Thinking about switching back to premed

[idemandeuphoria]

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Advice wanted!

So I entered college as a premed. After my freshmen year, I took off a year of school to travel and learn 2 new languages. While I was off of school, I decided to drop my dream of being a doctor and pursue something that wouldn't put me into so much debt (get my PhD and become a professor) for personal reasons. However, now that I'm back to my "real life," I am thinking about pursuing medicine again.

I have a 4.0, studying Neuroscience at a mid-tier private institution. Besides a love for traveling and living in foreign places, I have a lot of research experience. I presented a poster at a regional conference and will give an oral presentation this coming February. I will likely present again in April and will attend a national conference next fall. I am working on data analysis for an upcoming paper that will hopefully get published in the next year or so.

I also work as a chemistry teaching assistant and did volunteer peer tutoring for a long time.

I don't have any current service or clinical experience, but I did some service my freshmen year and abroad. All of my clinical experience (volunteering, internships) was in high school, so none of that is relevant now.

I just need advice about how to pull my application together in the next year and half! Or if you would advise a different route for my career.

 

[gopher1997]

lol nah you're set up well for MD. Just gotta get some clinical exposure to make sure this is what you would like to do and so adcoms know that as well. Keep volunteering, get some clinical experience/volunteering, keep doing well in school, kill the MCAT, and you're all set to go!

Good luck!

edit: also keep up with the research if you're passionate about it. You can do Md/PhD programs as well. You get all the tuition paid for and a stipend, so it's very similar to a PhD as well. But those are usually research driven careers instead of clinical driven careers as far as I know. Anyway, keep up the good work!

 

[Goro]

Advice wanted!

So I entered college as a premed. After my freshmen year, I took off a year of school to travel and learn 2 new languages. While I was off of school, I decided to drop my dream of being a doctor and pursue something that wouldn't put me into so much debt (get my PhD and become a professor) for personal reasons. However, now that I'm back to my "real life," I am thinking about pursuing medicine again.

I have a 4.0, studying Neuroscience at a mid-tier private institution. Besides a love for traveling and living in foreign places, I have a lot of research experience. I presented a poster at a regional conference and will give an oral presentation this coming February. I will likely present again in April and will attend a national conference next fall. I am working on data analysis for an upcoming paper that will hopefully get published in the next year or so.

I also work as a chemistry teaching assistant and did volunteer peer tutoring for a long time.

I don't have any current service or clinical experience, but I did some service my freshmen year and abroad. All of my clinical experience (volunteering, internships) was in high school, so none of that is relevant now.

I just need advice about how to pull my application together in the next year and half! Or if you would advise a different route for my career.

Take a gap year and get in the needed ECs. And get off campus and out of your comfort zone.

 

[idemandeuphoria]

Thank you both!

 

[m1redsox]

Take a gap year and get in the needed ECs. And get off campus and out of your comfort zone.

I somewhat disagree with this (not that I have any authority here). But with all the research that you will write about, I think you could certainly gather the remaining ECs thoughout the next year and a half without taking a gap year! Just join a few volunteer orgs (maybe medical ones), grab some patient hours (shadowing, EMT work, scribing, whatever), do well on the MCAT, and you’ll be fine!
To put this in context, I decided a little over a year and a half ago that I wanted to do medicine (after starting pre-med originally and fooling around with Comp Sci and Chemical Engineering). So, I used my junior year to finish the prereqs, take the MCAT (I did fine but nothing crazy), do some shadowing, become a volunteer scribe, and join a research lab. It was a little hectic, but it can certainly be done in a year and a half! Up to this point, I’ve been accepted into 2 MD programs and multiple DO programs too (and I didn’t have the 4.0 that you have).
My point is, if you work on getting some clinical experience and earning a solid MCAT score, I don’t think you will need to take a gap year. If you don’t get in on the first try, THEN use that gap year (or senior year I guess) for EC buffering.

 

[Goro]

I somewhat disagree with this (not that I have any authority here). But with all the research that you will write about, I think you could certainly gather the remaining ECs thoughout the next year and a half without taking a gap year! Just join a few volunteer orgs (maybe medical ones), grab some patient hours (shadowing, EMT work, scribing, whatever), do well on the MCAT, and you’ll be fine!
To put this in context, I decided a little over a year and a half ago that I wanted to do medicine (after starting pre-med originally and fooling around with Comp Sci and Chemical Engineering). So, I used my junior year to finish the prereqs, take the MCAT (I did fine but nothing crazy), do some shadowing, become a volunteer scribe, and join a research lab. It was a little hectic, but it can certainly be done in a year and a half! Up to this point, I’ve been accepted into 2 MD programs and multiple DO programs too (and I didn’t have the 4.0 that you have).
My point is, if you work on getting some clinical experience and earning a solid MCAT score, I don’t think you will need to take a gap year. If you don’t get in on the first try, THEN use that gap year (or senior year I guess) for EC buffering.

You are correct, Sox. My apologies to the OP for not reading more carefully.