Apply upcoming cycle or take gap year?

[bryan5666]

Everyone I've asked has been telling me to take a gap year due to my lack of clinical experience and I compare my stats and EC to everyone here on reddit and SDN and its been pretty discouraging since everyone seems to have 1000+ hours of clinical on here, so I wanted to get everyones thoughts as to if I should apply this upcoming cycle or just hold off and take a gap year to work on my clinical hours.

currently 3rd year undergrad from T50 school. ORM.

GPA:3.82, sGPA: 3.78

MCAT: 517

Research: will have around 2000-2500 hours and presented in several posters

clinical volunteering: Will be around 250 hours by the time I apply.

nonclinical volunteering: tutored ESL learners for 1 year, volunteered at food bank for 4 years (around 300 hours)

Shadowing: 32 hrs in pediatrics and 16hrs in family medicine

Leadership: 3 years of leadership in chemistry fraternity and the ESL tutoring

Any input or suggestions would be much appreciated!

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[Mr.Smile12]

That's a lot of research hours. Why not research or PhD? The clinical hours are okay but (as you note) are a little on the light side. What makes you think medicine is your purpose?

 

[LunaOri]

Looks like it could be sufficient to apply without a gap year. What is your clinical volunteering? Do you have real exposure to patients?

 

[mingo]

I hear this all the time that quality is much more important than quantity. They also emphasis a lot on consistency. At the end of the day, they will look to see if you have put effort into learning what it's like to be a physician over a period of time. It also depends on what year you are currently. If you don't want to take a gap year but also want to increase your hour, you can also volunteer in the spring semester and summer. You still have time!

If you crammed all of your shadowing in one summer and that's it, I would say it's not sufficient. But if you consistently volunteered, shadowed every other week over a course of 1-2 years, then I would say that it shows persistent.

I guess you can ask yourself the question of are these clinical experience (shadowing, volunteering, working) that you already have meaningful? Did you learn from this? If you were asked about your experiences during an interview, would you be able to talk about it?

I would discourage you looking at it with the mindset that "oh I need x amount of hours on my resume to be competitive". The admission committee knows that Pre-Med students are busy, they won't hold it against you. They know that you're human, and that you might have other obligations that prevented you to get 1000+ hours of "clinical experience".

You can also get jobs (if your schedule permits) that don't require certifications like ophthalmic tech or caregiver! (that's what I do). You can couple working as an ophthalmic tech as interacting with patients, learning clinical skills, as well as shadowing an ophthalmologist = clinical experience. Caregiver would translate to direct patient care if those you take care have Alzheimer/ Dementia, who are incapable of taking care of themselves = clinical experience.

The possibilities are truly endless.

Hope this helps!

 

[LindaAccepted]

Everyone I've asked has been telling me to take a gap year due to my lack of clinical experience and I compare my stats and EC to everyone here on reddit and SDN and its been pretty discouraging since everyone seems to have 1000+ hours of clinical on here, so I wanted to get everyones thoughts as to if I should apply this upcoming cycle or just hold off and take a gap year to work on my clinical hours.

currently 3rd year undergrad from T50 school. ORM.

GPA:3.82, sGPA: 3.78

MCAT: 517

Research: will have around 2000-2500 hours and presented in several posters

clinical volunteering: Will be around 250 hours by the time I apply.

nonclinical volunteering: tutored ESL learners for 1 year, volunteered at food bank for 4 years (around 300 hours)

Shadowing: 32 hrs in pediatrics and 16hrs in family medicine

Leadership: 3 years of leadership in chemistry fraternity and the ESL tutoring

Any input or suggestions would be much appreciated!

As @Mr.Smile12 's question implies. It seems like you are more interested in a research role than a clinical role based on what you wrote. Any chance you could get more clinical exposure going forward? Could you perhaps invest some of the time you spend in research in a serious clinical commitment? You have time to do so before you apply and to carry it forward into the following year. It doesn't seem like you want to do a gap year.

 

[Goro]

You're ready to apply, but strongly suggest avoid coming off like a lab rat, and try to maximize your clinical exposure in the coming year.

That does NOT mean clinical research venues, either.

 

[milesofmedicine]

I applied to school with similar stats + ec this cycle and had good results. most important thing is how you frame your experiences. Research will be favored by more-research heavy schools, too. Try and relate your research to your aspirations in medicine.