Any advice for gap year?

[hahabobe]

Hi you all very nice people,

I am taking 2 years off and applying during the 2023-2024 cycle! I would like to know if there is anything else I can do to improve my application during this year, especially about the leadership part. My plan wasn't for MD until my Junior year, so everything started later on during college. Thank you all!

Here is what I have done and will do as of primary application date
will dos: things I would do from now until 6/1/2023
projected: things I would do from 6/1/2023 until 6/1/2024

cGPA 3.962 (3.954 at first college and 3.970 at second college) and sGPA 3.945
MCAT 522 (133/127/132/130), might retake 1/2023 to improve the 127
Permanent resident (international or MI resident, depends on school's policy)
East Asian, Chinese
OH liberal arts, then MI flagship. will do: MA education and certification

Clinical experience (non-volunteering only):
1. will do: Medical Assistant externship (120 hrs)
2. will do: Medical scribe/clinical information specialist (I started today! ~1800 hrs - 2300 hrs)
3. projected: Medical Assistant (~1500 hrs) (I would quit scribe during secondary application and work as MA after)

Research experience and productivity (non-volunteering only):
1. Organic/drug synthesis and biochemistry (~400 hrs)
2. Organic/drug synthesis and molecular imaging (~900 hrs)

Non-clinical volunteering:
1. Food delivery (~60 hrs - biweekly over 2 years)
Soup Kitchen (~30 hrs - over 4 years)
2. Face mask production for neighbors (~80 hrs - summer over 2 months)
3. Crisis Text Line (~50 hrs)
will do: Crisis Text Line (~300 hrs),
projected: Crisis Text Line (~300 hrs)

Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, leadership, teaching, etc):
1. TA for biology lab (~60 hrs)
2. Tutor for chemistry and biology department in college (~50 hrs)
3. English Tutor (~ 300 hrs over 4 years)
4. Member in clubs (chemistry, cooking, and AMSA)
5. Event planning coordinator of CSA (1 year)
6. Started a science education channel on Chinese Tiktok

Relevant honors or awards:
Several school awards, nothing that significant.

Anything else not listed you think might be important:
Speak native Chinese and 3 other Chinese dialects (fluent in speaking, writing, and stuff)

I don't know what else I can do. Honestly every applicants seem very prepared and started early on, so I don't know how much of a disadvantage I am in currently. But yea, leadership and activities are my weakest links, have no idea how to make that up.

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[chilly_md]

No need to retake a 522 MCAT unless it expires. Do in-person non-clinical volunteering like how you did at a soup kitchen as opposed to a text line service. 300 hours helping those less fortunate would go much further than something digital from the comfort of your own home.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

You already have an extremely competitive application. If I were you, I'd do whatever I thought I would enjoy the most/ learn the most from.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[housestaffhustle]

Agree with the above, you sound very qualified! Anything additional would be icing on the cake. A few things to consider...

• As stated above, retaking the MCAT may not be worth the effort. You also risk doing worse than you did before. it's possible for anyone to have an off day.
• You're definitely racking up a lot of clinical hours as a medical assistant and scribe, but perhaps you can find additional shadowing opportunities outside of the specialties you're working for. Definitely encourage getting paid for your time, but when you're working you may be unintentionally limiting your experience in some ways.
• If you live near a hospital/med school you anticipate applying to consider trying to find a shadowing/research opportunity with an attending there. You never know who will be able to help you out or have connections when application season comes around.
• For leadership experiences I think they are mostly looking for meaningful experiences. If you can write well about how a few key experience have impacted you, I think you'll do well. Having additional leadership roles in student groups may be helpful just to add quantity, but make sure it's quality you're focusing on. If you're not on campus anymore, look for local community groups (YMCA, church, etc).
• Also agree with the above about doing what you enjoy. Medicine is a long path and you'll need hobbies to stay sane. Plus interviewers get bored of doing interviews too. Some of the best interviews are ones where you happen to connect on a shared hobby. Time spent outside of medicine is not time wasted.

Take care of yourself and best of luck!

 

[ujsc]

Overall you have fine stats and accomplishments, better than most. You seem down to earth which will come across on your interviews.

Have you considered getting training as an EMT for a more hands on EM like clinical experience instead of being a scribe which is also a paid position. For leadership opportunities, try chairing a fundraiser for medical cause or spearhead a service related activity. DONT retake MCAT if you can avoid it and best wishes to a future doctor! Never forget a doctor purpose is to serve, treat and educate patients

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You really have a great resume for an application, but I want to get an idea why you are concerned with leadership. You are a bit all over the board with your intended masters in education and your activities. If anything is coming through to me, your leadership concerns are related to what sounds like a lack of self-confidence and a desire to get a perfect application as opposed to a solid, desirable one.

The major theme I'm picking up from what you provided is being a teacher when it comes to serving others (counting hours and activities) and that's where your accomplishments are. Put you in a situation where you might not be as comfortable... I'm not so sure. This lack of self-confidence seems to be what explains the desire to get a masters and retake the MCAT over 2 gap years... and hence a concern with your "leadership".

Get connected with the American Medical Women's Association, APAMSA, and SNMA at the schools closest to you.

 

[hahabobe]

You really have a great resume for an application, but I want to get an idea why you are concerned with leadership. You are a bit all over the board with your intended masters in education and your activities. If anything is coming through to me, your leadership concerns are related to what sounds like a lack of self-confidence and a desire to get a perfect application as opposed to a solid, desirable one.

