Research vs Scribing To Improve As Re-Applicant?

[Diverdude93]

Hi all. So I applied to 10 schools, all allopathic, during the 2017-2018 cycle. I got 2 interviews, which both resulted in waitlists and ultimately rejections. I am taking a year off and trying to improve my application, but need help deciding what to do during the upcoming year. Here was my 2017-2018 app. I think my problem during the first cycle was my lower undergraduate GPA (I applied during my SMP so most schools did not see the grades for this), my lack of research and lack of non-clinical volunteering (among others, perhaps). I am a non-Hispanic white male (aka non-URM)

Undergrad - Biology Major, Hispanic Studies Minor

cGPA - 3.52
sGPA - 3.3
both have strong upward trend

Graduate - SMP for Medical Physiology - DONE DURING CYCLE (aka most schools did not see these grades)

GPA - 3.83

MCAT - taken twice

July 2016 - 505 (127, 126, 125, 127)
May 2017 - 512 (127, 128, 127, 130)

Extracurriculars - (with hours)

Men's Swim and Dive team - 4 years in college, Co-captain junior/senior year, voted Co-MVP (1000 hours)
Student Athlete Advisory Committee - 3 years in college, Vice-President senior year (160 hours)
Global Medical Brigades - 3 years, Vice-President senior year (775 hours)
General Biology Lab Teaching Assistant - 3 years, boss wrote good LOR (420 hours)
Hospital Volunteer - general, during summers during college (270 hours)
Volunteer Clinical Translator at free clinic in college town (30 hours)
Physician Shadowing - with orthopedic anesthesiologist (10 hours) and rural ER doctor (70 hours)
Lifeguarding - during summers in college (1100 hours)


Since my last application, I finished the SMP (and did well), which will hopefully address the grades. I also have spent this summer doing glioblastoma research with my former SMP program director, and am volunteering teaching ESL to recent immigrants to my community.

However, my summer research internship is finishing up, and I am applying to jobs. I am trying to decide now between continuing research and being a scribe. I already have 2 job offers. One is as a scribe for a primary care doctor that serves patients on Medicare. The other is as a research assistant at a university hospital, researching psychiatric genetics. I personally am inclined to take the research position, as it pays MUCH better and I think will be a little more interesting than scribing (I say this only because I have friends who work for the same scribe company and say they usually don't see many exciting cases, given most patients are geriatric).

I know schools like both research and clinical experience, and I am guessing most schools would prefer the scribing. I am wondering if pursuing research instead would really put me at THAT much of a disadvantage, given my clinical experience during undergrad.

If you guys have advice on what I should do, or other advice to improve my app before next cycle, I would really appreciate it. Thank you!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

How badly would the extra pay help your life?
one way or another, you need more clinical time.

 

[THEBACKANDFORTH]

You need more clinical experience. I would strongly consider adding some DO schools. Cautionary note--do not play the rural card unless you are rural.

 

[Diverdude93]

How badly would the extra pay help your life?
one way or another, you need more clinical time.

The research pay is 1.5x scribing. With scribing I wouldn't be making enough to live off of (thanks to student loans), and would need to get a second job.

Are there additional ways to get more clinical experience, like additional shadowing (say I was able to get another 100+ hours before my next app) or more hospital volunteering? Or would not scribing truly be a large blow to my app, given what else is on my resume?

 

[Diverdude93]

You need more clinical experience. I would strongly consider adding some DO schools. Cautionary note--do not play the rural card unless you are rural.

My thought was just to show that I have shadowed different physicians in different types of medicine, not so much "play the rural card", so I will be careful of that thank you. Do you really think my application, with the given improvements, is not competitive enough for allopathic? I ask as DO means I would need to start shadowing a DO, and I have heard that DO schools often cost more than MD. If my chances at allopathic are unlikely then I need to start preparing for osteopathic.

 

[lysslyss321]

I would recommend the scribe job. I didn’t have a ton of research experience coming into medical school, and I think it’s important to at least have something to talk about or express your interest in it, but scribing helped me nail my interviews. You understand so much more about medical care through scribing; you learn about the terminology, billing, patient care, etc. I found these experiences most helpful with MMI styles which seem to be increasing. The pay was definitely not great, but I saved money living at home for a year and took on a second part time job. I felt that I was also able to use this to my advantage during interviews because I was like look, I spent a year getting all this clinical experience while also doing something I enjoyed part time (which was nannying) and setting myself up financially.

