Has anyone ever completed all undergraduate requirements in three years and successfully started medical school the following year? I am an incoming college freshman and when I was looking at my coursework, I realized that I had enough AP credits to allow me to finish in three years with pre-med requirements. However, I am not sure if this is a wise decision. The main reason I would want to finish in three years would be money as the undergrad schools I am considering are very expensive . My primary concern is that I will not be able to develop meaningful extracurriculars in three years for medical school. If anybody has relevant experience or advice, it would be much appreciated!
Finishing college in 3 years will put you at a disadvantage when applying to med school. It means you will only have only 2 years to develop the necessary ECs since the med school application process takes a full year. (You need to apply the summer after your junior year–or in your case after your 2nd year of college-- to matriculate directly into med school without a gap year.)
Can it be done? Yes. There was a girl in the class behind D1 who matriculated into med school at age 19. She was homeschooled, had finished high school at 15, started college (UCLA) at 16, graduated & matriculated into med school 3 years later. But she’s a rare exception and had been actively engaged in biochemistry research, and medical related ECs even before she left for UCLA. She also lived in a “lucky” state–that is one with a relatively low population and very strong in-state bias in med school admissions.
Is rushing through undergrad in 3 years a good idea? Not for the vast majority of individuals who want to attend medical school. It simply doesn’t give you time enough to develop the ECs needed, nor the personal relationships with professors for those very important LORs. Additionally, there may be questions in the adcom about your maturity and relative lack of life experience because you are younger than typical. (BTW, the average age at matriculation is now 24+ for med students. See: [Table 6: Age of Applicants to U.S. Medical Schools at Anticipated Matriculation by Sex and Race/Ethnicity, 2013-2014 through 2015-2016]( https://www.aamc.org/download/321468/data/factstablea6.pdf)) Does that mean it can’t be done? No, but it will make an already difficult journey even more difficult.
If you must graduate in 3 years, I strongly suggest you plan on taking 1 or more gap before applying to medical school so that you have a chance to develop the ECs, maturity and life experiences that are highly valued in the admission process.
Another consideration, since you are speaking about “very expensive” colleges, I assume you mean private colleges. You need to be aware that many high ranked private colleges do not accept AP credits for core coursework. D2 attended a top 30 Research U and that did not permit students to substitute AP credits for the university’s own required major coursework. (e.g. Bio majors couldn’t use AP credit to fulfill intro bio or gen chem coursework. Math credits only gave advanced standing and the university still required 2 semesters of math beyond whatever advanced standing AP credits gave. The university also did not allow any student to use AP credits to fulfill the required 2 semesters of writing requirements. ) Depending on the specific policies of your university, you may not be able to graduate in 3 years, even with significant AP credits.
If cost will be a significant factor in affording college, you perhaps need to hunt for colleges where you will be eligible for merit scholarships. Or look at less expensive schools where the 4 year COA will be less than 3 years at the expensive schools. For medical school admission purposes, your achievements are much, much more important than the prestige or brand name of your undergrad.
@WayOutWestMom Thank you so much for your detailed response! I think that the points you made about the less meaningful ECs and less personal letters of recommendation confirm my reservations about only doing three years for undergrad. Unlike the girl you mentioned, I have not been homeschooled and do not have any prior research experience, something I have been looking forward to experiencing as an undergraduate. Taking a gap year to do more research or obtain a work position was definitely something I was looking into, although I’m definitely more swayed now into spending four years in undergrad.
As for expensive colleges, I have two very expensive colleges and one much less expensive college that I am considering attending next fall (still have not committed). I would rather attend the expensive colleges, as they are top research universities, but I am leaning towards the less expensive state school. I have already checked and all three of my schools substitute AP scores for credit counted towards my degree.
Choosing where I will spend the next few years is definitely a choice I don’t take lightly and I am trying to explore all my options, although I will likely end up spending four years at whatever university I chose.
“the main reason I would want to finish in three years would be money as the undergrad schools I am considering are very expensive .” - it is a mistake to consider a very expensive undergrad. There is no reason to pay a lot of money for the undergrad. My advice is to switch to cheap options, I bet you have some very cheap or even free options on your plate.
My D’s best friend has finished UG in 3.5 years and cost was not a problem at all, she was on huge Merit award in UG. She just completed everything and had a Medical school acceptance in her hands. She just graduated from the medical school few weeks ago and matched to her first choice of residency. Everything is possible, but I do not see any reason to spend lots of money on college at all and more so when the plan is to attend the medical school. Medical school adcoms do not care much where you go for the UG.
Many (if not most) applicants actually spend an EXTRA year to prepare for med school. They take the MCAT senior year, apply in June of senior year, and split their “glide year” between research/job and all the med school interviews etc. Those who try to go straight from college to med school have to have everything ready junior year (hence, pre-med pre-reqs done in 3 years) BUT they have to handle finishing their major and med school interviews during senior year.
Being done with your pre-reqs by the end of sophomore year is typically impossible, and handling all the courses for your major junior year along with the med school interviews (if you were to get any in that situation, which I doubt) would be likely to kill your GPA.
Also, note that premed is not a major, so you need to complete your major and gen eds PLUS the premed pre-reqs. You’re free to choose any major and, to make things easier for yourself, you could take a relatively less sequential major like Anthropology or Philosophy, but it’d still be very hard to complete everything in 3 years only. If you choose sequential major, such as a science, math, or foreign language, it’d likely be impossible.
Finally, note that some med schools don’t accept AP credit unless you’ve taken a higher-level class in the subject you took Ap credit for.
@MiamiDAP I do have cheap options on my plate but I am hesitant to turn down the other schools that I like a lot more. As a result, I was trying to find an alternate path that could allow me to both attend the school I want and not saddle myself and my parents with debt. Now, however, I think that spending four years in undergrad is probably the best choice for me.
@MYOS1634 I was looking into summer courses as well as a gap year to help with the transition and completing the prereqs by sophomore year. I did create a sample schedule for myself with about five courses a semester and I was able to complete everything in three years because of the flexibility my AP credits gave me. However, as a potential science major, I do think that the workload might be too heavy to maintain a high GPA.
Thank you both for your responses and input!
I do not have an impression that the most take a gap year before medical school, but few do.
in regard to " some med schools don’t accept AP credit", it is very wise to do what my D. did. She simply contacted the adcoms of medical schools that she applied to and asked them. It is their job and they are more than happy to help. All of them were very quick in their responses and it appeared that D. could actually use her AP credits. Asking the appropriate people is the key in getting the correct information and we here on CC do not belong to this category.
^the average age of the 1st year medical school student is close to 25. So, most do take a year or two or three before they start med school, either to work or for another purpose.
For how tight these numbers are “close to 25” feels misleading.
Also, in this circumstance, I think the median is a more valuable statistic than the mean. Not surprisingly, the median is a touch lower because there’s not much realistic space below 24 but there is a lot of space above 24 so older people tug the mean above the median (e.g. in my first year class I think the youngest person was 21, the oldest was 48). The median is 23 for both men and women. In other words half of medical students are still 23 or younger.
I really wish they would use at least one decimal place on these tables, preferably 2.
That’s still half the medical 1st years who’d be two years or one year removed from college graduation added to those who went straight to med school. I really don’t think numbers indicate most students go straight from college to med school (my assertion was that most didn’t, although it could well be one year after college.)