No extracurriculars during one gap year?

[crying]

I'm finishing up on my first gap year (I'm planning to take 2) and I haven't been doing anything besides working full time, will this look really negatively upon me (enough to put off applying until next year)? I'm going to try to get in maybe 10-20 shadowing hours from now until June, I've been trained to volunteer with this one group but I don't want to start devoting my time to it until I take my MCAT in May. I had a couple years of clinical experince and community service in undergrad.

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[chillaxbro]

Working is better than nothing I guess
Full time = 40 hours? You still had plenty of time to do other things

 

[Resilience]

It all depends, but mostly I would think you're fine. How were your ECs in UG? If they were good, I think you are all set. If they have always been lacking, then you should pick up a few things. If the rest of your application is fine, you will be alright with just your full time job, especially if you are also studying for the MCAT now/soon.

I did the same thing as you and have received 11 iis this cycle, if that makes you feel better =]

 

[dancingmate]

After taking your MCAT and once you start applying and turn in your secondaries, I would start up a couple of ECs. Maybe once or twice a week. It is good to add stuff to your application incase you end up having to reapply.

 

[Donald Kimball]

I'm finishing up on my first gap year (I'm planning to take 2) and I haven't been doing anything besides working full time, will this look really negatively upon me (enough to put off applying until next year)? I'm going to try to get in maybe 10-20 shadowing hours from now until June, I've been trained to volunteer with this one group but I don't want to start devoting my time to it until I take my MCAT in May. I had a couple years of clinical experince and community service in undergrad.

If your job is not medically related, then I would highly recommend you shadow and do some sort of clinical volunteering. I was in a similar position as yourself, working full-time throughout my gap year without much recent shadowing or clinical volunteering, and I do not think it did me any favors this cycle.

Consider your competition. Other applicants, traditional or not, are going to have dedicated clinical and volunteer experience in addition to full-time jobs/school. When it comes time to offer acceptances, I imagine it's much easier for the committee to select the guy who's been working/studying full-time AND volunteering/shadowing/curing HIV than the guy that's "just" working full-time.

 

[crying]

It all depends, but mostly I would think you're fine. How were your ECs in UG? If they were good, I think you are all set. If they have always been lacking, then you should pick up a few things. If the rest of your application is fine, you will be alright with just your full time job, especially if you are also studying for the MCAT now/soon.

I did the same thing as you and have received 11 iis this cycle, if that makes you feel better =]

My EC's in UG were "complete" but average. Do you think that's ok? Wow 11 interviews! Congrats! Did it come up during any of your interviews?

 

[crying]

If your job is not medically related, then I would highly recommend you shadow and do some sort of clinical volunteering. I was in a similar position as yourself, working full-time throughout my gap year without much recent shadowing or clinical volunteering, and I do not think it did me any favors this cycle.

Consider your competition. Other applicants, traditional or not, are going to have dedicated clinical and volunteer experience in addition to full-time jobs/school. When it comes time to offer acceptances, I imagine it's much easier for the committee to select the guy who's been working/studying full-time AND volunteering/shadowing/curing HIV than the guy that's "just" working full-time.

My job isn't medically related but it is public health related, I don't know if that helps any. Did you find yourself having to explain the lack of stuff in any of your interviews/secondaries? That's what I was thinking also, it seems like a lot of people who apply do much more than 40 hours of things per week across their recent premed years.

 

[kairos18]

I'm finishing up my second gap year now and I've worked full time (40-50 hours) for all 2 years. To keep up my ECs, I did volunteering/shadowing some evenings during the week and then on the weekends. It sucks sometimes because work can really burn you out, but being able to say that you have good time management and can balance multiple things at once would probably look good to adcoms.

 

[Resilience]

My EC's in UG were "complete" but average. Do you think that's ok? Wow 11 interviews! Congrats! Did it come up during any of your interviews?

Thanks! I would say as long as there isn't anything missing in your application, don't worry about filling up all of your time. Enjoy your year "off", its often the personal growth that happens here that is important rather than the "academic-ish" growth. You already did that part, and if you did it well, now you can focus on other things.

It did come up in interviews, but not in any blatant way such as "so, I see all you did this year was a job, what's up with that?" It's more like, "so, what do you like to do with your spare time?" or "I notice you didn't continue with x EC after college even though you seemed to like doing it, why is that?" As long as you have answers to questions like this you will be fine. They will see you weren't sitting on your butt all day, and understand that when you get to the real world, you have too many responsibilities to have time for crazy amounts of ECs.

