Looking for some advice...

RE: what to do during a gap year between undergrad and med school.

  1. get a full time job. There are clinical and research positions that many med school hopefuls do during their gap year. But the job doesn’t have to medically or clinically related.

  2. work part time; volunteer part time to improve your ECs

  3. volunteer full time to improve your ECs

  4. AmeriCorp, Peace Corp, Teach for America, any NGO

D2 worked for 2 years as a program manager for a neuro-psychiatry research group at a med school. Her fellow med students did all of the following: taught middle or high school; worked as a nutrition and diabetes educator with the Indian Health Service; worked as a medical scribe for a primary care group; worked as a medical assistant for a primary car doctor; worked the front office for a medical practice; worked as an animal care technician in a research lab at the VA; worked as a BME at a National Laboratory; worked as a MCAT tutor while volunteering with a science enrichment program for middle school girls; worked as a community organizer for a public health organization; NIH research fellow; full time on-site organizer in central Africa for an international NGO; military service. Plus a wide assortment of hourly wage jobs.