<p>I'll be a freshman this year at the University of Michigan and I found out that I will have about a years worth of college credit from all the AP exams that I completed during high school. I was wondering if completing my undergrad in 3 years and then applying to med school afterwards would be okay? I understand that I'll have less time to conduct research/ do extra curricular but besides that fact, is there anything else that I should be concerned with if I am to complete my undergraduate education early?</p>
<p>Do not worry about EC’s. You do nt have to have long term ECs.<br>
Who can tell if it is OK or not. Not anybody here. Contact Med. School adcoms and ask them. You should do it anyway to make sure that your APs are OK for some pre-reqs. My D. contacted Med. School’s adcoms with quaestions about her AP Calc and AP English and she got answers very quickly. I said do not worry about EC, because all of the D’s were long term, like 3 years, but you can have them shorter, that is all, so in regard to ECs, it is completely does not matter. What is more important is personal maturity and another year in UG would be helpful, unless you consider yourself a very mature person. </p>
<p>"Do not worry about EC’s. You do nt have to have long term ECs.
How do you know this? Sample of one?
I do not understand your question. You imply that everybody have to have 3 years of Medical Research, 3 years of volunteering. I just do not think so, you can find supporting stats yourself, I do not like search internet. I just pointed out what D. had and she did not mind it, she enjoyed them, but 3 years IS NOT REQUIRED. And in addition, she did not have any pubs at all (which many indicated here as some sort of “must”). </p>
<p>I suspect that getting everything done that you will need to be competitive for med school admissions in three years will be at the very least, extremely difficult. </p>
<p>This was in the admissions section from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons -
</p>
<p>I think that you can assume the above is pretty standard but look at other medical school websites. Keep in mind that while a medical school might say that you must have at least three years at an accredited US or Canadian institution, most of the people applying will have taken the full four years and arguably had more time to go into greater depth on every level, whether it be EC’s or coursework. </p>
<p>If you are planning to graduate in 3 years, I would plan NOT to apply in junior year, instead apply after graduation, this gives you 3 full years to have ECs and even more importantly at a big school, 3 years to find and connect with LOR writers who can get to know you and write strong letters for you. Also, that gives you the same three years of university classes as all the people applying after junior year. Plan to do something interesting in that gap year, but give yourself ample time for writing secondaries and doing interviews. My DD did a full time research job in her year off and found it to be a good thing, for her. You can find something that works for you and looks good on your application too.</p>
<p>OP will be applying in early June of 2016. He will have exactly one summer before the application. My question was will there be enough accomplished in every area that counts for his/her application including ECs and MCAT scores…</p>
<p>With the new MCAT, I don’t believe it will be doable and he will be taking a gap year if he does try. None of the stuff someone did 3-4 years ago to get into medical school applies to anyone who is now entering college due to changes in MCAT and expectations in the more well rounded science and liberal arts person to go with the new MCAT.</p>
<p>Rush into a med school application is not advisable. Unless some one is a super natural med school candidate. The highest success rate in applying med school after three years is a med school in your own state. My nephew did it in U of Mich., but that was not without a struggle, he was waitlisted then got off from it.</p>
<p>“OP will be applying in early June of 2016. He will have exactly one summer before the application. My question was will there be enough accomplished in every area that counts for his/her application including ECs and MCAT scores”
-Summer? Summer is not for accomlishing anything, summer is for fun, summers in UG are the only summers that these pre-meds will have off, no such thing for the rest of their lives (hopefully, Med. School is a reality and not a dream). Summer is to sleep in and catch up with your friends before you all get very very busy and cannot afford these things any more. In additionm summer opprotunities are simply not there in many places. ECs are easy to obtain at your UG, not in a summer. 3 years is plenty to get everything done, unless you plan for a very long term commitments, but as I said 3 years of research, volunteering is NOT required at all and pubs are not required.</p>
<p>The majority of pre med students will spend their summers being very productive and the opportunities will be vast for those who are truly motivated. However, getting things accomplished during the school year is also quite important. There really is no time to waste if you want to put your best application forward. Only having 2 years (and 1 summer) available may put OP at a disadvantage-- but others have been successful by being extremely proactive and organized. It can be done, but taking 3 years is usually EASIER.</p>
<p>"The majority of pre med students will spend their summers being very productive and the opportunities will be vast for those who are truly motivated. "