 

[THEBACKANDFORTH]

My thought was just to show that I have shadowed different physicians in different types of medicine, not so much "play the rural card", so I will be careful of that thank you. Do you really think my application, with the given improvements, is not competitive enough for allopathic? I ask as DO means I would need to start shadowing a DO, and I have heard that DO schools often cost more than MD. If my chances at allopathic are unlikely then I need to start preparing for osteopathic.

You're competitive for allo, certainly. Maybe a shoo-in for your state school--depends. But add a reasonable number of upper tier DOs, especially if you dont want to wait around another year.

 

[dial1010usa]

My thought was just to show that I have shadowed different physicians in different types of medicine, not so much "play the rural card", so I will be careful of that thank you. Do you really think my application, with the given improvements, is not competitive enough for allopathic? I ask as DO means I would need to start shadowing a DO, and I have heard that DO schools often cost more than MD. If my chances at allopathic are unlikely then I need to start preparing for osteopathic.

Its still not late for DO if you apply asap this week. Why waste another year when you get into next cycle?

 

[DNC127]

Its still not late for DO if you apply asap this week. Why waste another year when you get into next cycle?

Nah. apply MD and DO next year OP. Just apply to like 30 MD and 10 DO. I think if you would have applied 20MD last cycle you would have gotten in. 2/10 interview to app ratio is pretty good all things considered.

 

[nimitz]

OP why not take both jobs if the scheduling will allow for it? It sounds like you’re not planning on taking any classes, and the money would be useful, so why not kill two birds with one stone?

 

[Doc_Ock]

Scribing>>>>>>>>>research. Unless you're going top-tier or MD/PhD most schools really don't care tbh, they'd much rather see you interacting with physicians/patients. Speaking from personal experience.

 

[OneJob]

I would also encourage you to take the scribe position. The clinical experience you gain from that will help you throughout all stages of your medical education, from getting interviews to having experiences to talk about during your interviews to understanding the basic science and clinical science portions of medical education. The students in my class who were scribes really stood out from those of us who weren't, almost across the board. Research, for as much as I love the lab, just doesn't make that much difference for your application.

 

[QofQuimica]

OP, I'm obviously biased, because I liked research so much that I went and got an entire PhD. But scribing sounds pretty deathly dull to me, and it sounds like it doesn't excite your passion either. I don't know much about psych genetics, but if you gave me the choice, I'd much rather discuss psych genetics research with someone in an interview than hear about all the amazing changes that got made in your hospital's last Epic update (unless improving hospital EMRs is really your thing, in which case....maybe spending more time with the psych folks is a good idea!). No, but in all seriousness, I'd say to go with the research job because it's what you really want to do, and then you should also continue your hospital volunteering and shadowing on weekends to continue adding clinical hours. Oh, and keep up the medical interpreting gig if you can. That's a really nice skill to have/highlight on your app, especially if you've had formal interpreter training.

For those who think that scribing gives people an edge up in medical school, I don't think it does. Keep in mind, you can't actually touch a patient as a scribe. Not to mention that while scribing might be a great learning experience if you work with a doc who likes to teach, it can also be a total grind if you get a doc who basically sees you as a glorified assistant and never talks to you except to tell you what to do. Not to say that people shouldn't ever scribe. I'm sure some people have a great experience doing it, and for those who do, good on you. But scribing is not the get into (or through) med school free card that some here are making it out to be, either. Speaking only for myself of course, I have to say that I'd kind of be rolling my eyes inside a little if some premed started telling me how scribing inspired them to go into medicine. :-/

 

[deleted851433]

Like the person above I'm going to recommend research experience. It's something you don't have a lot of. It would make you seem well rounded, you can demonstrate academic interest & basic science knowledge. My colleagues who did undergrad research tended to discuss their experience at length during their interviews. You have plenty of clinical experience through shadowing, interpreting, volunteering. I would like to add also that it's not just "top tier schools" that value research.

 

[lalalaaaaaa]

My friends in med school who scribed had great experiences that are relevant to medical school. They tended to be better at writing patient notes and presenting H&Ps in my experience. It's also a great way to work with physicians and get a LOR. Apply DO next time especially since you don't want to do research. Shadow a DO to get experience and a DO LOR if that's something DO apps need.

Make sure your PS is strong and read by many people. Make sure your LOR are strong. Apply broadly.

What was your school list before?

 

[Blanky]

Research seems to be super important at the top end schools. Scribing is going to be better. You will get exposure to patients and physicians. This will reinforce that you want to do what you watch doctors do all day and will give you stories to talk about which is a huge plus. You could mix in some volunteer work or maybe do some teaching to children in underserved areas.