To be honest, my prehealth advisors aren't very helpful, they're not supportive of anyone not taking gap years, and they basically just sit there and try to convince you to take a gap year (regardless of how strong your application is), even though I feel like it really isn't necessary in my case.
I don't know where you attend uni, but I would want to know why you need a gap year too. Over half of matriculants have taken at least 1 gap year to rack up many more hours of experience. That's the arena you will be entering, and I'm not entirely sure that the way you push your exposure to underresourced populations would be stronger with a year where you are focused there instead of being a TA. There is a decent argument about being too concerned about "perfect" over "good."
I could also be jaded and say that the prehealth team wants to keep their "marketing" going, where most of their advisees get into medical school without a gap year (if that's what they like to say to parents and gunner premeds who likely attend your uni).
That said, I know many prehealth advisors at Ivy+ institutions who adapt to advisees' plans to take a gap year, even if they have the GPA and MCAT score... as long as you don't let the MCAT score expire in your plans.
... There are several stories (I won't go into detail here) from my shadowing and MA experiences that show how valuable physicians can be to people's lives. Part of the narrative i want to tell is how i want to become a practicing physician while also doing some sort of teaching (ideally teaching at med school), and I feel like my extensive background of being a TA for several classes over a long period of time (as well as doing other tutoring), can help support this narrative. I find immense value in education, so it is something I want to contribute to when I am a physician (though I don't want it to come off as "I want to be a teacher and a physician on the side i guess".
I'm setting aside my usual "why not a Ph.D." argument. Yes, don't give us a theme that you want to be a teacher who happens to be a doctor... and telling a group of academic physicians you want to be a doctor who teaches isn't going to impress. Some of us might roll our eyes off-camera.
As you probably know, teaching, tutoring, and mentoring are a dime a dozen for premed applicants. Yes, you are entering a niche in higher education, and everyone will love to teach. Academic medicine is more than just teaching, and faculty members need to see you as someone they want to teach and mentor... but after they know you can "do the doctor part" of caring for others professionally.
We don't have your application to show how you supported this vision through your activities or letters, but I wonder whether your research focused on teaching assessments, curriculum evaluation, or educational technologies (not just AI). If you did wet lab research, your statement doesn't hold much water; most of us bench researchers don't like being bothered with teaching.
Check out which schools on the list give opportunities for you to better understand the big challenges facing medical education. Maybe a master's in anatomy or a MEd. Every school should give you some chance to become a tutor to another student once you earn enough trust, but you can't come off as being a bookworm. Med school is too isolating without real effort. (Check out if there are rock climbing "clubs" among students; it's popular enough.)
For the teamwork part, I'd have to agree with that-- none of my activities have a strong teamwork aspect. The closest thing I could think of is my volunteering at the foodbank, but again, not the strongest teamwork. For the comfort zone part, I think that a lot of the teaching and being an MA was initially out of my comfort zone, as I am fairly introverted towards people I don't know well. Over time, I was able to gain that confidence, and now in those situations, I am a lot more outgoing, even to completely new people (I hope this doesn't give a bad look though). Thanks for taking the time to help, and sorry for the long response
You will be confronted with many questions focused on teamwork and interpersonal skills (see the AAMC competencies). In one of our recent HPSA surveys, questions focused on teamwork are among the most queried topics on interviews, and you may have to participate in group interviews or tasks. Your peers in the brand-name pool will likely have some campus leadership or community leadership roles (more than 1 year) to discuss with interviewers or leverage in small group discussions.
