Is Tutoring a Requirement?

[toofastdan]

I realize that several MD/PhD applicants have extensive TA or tutoring experience. This makes sense to me because if you're going into academic medicine, it's likely that you'll teach students in a classroom setting or mentor lab members as a PI. Here's the problem: I didn't TA/tutor during undergrad (mainly due to my early misconceptions about teaching). While I do not have formal experience teaching a class, I do have lots of experience with peer and research mentoring for undergrads.

During my gap year at the NIH, would it be advisable to look for a TA position/MCAT tutoring, or stay more focused on research?

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[inode]

No, you don't need to tutor/TA classes and many MSTP students in my class don't have such experiences. If you enjoy TA'ing and think it'll be a valuable experience for yourself, then, by all means, go for it. Otherwise, stay focused on research.

 

[biobukowski]

I realize that several MD/PhD applicants have extensive TA or tutoring experience. This makes sense to me because if you're going into academic medicine, it's likely that you'll teach students in a classroom setting or mentor lab members as a PI. Here's the problem: I didn't TA/tutor during undergrad (mainly due to my early misconceptions about teaching). While I do not have formal experience teaching a class, I do have lots of experience with peer and research mentoring for undergrads.

During my gap year at the NIH, would it be advisable to look for a TA position/MCAT tutoring, or stay more focused on research?

There are three “Duties” in academic medicine: teaching, research and administration/outreach.
Many “classroom” medical school requirements are actually taught by PhDs!
MD PhDs, ideally, have mostly protected research time, minimal teaching, and take on leadership roles. There is no requirement to tutor, and your research is much much more important. Research is #1 for MSTPs. Work on having a real project with a real publication in the horizon—negotiate this with your PI early on—and rock the MCAT.