What would help me in a gap year?

[alt91119]

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Given my current situation, what activities during my gap year would help strengthen my application?

Academics: (sophomore slump with upward trend after)
cGPA: 3.75
sGPA: 3.57 (but straight B's in Physics and Ochem (with a C in Ochem II - should hopefully be taken care of by biochem)
MCAT: TBD

ECs:

1300 hours of research in the same lab over 7 semesters and 3 summers. Became assistant laboratory manager partway through. Won fellowship. Poster presentation at national conference (also presented at undergrad institution). Possible second national conference poster. Possible first author publication (realistically I will only be able to say "first author manuscript in progress" as my PI moves at a snails pace).

100 hours of shadowing over 4 specialties (including primary care) and rural/urban medicine.

250 hours of clinical volunteering over 6 semesters in same hospital. Will continue here over gap year.

Philanthropy chair of premedical fraternity for 1 year. Several small events like picking up garbage in the community, etc.

Member of a hospital's major fundraising board (hard to explain, but I was the only one on the board below 40/without an established career) for 3 semesters. Will continue on gap year.

3 semesters as a biology 1 TA. Received fellowship to implement a teaching project in the class that resulted in a poster presentation at my undergrad institution.

4 summers (1 week each) as a counselor at a camp for children with a specific type of congenital defect. Will continue summer before gap year.

1 week exchange program abroad.

Note: my research, clinical volunteering, summer counselor position, and position on the hospital's board are all for the same specific type of patient population (ie patients with a dysfunction of the same organ system). I have suffered from a disease of this organ system of my entire life and my personal statement will be built off of this. However, perhaps my activities are a bit TOO focused all on the exact same area?

LORs:

Should all be pretty strong, except that 1 of my 2 science letters will likely be weak.
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So my question: what jobs and/or activities during my gap year would increase the competitiveness of my application? I think the biggest weaknesses I have are in my science education (GPA and recs), and in my amount of clinical exposure... but that's just me.

Any advice? I was thinking of possibly trying to get into freelance translation (my major was a language) as a unique "sticking point". Other ideas have been a research position or a nurse aid. Really have no strong feelings at this point.

 

[ace12345]

This is a pretty strong resume. If you do well on the MCAT, you certainly won't need to take time off, but of course it wouldn't hurt. If that is something you're really interested in doing, I would recommend research or a really substantive non-medical experience (Peace Corps, Americorps, etc.). From my experience - which is obviously limited - most other stuff in your time off would not improve your application, and you might as well apply now in that case.

 

[barca4ever]

Wow, good job with all of the activities. I think you have a strong application (volunteer, research, clinical exposure). On top of that, your personal story can make you even more appealing. I would say that the only thing that hold you back right now is your MCAT. I don't think you need to do any extra activities, just focus on what you are doing right now and do well on your MCAT and you are golden. Good job and keep up the good work.

 

[alt91119]

This is a pretty strong resume. If you do well on the MCAT, you certainly won't need to take time off, but of course it wouldn't hurt. If that is something you're really interested in doing, I would recommend research or a really substantive non-medical experience (Peace Corps, Americorps, etc.). From my experience - which is obviously limited - most other stuff in your time off would not improve your application, and you might as well apply now in that case.

The way everything ended up working out in my schedule and plans, I'm going to have to end up taking a gap year (and want to just for one last "year off" anyway). The problem is that I only want to take 1 year off, so things like the peace corps, full bright, etc wouldn't work due to interviews. And I am slightly worried about my MCAT score being good simply due to my poor performance in the prereqs.

 

[ace12345]

The way everything ended up working out in my schedule and plans, I'm going to have to end up taking a gap year (and want to just for one last "year off" anyway). The problem is that I only want to take 1 year off, so things like the peace corps, full bright, etc wouldn't work due to interviews. And I am slightly worried about my MCAT score being good simply due to my poor performance in the prereqs.

Do well on the MCAT and your pre-reqs will be fine. Even with 1 year off, it totally depends on what you're interested in. Could reasonably do something like Americorps (There are tons of programs) or research. If you'd prefer research, try to get in a lab somewhere near you might consider going to med school. I know many people that continued doing research with their previous PIs from time off during medical school, and it gave them a definite (Though of course not necessary) leg up in certain aspects. PM me if you're interested in specifics.

 

[alt91119]

Any other opinions?

