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Hi All! I hope all of you are staying inside your homes safe and sound. I wanted to get your two cents on how I could use this time to help building my CV for graduate school application.

I graduated last year and have been taking a gap year (well, two actually) before applying to phd programs. Up until this January, I have been focusing on studying GRE and rebuilding my health. I did make some extra money working a part time job. So in January, I got a research assistant position at a university (FYI, I'm not in the U.S so the December-the end of Feb is winter break here). I was really looking forward to start this job because I really really enjoyed the topic and thought it was a great chance to boost my CV. But my the time the school term started in early March, the entire country ordered shutdown of all school for two weeks. Two weeks became four weeks.... then the schools, including the one I was going to start at, decided to move the class to online for the rest of the semester. Naturally, the labs are shut down and my RA position is indefinitely postponed. 

So now I'm sitting on my couch, thinking what could I do to make myself a better candidate? (FYI 2: I'm 70% sure I will be applying this december).What do you guys think?

Should I look for clinical jobs as getting research jobs are pretty much impossible right now (My field requires human contact)? Not to rub it in anyone's face but the situation in this country is getting a lot better each day. However, the schools are trying to prevent second peak of the infection by cancelling all activities. I commend  them for their actions but this is quite frustrating. 

I've been thinking some ways to use this time of uncertainty. I came up with these so far...

1. Learn some more statistics program in detail (ex: spss, r). I know these two in basic sense. But it's been a year since I haven't touched these and I can see myself spending some time learning these tools in detail. Would having these skills help for grad school?

2. Work at clinical setting. This will be your typical 9-5 job with decent pay. The only drawback is this has always been a second option for me because my field puts much of its emphasis on research rather than having clinical experience. 

3. I don't know, be a couch potato as I have been these few weeks waiting from the professor I was going to work with.

Oh, just a fleeting thought, working on personal statement might be a good idea too.

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