General Should I postpone graduation for an internship?

[MusicDOc124]

Hello,

I will be obtaining clinical research over one summer, but fear it won't be enough. (12 weeks 30 hours/week). There is an internship that connects students with PIs associated with the medical school.

The requirement to be eligible is to have 1 undergraduate year remaining at the end of the internship period. I was planning to take a gap year either way. Is it in my best interest to push off graduation in order to remain eligible for the internship or should I move forward and miss this opportunity to pursue other ones outside research?

What should I be learning from research, besides the specifics of what I do as an intern?

Can’t really advise on this without a bigger picture. Have you taken MCAT? What are your GPAs? ECs? Volunteering/leadership? Current research experience/publications/presentations? Current clinical experience/exposure? Shadowing?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MusicDOc124]

Either way, I plan on taking a gap year in order to have more time for the MCAT, increase my GPA, and increase my hours involved in meaningful extracurriculars.

I cannot say much about the MCAT, besides that I have planned out how I will approach it. That being said, I understand that means nothing without the work and results.

GPA: 3.72, but I display an upward trend. Going from doing poorly in introductory biology to performing well in courses such as advanced bio, physics, and organic chem.

ECs:
- ED Volunteering/Shadowing/Student Clinic = ~280 hours
- Non-clinical volunteering = ~200 hours

- Leadership: Chemistry Lab TA 2 semesters (Grade lecture exams, lab reports, lecture students over new labs and troubleshoot problems arising within the lab)

- Current Research: nothing, but over this coming summer 3 months of 30-40 hours per week. A publication nor poster presentation has been mentioned and may not be likely. I am enrolling eligible patients into the research program, collecting pedigrees, and using the EMR system. There was an opportunity to be on the lab side of the research, but that is not confirmed.

Is the Potential position paid?

If you delayed graduation, how would that work where you go to school - would you need to continue to take classes at all? Would you just simply not apply for graduation and wait? Is there anything you must pay the schools to be maintained as a student even if you’re not taking classes for the year?

Are there no other research possibilities? No professors or mentors doing any projects you could work on with them?

Personally I’d rather graduate on time and seek out other post-graduation opportunities, as well as spend some time doing things I like as you will not have a lot of time once school starts.

The potential Benefit, depending on how the school works this and your plan/lack of plan for taking classes, could keep you in deferred status for paying any loans, which depending on your view could be a good or bad thing.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Let's start over.

I will be obtaining clinical research over one summer, but fear it won't be enough. (12 weeks 30 hours/week). There is an internship that connects students with PIs associated with the medical school.

The requirement to be eligible is to have 1 undergraduate year remaining at the end of the internship period. I was planning to take a gap year either way. Is it in my best interest to push off graduation in order to remain eligible for the internship or should I move forward and miss this opportunity to pursue other ones outside research?

What should I be learning from research, besides the specifics of what I do as an intern?

If this is a summer research internship, it doesn't require you to take a leave of absence from the university if you haven't graduated yet. Second, what do you mean by "clinical research"? If it's a grant-funded opportunity elsewhere, it's in the summer, so it's no big deal.

By all means, I would do it. You can schedule yourself smartly enough that if you wanted to go to that specific medical school, you can walk into an admissions office or a student services office and ask them directly about the application process, the curriculum, etc. (if they allow visitors). I don't know whether your research program would make those connections -- usually they don't -- but being around some clinicians who may teach medical students, especially in pre-clerkship or during clerkship is a great networking opportunity. If you do really well in your clinical research, your assigned supervisor may also be a fount of good advice or know people who could be (like current med students rotating in the lab?). To that end, what should you be learning from research? You should learn about your ability to read scholarly literature (very important), problem-solve, run laboratory protocols, critique presentations, and understand interpersonal team dynamics (good and bad) in a manner that allows you to enjoy learning.

If you plan on having a gap year, then this experience doesn't throw the schedule off. You may have to plan on when you'd take your MCAT, but if you won't do it this summer, it's a moot point. Take this experience and get your chance to see the medical school being run on a day-to-day basis as opposed to it being "cleaned up" during recruitment visits and second-looks.