Postpone application another year? Weak/lopsided ECs

[Pathologik]

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I'm a junior at the University of California, and am planning on taking the MCAT early/mid June. Without further ado, here are my stats:

• Overall and science GPA are both floating around 3.7+

• 1.5 years experience working in an aquatic biology lab freshman and part of sophomore year, no papers published (~10 hours a week)
• In my third month of involvement in a prominent neuroscience research lab (~15-20 hours a week) - getting published is a very real possibility, although likely not before admissions
• Shadowed a pathologist sophomore year and will likely visit again sometime soon
• LORs won't be a problem - I have plenty of great relationships with past professors
• Helped start a biology club and am still serving as an officer and webmaster (not exactly a leadership role, but close)
• I have taken a wide variety of upper division classes above and beyond what GEs require in addition to my microbio major. I genuinely enjoy being well rounded and planned my class schedule for this purpose. I doubt this matters much, but worth mentioning.

Bottom line is that I have very little clinical experience, and very little time (~3 months) to change that before admissions. While I had a successful fist two years, medical school wasn't a serious consideration until the third year came around and I began to realize that the research route wasn't the right choice for me.

My plan for the coming three months consists of A) studying up for MCATs B) squeezing in a couple new ECs (I will likely volunteer in the ER at the local hospital and perhaps the coroner's office, which is something I have always wanted to do). C) Continue with my position in the biology club and try to get some more leadership experience

This isn't ideal and looks like I'm cramming in my clinical experience hours, but there's no way around it. Postponing an entire year for some clinical experience seems a bit extreme to me, but at the same time taking a year off is appealing as long as I find something productive and meaningful to do. California med schools are top priority for me, and I know that I must have my **** straight to have a fighting chance.

Would appreciate some advice. Thanks for reading.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Yeah honestly, I think you'd get in somewhere with a strong MCAT, but if you have your heart set on Cali, I think a year off (coupled with a really strong MCAT, obviously) is probably going to be necessary. The good news is that if you rock the MCAT and then have that extra year of "real world" experience, you'll be competitive just about anywhere.

 

[Pathologik]

Yeah honestly, I think you'd get in somewhere with a strong MCAT, but if you have your heart set on Cali, I think a year off (coupled with a really strong MCAT, obviously) is probably going to be necessary. The good news is that if you rock the MCAT and then have that extra year of "real world" experience, you'll be competitive just about anywhere.

Yep, that's what I'm figuring as well. Time to start asking myself exactly how much I want to attend a California school. Or maybe a better question is why. 😛

 

[drizzt3117]

I think a glide year would be helpful and lower the stress of interviewing during the school year as well.

 

[sarahl86]

I think a lot is hinging on your MCAT score. You really have next to no clinical experience, and alarm bells are gonna go off when your application reaches admissions committee members. You can't truly know medicine if you haven't thrown yourself in it, and they are going to say the same thing during your interview. You're literally going to have to spend every waking moment in a hospital this summer - but I agree, postponing a whole year for it is a little extreme. If you don't do as well as you would hope (I'm thinking at least a 32-33 for mid-tier) then you can always reapply with better experiences.

I'd try to do both the ER and the Coroner's office, just to have something different. You are going to have to nail the MCAT though, to stand out from not having much in the way of clinical ECs. Your research experience will still give you a lot to talk about at interviews. Good luck.

 

[Mobius1985]

A great MCAT score will distract very few schools from the fact that you'd have at best 3 months of clinical experience. I think you'd be wasting your money if you apply this year.