrong about there needing to be a clinical experience. You're best bet would be the research since you can talk about it more than the MA job. Best of luck to you!