The major theme I'm picking up from what you provided is being a teacher when it comes to serving others (counting hours and activities) and that's where your accomplishments are. Put you in a situation where you might not be as comfortable... I'm not so sure. This lack of self-confidence seems to be what explains the desire to get a masters and retake the MCAT over 2 gap years... and hence a concern with your "leadership".

Get connected with the American Medical Women's Association, APAMSA, and SNMA at the schools closest to you.

The reason I'm asking about the leadership is because on my target school's website they say 91% of the matriculates have 5+ leadership position. I have no personal interest in being a leader of a club or organization nor work in administration/management; I might have a misunderstanding that leadership is a soft requirement. I teach a lot just because I am competent to, and figured I can help others with my education. And that goes for all things I did, I did them because I can and think it would help others. It took me a while, until recently, to find out about having a more concentrated interest. It is also very true that I lack confidence and that is just how I was educated as a kid.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

The reason I'm asking about the leadership is because on my target school's website they say 91% of the matriculates have 5+ leadership position. I have no personal interest in being a leader of a club or organization nor work in administration/management; I might have a misunderstanding that leadership is a soft requirement. I teach a lot just because I am competent to, and figured I can help others with my education. And that goes for all things I did, I did them because I can and think it would help others. It took me a while, until recently, to find out about having a more concentrated interest. It is also very true that I lack confidence and that is just how I was educated as a kid.

Have you reached out specifically to the admissions staff at the school about this? Leadership is about managing responsibility and motivating others, not positions or titles. I suggest you cater to more than just your dream school but realize if they find you as a valuable future member of the community, they will overlook that deficiency. Honestly, I would want to know if the dream school would help you with more leadership opportunities, especially since AAPI females are generally less successful in getting leadership roles. That's why I suggested the networking organizations. If most of the people coming in have 5 or more leadership roles, maybe they don't do as much leadership development, and you wind up not getting those skills developed, further holding you back. In other words, your dream school may not be the best fit for you.

Who are your mentors? How many are writing your letters?

 

[hahabobe]

Have you reached out specifically to the admissions staff at the school about this? Leadership is about managing responsibility and motivating others, not positions or titles. I suggest you cater to more than just your dream school but realize if they find you as a valuable future member of the community, they will overlook that deficiency. Honestly, I would want to know if the dream school would help you with more leadership opportunities, especially since AAPI females are generally less successful in getting leadership roles. That's why I suggested the networking organizations. If most of the people coming in have 5 or more leadership roles, maybe they don't do as much leadership development, and you wind up not getting those skills developed, further holding you back. In other words, your dream school may not be the best fit for you.

Who are your mentors? How many are writing your letters?

Thank you so much for your insight! I would check out the networking organizations to see if I can get myself some opportunities there to better train my leadership skills. My dream school is my undergraduate institution's medical school; there is no particular reason why I want to go there other than it is close to some distant family members (I moved out from my family at a young age and would rather be have some family after all these years). I guess we all try to make up what we miss during childhood the best we can. But I can see how it would be a disservice if they don't focus on leadership training since everyone is well-fitted prior to matriculation. Like you said previously, leadership is to carry responsibility, the school itself recognize a board category of experience as leadership. Their explanation was quite vague as in "any form of activity that is collaborative in a organized fashion" something like that, they also told me volunteering in Crisis Text Line for example can be count as leadership. This is a little too confusing, I think I might just do what I want to; it sounds wrong for me to participate in events with no care for the sake of application...

Regarding to my PIs and letters, my first mentor is an assistant professor in my liberal arts school, and the second is a research faculty at my state undergrad's medical school. The second mentor has like a 77 H-index and is "famous" in radiology according to him and my colleagues, but we are not that close: the lowest tier is post-doc and I'm the only undergrad, plus our lab has 4 cores... Still going to tell him to write it though just because his words would mean a lot to the admission. They both, plus my previous professor/now post-doc (we "transferred" from liberal arts to the state school together and he got me into the second lab), are going to write letters for me. Should be very good ones too because they are all super nice to me, and also because I have no name recognition on any publications. I would also get one from the nurse practitioner that I work for and maybe my manager if needed. I do have other options but they are all college professors... I guess does that look like a balanced rec selection?

Thanks so much for reading =)

 

[chilly_md]

Regarding to my PIs and letters, my first mentor is an assistant professor in my liberal arts school, and the second is a research faculty at my state undergrad's medical school. The second mentor has like a 77 H-index and is "famous" in radiology according to him and my colleagues, but we are not that close: the lowest tier is post-doc and I'm the only undergrad, plus our lab has 4 cores... Still going to tell him to write it though just because his words would mean a lot to the admission. They both, plus my previous professor/now post-doc (we "transferred" from liberal arts to the state school together and he got me into the second lab), are going to write letters for me. Should be very good ones too because they are all super nice to me, and also because I have no name recognition on any publications. I would also get one from the nurse practitioner that I work for and maybe my manager if needed. I do have other options but they are all college professors... I guess does that look like a balanced rec selection?

Thanks so much for reading =)

You typically do not want to send more letters than is required. Most schools ask for 2 science LORs and 1 from a non-science faculty member from classes you took. You can have an additional PI or research letters, though you may want to only send the radiology mentor one to your own medical school. A letter that is generic and does not add anything will not help at other schools, no matter how big the name is on the signature line.