Statistics Requirement/MSAR "recommendation"

[B506234]

Hi Everyone!

I am wondering about the statistics requirement/recommendation for med schools.

I graduated from college last year, but I never took a statistics class. I don't know how this fell through the cracks. I see on MSAR that a handful of schools absolutely require a statistics class (including my state school 😵), whereas all of my "target" schools either only "recommend" it, or explicitly indicate that it is not required. (I have Calculus I by AP credit, btw.)

I am starting an IRTA fellowship with the NIH starting June 6 (a full-time, 9-5 lab tech job) for two years, and am wondering what I should do. I initially planned to use this time to explore basic science research (interested in molecular/structural biology), bolster my (clinical) volunteering (a weak point of my application), and focus on my hobbies.

I'm leaning towards taking stats over the summer or the school year at a community college just to get it out of the way. Is this doable with a full-time job + other serious long-term commitments?

Or, should I forego taking stats and hone in on my ECs (specifically clinical experience. I really want to volunteer at a hospice care center and a local church on weekends/weeknights), seeing that most of my target schools only "recommend" statistics.

What do you think? Thanks so much for your input!

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[KnightDoc]

Recommendations are soft requirements in a process in which 60%+ of everyone is unsuccessful. You ignore them at your own risk. Assuming more than enough people to fill the class have followed the recommendation, do you think not doing so makes you more or less competitive with them, all else being equal?

Maybe 2 years at NIH, in addition to the rest of your application, will render this moot, maybe not. Is it worth going to all the effort to apply without it in order to find out? The vast majority of people applying do not ignore mere recommendations.

Whether or not you can handle it with your other commitments is entirely up to you, but it is "recommended" that you take it, at a 4 year school school, sometime before you apply. Otherwise, it will just be one more thing you will need to overcome in a very difficult process under the best of circumstances.