-Do not rely on this, not the case at all at very many locations. The unemployment is high (despite all the numbers that are published) and many vlunteering positions are taken by those who are in your home town year around. D. is a very very persistent person. Yes. she was able to find very few opportunities after discovering that there are waiting lists even for volunteering positions. She had to do ALL of her ECs during school year, all long term commitments. Also worked very well because the people in charge who also happened to have high positions in college were writing her LORs, nominating her (and her classmates) for various awards, PKB…etc. So, my strong advice (after reading many complaints here that summer opportunities are simply not there), my advice is not to wait for summers, but pursue everything at your UG during school year (and build a great connecitons this way). D. had much more than she needed (at least that what she was told) but at the same time was able to relax in the summers which was very crucial for her. I have encouraged her sleeping in, spending time with friends and taking all opportunities for relaxing as much as possible. There is no opportunities for this whatsoever while at Med. School. I also say that 3 years is possible because most pre-meds around D. had combo of major(s)/minor(s). Although they used them to have a break from more challenging Bio related major, they sitll took some time to complete. If you are not planning on any of these, then you should be able to have a shorter time in UG.</p>
<p>Quotes from LizzyM: I have never seen a student who had a strong application after two years of school (applying to start medical school after 3 years of college). I appreciate the desire to save a year’s tuition but I’d strongly recommend planning for a gap year of employment or full-time service (there are a number of domestic “Corps”, some sponsored by faith based organizations such as Jesuits, Lutherans, etc that are hard-core service and community living). Even driving an ambulance as an EMT-B can be a useful experience.</p>
<p>If your family is well off and you aren’t attempting to finish in 3 years due to financial issues, then slow down, earn a better gpa and do it in 4 years…… Most adcoms will discount work done in HS. You can’t rest on your HS laurels, you have to keep at whatever you did or expand into greater challenges along the same line. </p>
<p>Besides LizzyM, Goro (another well respected poster) agrees with LizzyM to wait.</p>
<p>Three other posts from this link:
I could also graduate in 3 years but I gave it some though and I am very much looking for taking whatever classes I feel like taking my senior year. I have quite a lot of interests outside of my major and I haven’t gotten a chance to explore them yet. I have consulted multiple resources and there is a consensus that graduating early is never to your advantage. You will be a more well-rounded individual after 4 years of undergrad. Sure you can take the bare minimum for MCAT, but there is strong evidence that taking classes such as Cell Bio, Physiology, and Genetics will all help you with MCAT. I am not at all an advocate for taking too long to graduate but I believe you will be better off if you don’t rush things so much. You can try to convince any of us about the reasoning behind your decision but really you are just trying to make yourself feel better about it.</p>
<p>Best case scenario rarely happens. I was in a similar situation as you, but could not afford to do a fourth year of undergrad. If it were feasible, staying an additional year would have done wonders for my GPA. You don’t need to make that mistake yourself. Baring an apocalypse, medical schools will still exist a year from now and taking that extra year to make a “good” app a great app is worth it.
Long story short, take the well seasoned advice that everyone on this thread is offering. If you don’t absolutely have to graduate ahead of time for serious financial reasons, don’t. You’ll be surprised at how quickly the extra year will pass by.</p>
<p>My bias here is huge, but I disagree. It’s not the fact that you graduate early that’s the problem–it’s when you try to graduate early and apply on a ‘normal’ timeline (during your ‘senior’/last year in college). You simply can’t get enough experiences and whatnot in 2 years to compare to traditional applicants who have had 3 years to get them.
If you graduate early but still apply with your peers (after you graduate, rather than during your senior year), I’d argue that you have the potential to be more well-rounded because you have the free time to do something else during that gap year that people in school may not be able to do. That just might not show up on your initial application because you haven’t done it yet.</p>
<p>^Frankly, if D’s bs/md allowed her to graduate in 3 years (she had to stay in UG for 4) and she did not have 2 minors, I do not see what she would have been doing in her 4th year in UG. We also did not care becuase her tution was covered for 4 years and she was one of the youngest, since she started kindergarten at 4y o. But other than these factors, she would have graduated in 3 years and her best friends actually has graduated in 3.5 also Summa Cum Laude (but from another, private UG). Neither has taken a single summer class. And how application would not be strong with 4.0/35 and tons of ECs, which was the case with both. So, I say it is very possible, depending on personal circumstances. </p>
<p>Miami, all due respect but your daughter is the exception to the rule as to being a pre-med who took her summers completely off. The overwhelming majority of pre-meds do something (at least tangentially) related to medicine during most if not all of their summer breaks. It may not be funded and/or it may be part time but most pre-meds find something to give them exposure/experience during at least part of their college summers, whether it be shadowing/clinical or bench research carried over from a project they were working on during the school year. That being said, your daughter is obviously very talented and a force. Her experience is absolutely (!) worth noting but it is not typical. </p>
<p>I am only saying that it could be done in 3 years. No genius or being exceptional is required and not much effort is required in a summer either, while summer opportunities may simply not exist. If many things were cut out of D’s application, it was still strong, she just had too much of everything. She is doing well because she worked hard, she is just like everybody else around her, if somebody is not this way, they simply did not make it. I say go ahead try, see what happen and if you work hard, everything will work, no reason to be dissapointed before even getting you rfeet wet, no reason at all. And if you prefer to be loaded up to … in a summer, so go ahead, work hard all thru, but these summers will not happen in your life any more, no more carefreetime, even your short breaks will be filled with some work, even darn 3 day weekend after having only one day off in the last 3 weeks…</p>