Medical What can I do about not being able to get clinical exposure for application?

[AlteredScale]

Hello,

I am having a bad time finding clinical experiences. I have applied to scribe positions and they are mostly full staff or seeking full-time scribes. If I waited until May and worked through the summer to apply by August would this be bad? I am already in the midst of a gap year. My weakest point is clinical experience although I have shadowed for 40 hours. I can focus on non-clinical volunteering and research until then.

My top choices are in-state schools of which MD seats ~360 (favors in-state students) and DO seats ~150. My cGPA is 3.73 sGPA 3.66 and have yet to take the MCAT. Would an August/September application kill my chances?

What is your opinion on waiting until the following year to apply? That way you can get the clinical experience you need. A big issue that may arise from this is stating you want to work with patients when you really haven't been exposed to this dynamic yet outside of shadowing which doesn't allow you to work with patients or families directly.

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[Goro]

Here's a harsh truth: your safety, as well as that of your family and society, is more important than your med school plans.

In the mean time, you can work on your nonclinical volunteering. Venues include scribing, food banks, COVID screening or contact tracing, Meals on Wheels, election poll working (normally done by seniors) and whatever your local houses of worship can suggest.

Applying in Aug is fine for both MD and DO; but by mid-Sept, it's too late for MD, except at your state school. The DO cycle is longer and you're even fine by Nov.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I honestly am just having a difficult time accepting a second gap year as I am entering my first in the coming Fall. Part of me is saying it's just one more year, but another just wants to take a big step forward sooner. I guess all I can do is simply be patient, maybe apply to in-state only since they are open to reapplicants too (according to their FAQs) -- but need to make improvements to the application which I would likely be doing either way.

In the long run, it won't matter. Take the time to get your application right, then apply.