Gap year advice? Clinical or research?

[sav_b1]

Hi All,

I'm a senior taking a gap year, and I'm trying to figure out what would fill out my application.
I'm really passionate about research, and I have years of experience in neuro labs (by the time I apply, I will most likely have authorship on one paper, and pending authorship on another). I would really love to work in another lab during my gap year, but I'm worried that the clinical/ shadowing/ volunteering parts of my application are a little thin. I will have about 200 hours of volunteering at a local hospital (100 clinical), but no shadowing. I am planning on shadowing a little bit through my volunteering position. Would it be better for me to take some kind of clinical-type job? Would it really make that much of a difference in my application?
I have around a 3.75 GPA (around 3.6 sGPA), a really good MCAT score, and am shooting for top-tier schools if this information is helpful at all.

Thanks so much!

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[sav_b1]

@gonnif thank you very much!

 

[Dwight Snoot]

Seems to me like you would benefit more from getting some solid patient care experience. I'm sure you will enjoy this as well. Good luck with your application

 

[Welshman]

Can you find a clinical coordinator position? One where you get patient contact and authorship?

Doing research at an academic hospital is great because you get to meet docs of all types and it’s fairly easy to shadow them since you have access to the institution email server.

But that said heed gonnifs advice

 

[Lucca]

u can shadow and do research. Dont necessarily need a full time clinical position for that. You could try to get a clinical research post.

 

[sav_b1]

@Dwight Snoot thank you for the sound advice. I really do enjoy patient care as well.

@Welshman and @Lucca finding a position that combines clinical work and research would be amazing, I'll look for such a position. Thank you!

 

[Welshman]

I get the feeling that they care more about research, once your clinical box has been adequately "checked". My interviews at these schools have all focused on my research experiences/why I want to go into academic medicine.

You seem to have the clinical box "checked", aside from the lack of shadowing. You can always get more hours by volunteering a couple hours a week while working another job. If you're super interested in research, I'd say go for it! It's better to do something you love!

This is all assuming that your focus will be on top 20 schools.

As for checking boxes look into the Essential Premed wisdom thread planes2doc has a great post on it and LizzyM posted about adequate hours for ECs if I recall.

If you're new around here you should 100% read through all of them, I've been lurking these fora for years and I still do

 

[sav_b1]

As for checking boxes look into the Essential Premed wisdom thread planes2doc has a great post on it and LizzyM posted about adequate hours for ECs if I recall.

If you're new around here you should 100% read through all of them, I've been lurking these fora for years and I still do

Thank you SO much, this seems like an incredible resource for info!

 

[sav_b1]

I agree with finding a research job where you can shadow at academic centers/do some clinical volunteering on the side.

Despite what people say about research not being so important, for the top schools, honestly I get the feeling that they care more about research, once your clinical box has been adequately "checked". My interviews at these schools have all focused on my research experiences/why I want to go into academic medicine.

You seem to have the clinical box "checked", aside from the lack of shadowing. You can always get more hours by volunteering a couple hours a week while working another job. If you're super interested in research, I'd say go for it! It's better to do something you love!

This is all assuming that your focus will be on top 20 schools.

Thank you!! I’m looking into shadowing now, and I think with a little work I can make sure that these requirements are completed!