 

[Eppur Si Muove]

1. Rock the MCAT
2. GPA is solid overall
- My advice is to get more clinical and volunteer experience, this is the only part of your app that I would say is weak in an important area.
Edit: I think you need more shadowing as well

 

[alt91119]

1. Rock the MCAT
2. GPA is solid overall
- My advice is to get more clinical and volunteer experience, this is the only part of your app that I would say is weak in an important area.
Edit: I think you need more shadowing as well

Is it important for me to do this right now (before I've applied), or are you talking about during my actual gap year? Because if I do it on my gap year, schools won't see it (so it won't help gain interview invites), right?

 

[wuhsabee]

1. Rock the MCAT
2. GPA is solid overall
- My advice is to get more clinical and volunteer experience, this is the only part of your app that I would say is weak in an important area.
Edit: I think you need more shadowing as well

Are you serious? He already has 100 shadowing hours. How much more does he need? 1000? ....SDN.

 

[mimelim]

Are you serious? He already has 100 shadowing hours. How much more does he need? 1000? ....SDN.

You think that you know what it is like to be a doctor after spending about the equivalent of a single hard week of work (as a resident) shadowing? This isn't about "needing", you can get into medical school with a lot less than you should. Doesn't mean that it isn't worthwhile.

 

[ridethecliche]

Yeah, if you're going to spend a year not in school then might as well try to get a few hours shadowing a few specialties to see what it's like.

 

[wuhsabee]

You think that you know what it is like to be a doctor after spending about the equivalent of a single hard week of work (as a resident) shadowing? This isn't about "needing", you can get into medical school with a lot less than you should. Doesn't mean that it isn't worthwhile.

Yes, anything he does in his gap year will only bolster his application since he already has a strong app. I just found it odd that Eppur said that part of his app is weak, when the # of shadowing hours OP currently has is above the average.

 

[Eppur Si Muove]

Yes, anything he does in his gap year will only bolster his application since he already has a strong app. I just found it odd that Eppur said that part of his app is weak, when the # of shadowing hours OP currently has is above the average.

Where did I say that OP shadowing was a weak point? I simply said I think he needs more. Sorry to break it to you but 100 hours isn't a lot at all, that's basically 2 weeks worth of shadowing. You trying to tell me that you have a full grasp what the career entails after 2 weeks of shadowing?..... Sorry, just no..

 

[Eppur Si Muove]

Is it important for me to do this right now (before I've applied), or are you talking about during my actual gap year? Because if I do it on my gap year, schools won't see it (so it won't help gain interview invites), right?

I would start now but also continue during your gap year because you will be asked during your interviews what you are planning on doing for the rest of the year, therefore you can say you are focusing on gaining more experience in the field.

 

[wuhsabee]

Where did I say that OP shadowing was a weak point? I simply said I think he needs more. Sorry to break it to you but 100 hours isn't a lot at all, that's basically 2 weeks worth of shadowing. You trying to tell me that you have a full grasp what the career entails after 2 weeks of shadowing?..... Sorry, just no..

Not every pre-med applies to medical schools with a FULL grasp of what being a doctor is like until they have actually experienced it themselves. It's nearly impossible to know even if you've shadowed 200-300 hours. What are you going to say if a pre-med has 300 hours of shadowing hours under their belt? That they have only experienced 3 weeks' worth of a resident's workload and therefore, that is not a good glimpse of what their full YEAR or entire CAREER of workload is like? 100 hours of shadowing should give a person a rough idea of what they are going into, and of course, more hours wouldn't hurt. It's just the time spent doing this could be used to work on other parts of his application, like taking more post-bac classes to raise his sGPA or studying for his MCAT, or maybe even getting a job as a scribe as that will force him to work 10-12 hours per shift and actively be by the doc's side, which will give him a much better idea of what being a doc is like - also, scribing is essentially PAID shadowing.

1. Rock the MCAT
2. GPA is solid overall
- My advice is to get more clinical and volunteer experience, this is the only part of your app that I would say is weak in an important area.
Edit: I think you need more shadowing as well

I lumped in shadowing with clinical experience, where you said that part of his app was weak.

What I thought about the average amount of shadowing hours for pre-med applicants was based on the following quotes.

I think you'll be fine with 150 hours of active clinical experience, except maybe at Colorado that has high expectations. I'd recommend 50 shadowing hours, with 40 being a minimum. Your nonmedical community service is very low, so spend the extra time beefing that up.

