team_healer
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2025
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 3
Hey everyone!
I applied this cycle and quickly realized I am woefully underprepared and do not have the hours I should have haha. I was originally thinking MD/PhD or maybe PhD two years ago, so I dove into heavy research experience and did not gain the clinical or volunteering hours necessary to apply MD only. The shadowing and clinical experiences I have gained really pulled me to MD only.
I understand my mistakes now and will be working on gaining better experiences. I have committed to my current research job until at least the spring of 2026, though, so I won’t be able to get a lot of clinical hours between now and then. I will be working on getting food bank volunteer hours between now and May 2026, but again, with my current schedule, I have my doubts that I will be able to gain a solid number of hours between now and May.
My question is, does it look bad to wait another year before applying again? This is my second gap year in my research position. Are too many gap years frowned upon? At that point, it would be 4 years between then and when I graduated from undergrad. I would likely get a scribe job to gain clinical hours and continue my other volunteering experiences for this extra year.
Is it for any reason a red flag to have applied this cycle and then take another year off before applying in May 2027? Instead of applying concurrent years? Will that affect me negatively in any way? Just to be clear, I’m not upset by the prospect of taking another year! I just want to make sure I am not shooting myself in the foot by doing this.
Thank you for any input.
I applied this cycle and quickly realized I am woefully underprepared and do not have the hours I should have haha. I was originally thinking MD/PhD or maybe PhD two years ago, so I dove into heavy research experience and did not gain the clinical or volunteering hours necessary to apply MD only. The shadowing and clinical experiences I have gained really pulled me to MD only.
I understand my mistakes now and will be working on gaining better experiences. I have committed to my current research job until at least the spring of 2026, though, so I won’t be able to get a lot of clinical hours between now and then. I will be working on getting food bank volunteer hours between now and May 2026, but again, with my current schedule, I have my doubts that I will be able to gain a solid number of hours between now and May.
My question is, does it look bad to wait another year before applying again? This is my second gap year in my research position. Are too many gap years frowned upon? At that point, it would be 4 years between then and when I graduated from undergrad. I would likely get a scribe job to gain clinical hours and continue my other volunteering experiences for this extra year.
Is it for any reason a red flag to have applied this cycle and then take another year off before applying in May 2027? Instead of applying concurrent years? Will that affect me negatively in any way? Just to be clear, I’m not upset by the prospect of taking another year! I just want to make sure I am not shooting myself in the foot by doing this.
Thank you for any input.
