Anyone seeking admission to medical school must put untold hours into assorted extracurricular activities such as research, experiential healthcare jobs and volunteerism, and “community service”—making sure they demonstrate “leadership accomplishment” in several or all of said activities. The medical schools give no clear indication of how much time should be invested in the activities other than providing fifteen spaces in the universal application to describe them in all their glory. The students fret incessantly about the worthiness of the activities they select and their time invested within them. In addition, of course, they must put huge amounts of time and effort into their studies, and more still into preparing for the MCATS. Bidding War When I say untold hours, I mean untold hours. The competition is so stiff that a bidding war has resulted where students feel compelled to log in one, two, four, perhaps six thousand hours in key arenas. Most students, now, are finding that they have to take one to four “gap” years beyond college to reach what they perceive to be …