Since your PT assistance continued into the college years (post HS graduation), it's legit to put time working with patients on the application.

Leaders delegate tasks. Do so, and free up some time.

I think 40-50 hours of shadowing is perfectly fine. I shadowed around the same as you and I believe I earned the same out of it as I would have earned from 100 hours.

80-100 is about average at osteopathic programs. I would imagine MD would be similar.

20-30 is enough. Ideally 50+ shadowing is what you should obtain to be in best shape.

Prolly not, just get a couple shifts shadowing a primary care DO and you are golden. Realistically you dont NEED it in the sense that others need it to fulfill some sort of clinical experience. But even so, it shouldnt hurt your app by any means. I am sure you would be able to remark on a couple things you experienced or learned while shadowing a DO (specifically taking the time to really know what a DO does kind of stuff), thats all you need really I would imagine.

I mean again there is no like correct answer. Just shadow in fields that you are genuinely interested in. The idea is so that you know what you are getting in to (by applying to med school) and can relate experiences on your secondary applications and your interviews. There is not necessarily a magic number. Personally I would with breadth rather than depth. Because like lets say you shadow 20 vs 60 hours... like 90% of what you see will be remarkably repetitive within a given specialty. So you will not have really gained much more insight into the field after 60 hours that you would not have already gained from the first 20. So I would try and get like 3-4 solid shifts with a few different docs in a few different specialties. You could go and shadow one doc for 60 hours and then be convinced that you not only hate that specialty, but that you hate medicine altogether. Then you shadow someone else and love it because of the environment or the physician you are shadowing or whatever. At this point in your journey you are not learning how to do their job, you are just exploring. That is why I would think breadth is better than depth.

However, there are several exceptions to this theory:
1) Build a good relationship to get a letter of recommendation - especially one from a DO. This may or may not require more shadowing time with that doc, depending on their mood.
2) The doc actually allows you to do more than shadow. I shadowed a peds doc and since I worked as a med assistant in the past he actually offered for me to take the history and assist with procedures and stuff. This is an extremely rare and extremely rewarding type of shadowing that one would not want to give up. Ironically I had to because of work issues haha, but you get the point.
3) You genuinely have the time to shadow a lot and the doc is awesome and loves having people shadow. Again, dont give this up, especially if you are lacking in clinical experience on your app and you want a killer letter.

So in short, go the 3 x 20 rather than the 1 x 60
imho

I disagree completely with shadowing being a requirement. What's the point of shadowing?? It's not a checkbox...what does shadowing (ideally) achieve?

• You get exposure to patients...even ungrateful ones!
• You interact with physicians and the rest of the medical staff
• You see the back office side medicine which can be riddled with bureaucracy, internal politics, etc.
• One's perspective of medicine, or being a physician, becomes less like House and more like the Office.

If the OP was able to demonstrate through his current experiences and have a LOR from a physician that demonstrates as such, he should be fine.

20 hours is squat in terms of establishing anything other than a superficial exposure to the field. I volunteered minimally (150~ hours at a blood blank because I liked the people). What I did instead was work in a medical office helping with patient intake and paperwork for +2.5k hours. Getting paid. There is absolutely no shame in finding paid positions that provide clinical experience that medical schools. A lot my classmates in medical school were compensated for their clinical hours.

Pure altruism is not the impetus for all schools. They would rather accept strong candidates who know what they're getting into; delayed income, years of hard work, a brokenish system, terrible patients, etc...and still want to be a physician. Not all of us are joining MSF...we are accepted into medical school because we are expected to serve the average American. The average American might I remind you doesn't even have a college degree, doesn't have sufficient long term savings, makes poor decisions on health, and is very unwilling to make lifestyle changes that would help them a heck of lot better than any pill we could give them.

In my interviews, there was never a question about my lack of volunteer experience or shadowing. It was never an issue. Instead they were more curious about the quality of interaction between the patients and physician and I was given very positive feedback in that regard. The no shadowing = red flag equivalency is incredibly misleading.

100 is solid and you did a lot of specialties. Perhaps spend more time in your favorite one of those to show some commitment, but 100 seems to be a golden number here.

50 is probably fine.

50 is a good start.

If you can get more that would be great, but it's probably not needed.

I echo the prior posts.

50 is good.

I think that your physician shadowing exposure is fine with a total of 50 hours of passive observing, which is about the average listed. Hopefully, you also have some active patient experience where you had a chance to interact with sick and injured folks in a helpful way. If acquired through volunteering in a clinical environment, the average is about 150 hours gained over 1.5 years or so.

