Pre-med gap year advice

[Mined23]

Hi I’m an accepted MD student starting in 2024. I’m looking for advice if there’s something I could be doing during my current gap year that might help on a residency application. I am interested in surgery specialties, would it make sense to get more research? If research before med school is helpful should I look for a job or volunteer position? Clinical or wet lab? I currently tutor for the MCAT and work as a medical scribe. Or is there nothing I can do that would be impactful on my residency application since I’m not in medical school yet? Thanks for the help!

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[GoSpursGo]

the only thing that will matter for residency that you could do now is research that leads to pubs, or at least makes you some connections early that could lead to pubs in med school.

It doesn’t matter if the research is paid or volunteer, but from a practical perspective you are unlikely to find a research job that will hire you for 8 months. Whether you do wet lab or clinical likely depends on whether you have wet lab experience—if no, then again there is basically no point in trying to do something for only 8mo as it will unlikely lead to a pub, and also since you will need to look for specialty specific research there tends to be less surgical subspecialty wet labs.

 

[Mined23]

the only thing that will matter for residency that you could do now is research that leads to pubs, or at least makes you some connections early that could lead to pubs in med school.

It doesn’t matter if the research is paid or volunteer, but from a practical perspective you are unlikely to find a research job that will hire you for 8 months. Whether you do wet lab or clinical likely depends on whether you have wet lab experience—if no, then again there is basically no point in trying to do something for only 8mo as it will unlikely lead to a pub, and also since you will need to look for specialty specific research there tends to be less surgical subspecialty wet labs.

Thank you so much for the response! I have some wet lab research experience from my undergrad that didn’t lead to a publication. I moved away and am living in a different state during my gap year. Would you recommend trying to volunteer in a wet lab at an undergraduate at a university near where I live now? Would that potentially open doors for me in the future having additional experience in a wet lab even if it doesn’t lead to a publication?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Probably not worth trying to volunteer for 8 months. But it just depends on what is even available that is conceivably specialty specific

 

[Mined23]

Probably not worth trying to volunteer for 8 months. But it just depends on what is even available that is conceivably specialty specific

That makes a lot of sense. So unless I found something specialty specific it would be almost useless to do any research

 

[KaiBuzz]

Contact the medical school you plan to attend to see if you can join a clinical research lab. Some may be looking for volunteers to do chart review or data analysis.

 

[Hollow Knight]

You could also, lika, ya know..... chill. I know that's not what you asked haha, but you're about to start down a pipe where you won't have much free time for 7+ years. Just a thought

But I'm not over here gunning for neurodermatology

 

[pazzer2]

There are lots of clinical research projects that involve looking at retrospective datasets. You'll need some mentorship in order to lead towards a publication though. Contact some faculty members in the med school you are joining to see if there are any projects that you can help with.

Helpful if you know some biostats, especially R studio, Python or SAS.

 

[Esmolol]

I have two pieces of advice for you:

1. I would start by trying to get the curriculum of the school, better yet, powerpoints with lectures, notes - anything! Any materials from the school you have been accepted at. Then start going through them as soon as you can. Don't waste time. Start now!

2. DO NOT listen to people's advice on SDN...