Hi all,

I'm a non-traditional 3rd year premed student majoring Neuroscience and Behavior because I'm interested in it. As I approach my application window I'm wondering if I should commit to three-semester-long research program in a subject of my choosing in the field of neuroscience, or if I should commit to a year long clinical reseach opportunity where I would mostly be gaining premedical experience. These are my considerations:

• I'm a combat veteran. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2011-2012 as a Hospital Corpsman (what the Marine Corps calls their combat medics), and I served 10 years in that role overall (seperated in 2020 with before the pandemic).
• I'm really interested in neuroscience research, and this may be the last time I have the freedom to participate in it
• A few physicians have told me that admissions boards will really appreciate my premedical and that I basically have that box checked, but I wonder if I should also get more recent premedical experience in a civilian setting
• If it's true that my military specialty and experience will standout, then wouldn't research make my application more well rounded?

There is also a year long clinical research opportunity that I ended on applying to, and my understanding is that this would check both boxes (research and premedical exp.), but I have no idea if I'll get into that--From what I hear, it's rather competitive

What are your thoughts?