As long as you're able to discuss your reasons for going into medicine intelligently and you seem to have a grasp on what physicians actually do, no one is going to care about 50 vs. 80 hours of shadowing experience. I've seen applicants at my school (top 10) that have similar amounts of hours. It clearly didn't hamper them.

I've said this a million times, but ultimately the hours are somewhat irrelevant. If you sound like a fool but list 1000 hours of clinical experience on your app, those hours are going to count for nothing. Conversely, if you "only" have 50-100 hours of clinical experience but your decision to become a physician seems well thought-out and realistic, then no one is going to slight you for your relatively "small" number of hours. What's more important is that you took away something from the time, not that you did the time.

 

[Eppur Si Muove]

Not every pre-med applies to medical schools with a FULL grasp of what being a doctor is like until they have actually experienced it themselves. It's nearly impossible to know even if you've shadowed 200-300 hours. What are you going to say if a pre-med has 300 hours of shadowing hours under their belt? That they have only experienced 3 weeks' worth of a resident's workload and therefore, that is not a good glimpse of what their full YEAR or entire CAREER of workload is like? 100 hours of shadowing should give a person a rough idea of what they are going into, and of course, more hours wouldn't hurt. It's just the time spent doing this could be used to work on other parts of his application, like taking more post-bac classes to raise his sGPA or studying for his MCAT, or maybe even getting a job as a scribe as that will force him to work 10-12 hours and actively be by the doc's side.



I lumped in shadowing with clinical experience, where you said that part of his app was weak.

What I thought about the average amount of shadowing hours for pre-med applicants was based on the following quotes.

My opinion is formed from my experience talking to multiple adcoms personally over the years. OP asked for advice on what could be used for strengthening their app during a GAP YEAR (probably after the mcat) and I suggested OP could use more clinical experience- which includes scribing. I'm not sure why you lumped clinical experience with shadowing when I specifically separated them. I never said OP shadowing experience was weak I simply said they could use MORE hours, not "1000 hours," not "200-300 hours," simply MORE. Stop taking simple advice to the extreme. 100 hours is not really a lot there is really no other way to slice it. If your taking a gap year, why would you not want to spend more time shadowing. Your looking at it from a box checking perspective with set number of hours, I'm saying OP should spend more gap year time shadowing or shadowing in other specialties just to gain more insight about the profession, not to get that magic number and check the box off.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

My opinion is formed from my experience talking to multiple adcoms personally over the years. OP asked for advice on what could be used for strengthening their app during a GAP YEAR (probably after the mcat) and I suggested OP could use more clinical experience- which includes scribing. I'm not sure why you lumped clinical experience with shadowing when I specifically separated them. I never said OP shadowing experience was weak I simply said they could use MORE hours, not "1000 hours," not "200-300 hours," simply MORE. Stop taking simple advice to the extreme. 100 hours is not really a lot there is really no other way to slice it. If your taking a gap year, why would you not want to spend more time shadowing. Your looking at it from a box checking perspective with set number of hours, I'm saying OP should spend more gap year time shadowing or shadowing in other specialties just to gain more insight about the profession, not to get that magic number and check the box off.

You're contradicting yourself in the same paragraph. It's okay if you don't want to admit you're wrong. I think anything over 150 hours is a complete waste of time. Everyone knows that shadowing is not a way to truly know what the career entails. I think I applied with somewhere around 70 and it wasn't a problem at all. Even 100 is a lot, but that's what SOMA told me their average is.

 

[mimelim]

You're contradicting yourself in the same paragraph. It's okay if you don't want to admit you're wrong. I think anything over 150 hours is a complete waste of time. Everyone knows that shadowing is not a way to truly know what the career entails. I think I applied with somewhere around 70 and it wasn't a problem at all. Even 100 is a lot, but that's what SOMA told me their average is.

I would strongly disagree. I know numerous students that spent over 300 hours and didn't figure out that medicine wasn't right for them until they hit about then. They are now in other careers and very happy that they didn't go into medicine. I also know many (10-12 off the top of my head) that if they had done more shadowing, they would have potentially realized that they were going down the wrong path and wouldn't be completely miserable with a pile of debt right now.

Would all of them have figured it out via shadowing? No. But, there are things that would have clued them in pretty quick, like hating patients, the hospital, the hours, the paperwork, etc.