For me, if they asked any of those types of questions, I would just explain that I put a lot of time and effort into my job, and that one of my goals in my two gap years was to spend a lot of time with my family before leaving again. I would also mention a couple of hobbies that I spend time doing, such as working out and reading that aren't necessarily ECs, but do count as something you commit to and are dedicated to. All of my interviewers seemed pleased with this response. And, it was even stranger for me to have to answer this question because I lost my job (because of the sequester) in June, so I hadn't been doing anything from June through to some of my interviews. Even saying that I was taking time to apply to medical school to the best of my ability, and currently looking for new employment seemed satisfactory.

I really wouldn't worry about it too much, especially if you can say you were studying for the MCAT too, as that is quite difficult to do with a full time job. Also, keep in mind that for schools that do MMI style interviews, they will not even have the chance to ask you about it. I hope this has been at least somewhat helpful. Stop stressing and focus on crushing the MCAT! You'll be fine!

 

[Donald Kimball]

My job isn't medically related but it is public health related, I don't know if that helps any. Did you find yourself having to explain the lack of stuff in any of your interviews/secondaries? That's what I was thinking also, it seems like a lot of people who apply do much more than 40 hours of things per week across their recent premed years.

I was not directly asked questions like "Why are you lacking clinical experience?" or "Have you just been working during your gap year?," but more general questions like "Tell me about your clinical/shadowing/volunteer experiences," or "What have you been up to since graduating?" My first interviews were rough, because my answer to these questions was weak, but like Resilience said, if you have a good answer, you can make a weak experience sound strong, and you will be fine.

Ultimately, this is a minor thing to consider in relation to the MCAT. Destroy that and you will be in a great position. Shadowing, volunteering, and clinical exposure are very important and you should try to keep up with these things during your gap year, but your GPA and MCAT will carry you much farther.

 

[crying]

Thanks! I would say as long as there isn't anything missing in your application, don't worry about filling up all of your time. Enjoy your year "off", its often the personal growth that happens here that is important rather than the "academic-ish" growth. You already did that part, and if you did it well, now you can focus on other things.

It did come up in interviews, but not in any blatant way such as "so, I see all you did this year was a job, what's up with that?" It's more like, "so, what do you like to do with your spare time?" or "I notice you didn't continue with x EC after college even though you seemed to like doing it, why is that?" As long as you have answers to questions like this you will be fine. They will see you weren't sitting on your butt all day, and understand that when you get to the real world, you have too many responsibilities to have time for crazy amounts of ECs.

For me, if they asked any of those types of questions, I would just explain that I put a lot of time and effort into my job, and that one of my goals in my two gap years was to spend a lot of time with my family before leaving again. I would also mention a couple of hobbies that I spend time doing, such as working out and reading that aren't necessarily ECs, but do count as something you commit to and are dedicated to. All of my interviewers seemed pleased with this response. And, it was even stranger for me to have to answer this question because I lost my job (because of the sequester) in June, so I hadn't been doing anything from June through to some of my interviews. Even saying that I was taking time to apply to medical school to the best of my ability, and currently looking for new employment seemed satisfactory.

I really wouldn't worry about it too much, especially if you can say you were studying for the MCAT too, as that is quite difficult to do with a full time job. Also, keep in mind that for schools that do MMI style interviews, they will not even have the chance to ask you about it. I hope this has been at least somewhat helpful. Stop stressing and focus on crushing the MCAT! You'll be fine!

I was not directly asked questions like "Why are you lacking clinical experience?" or "Have you just been working during your gap year?," but more general questions like "Tell me about your clinical/shadowing/volunteer experiences," or "What have you been up to since graduating?" My first interviews were rough, because my answer to these questions was weak, but like Resilience said, if you have a good answer, you can make a weak experience sound strong, and you will be fine.

Ultimately, this is a minor thing to consider in relation to the MCAT. Destroy that and you will be in a great position. Shadowing, volunteering, and clinical exposure are very important and you should try to keep up with these things during your gap year, but your GPA and MCAT will carry you much farther.

Thank you guys for the insight and advice, super helpful! Thank you!