Medical What should my next steps be?

[TheBoneDoctah]

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Hi, I am looking for advice on what directions to go in for my next gap year before applying in 2022. I graduated with a 3.7X cGPA (3.7X sGPA) majoring in Public Health. I’m currently doing a Master’s. I’m registered to take the MCAT in September. I hope for a career that involves continuing clinical research at a teaching hospital.

Questions:

• Would being a clinical research coordinator with direct patient interaction be best? Should I consider scribing/CNA full-time work?
• Do I need more recent shadowing experience than summer 2019?

I am an ORM with family members in medicine so overall, I want to balance my application wherever needed and make it clear I’ve taken time to reflect that this is what I want to do. I put my ECs below to provide a more complete picture.

Graduate School ECs: Teaching Assistant (350 hours), Health Leads Remote Clinical Volunteering (150 hours), Clinical Research (150 hours)

Undergrad ECs: Leader in large service org (1500 hours), Basic Science Research (950 hours), Non-Clinical Volunteer (250 hours), National Pre-Med Society (250 hours), Resident Advisor (380 hours), Physician Shadowing Program (270 hours), Hospital Non-Clinical Volunteer (75 hours), College Health Educator (120 hours)

I really appreciate your time and any advice you can share!

Your GPA doesn't need any more work and you really didn't need any more classes if your goal was medical school.

You have very extensive EC which is impressive. You do still lack clinical experience though with DIRECT patient interaction. If you are going to take another gap year, I would scribe/CNA to get some direct patient contact for sure.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Thank you for the advice! Does more recent shadowing matter? Would scribe/CNA on weekends for 8 hours with a clinical research job be okay or are you suggesting to do them full-time?

What is your goal with the clinical research job? Is it just for cash flow?

 

[GoSpursGo]

The main goal is what I think I'll enjoy the most and feel like is helping me towards my long-term goal of entering academic medicine. Other reasons I'm interested in the clinical research jobs are being able to apply some of the conceptual skills from my Master's, gain skills/learn what its like running clinical trials, and get better at Stata to continue research in medical school. I'm also worried about doing scribe/CNA full time since if I don't get into a medical school after 2 cycles, I was thinking I'd go into epidemiology, so I also saw clinical research as bridging the two. The difference in jobs would be max $20k so in the grand scheme of paying off debt not huge.

I really believe in the advice given though and realize direct patient interaction is lacking. If it would strongly help to scribe/CNA full-time, I would do it; I just want to make sure it would make that big of a difference.

Yes, gaining skills is nice, but at a certain point you do just have to check the boxes. They seem arbitrary, but it is important that a school can tell by your app that you know what you're getting yourself into.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

You need to get the clinical hours...so if you want medical school...you gotta do what you gotta do to get into medical school.