In need of some serious help!

General Premed Discussion
1

Hey Everyone,

I am looking for some serious help! I recently left dental school to pursue medicine and will be applying in the 2021-2022 cycle (taking MCAT on Jan 25th). I am a bit nervous in terms of my competitively as most of my time un undergrad was tailored toward dentistry during the final two years. I volunteered as a dental assistant, and work in two different dental clinics. I do have some experience scribing and have only 40 hours of shadowing a cardiologist. Most of my clinical experience (700+ hrs) was in a dental clinic. I took blood pressure, blood sugar levels, sterilized equipment, took X-rays, charted and volunteered as an assistant. I also did some research and am in about 650 hrs with a couple posters but no pubs.

I am concerned that my application would raise a lot of red flags and give a vibe that I lack commitment. I am really hoping to only have to apply once and was hoping to get some advice on how I could best prepare for these next two gap years, especially before the application cycle.

Should I work at a research lab as a clinical laboratory technician?
Work as a scribe or pharm tech?
Any good clinical experience I should be on the look out for?

Any help would be much appreciated!

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Current scribe here who 100% recommends scribing. In the 5 months in this position, I’ve learned a lot of medical terminology, observed provider-pt interactions, and got to see interesting procedures I otherwise would not have been able to see as a premed.

Sounds like you have some valuable clinical experience even if most of it was in a dental practice. I’m sure working there gave you an understanding of how providers work with patients and their staff.

Volunteer experience is also a plus for med school! I have been volunteering as a research assistant on a study of school meals in CA during the pandemic. I applied for many research positions but was usually rejected because I didn’t have any research experience. Sometimes people are willing to overlook the “experience” requirement if you’re a known entity as/have relevant experience as a volunteer