<p>Doing a year or two-worth of research evenly dispersed throughout your college career, not taking time off but enrolling in med school immediately after finishing undergrad.</p>
<p>Doing a year or two-worth of research after you finish your undergrad and while you take a year or two off before applying to med school.</p>
<p>Would adcoms prefer one over the other, or doesn’t it matter?</p>
<p>I’m considering doing it after undergrad and while taking a year or two off because I think this will help me better focus solely on research and therefore increase the chance of yielding great results. Also, by the time I finish undergrad, I’ll have attained greater amount of knowledge and understanding of my field from having taken upper level courses, which I think will also be beneficial for doing research.</p>
<p>Obviously, adcoms would prefer the latter. The amount of research you would do would be incomparable. Let’s do the math: 10 hours of research per week during the school year equates to around 300 hours of research during 1 school year. If you do research as a job, you would accumulate 300 hours of research in roughly 6 weeks.</p>
<p>In general, taking time off and doing anything productive can’t hurt you. However, at the same time, you’ll be delaying getting your MD by 1-2 years. And I honestly don’t think you get that much of a boost. It’s not worth it to take time off to do research if the only reason why you’re doing it is to improve your med school chances.</p>
<p>I don’t think adcoms necessarily prefer the latter. They probably take into account your age when looking at your accomplishments. I don’t think they look at a 30 yo applicant in the same light as a 21 yo applicant.</p>
<p>I never said I’m going to apply at about 30 years old. I’m intending to take no more than 3 years off after I graduate undergrad in 4 years. Even if I take 3 years off, I would still be less than 26. (though I’m not saying that I’m really going to take 3 years off… But there’s a great chance that I’ll take at least a year off)</p>
<p>I was just giving an example. There was actually 35 yo at one of the schools I visited.</p>
<p>My class has people from 19-38 years old. 35 is not really unusual, if you ask me. Uncommon, yes, but not unusual.</p>