Maybe, or they may just tell them it’s ok to apply at their age because they don’t have age restrictions (quite probably true), then when they actually do apply and are competing against all of the others applying that year the admissions committee decides they prefer older candidates and the OP has lost their best chance.
One of the worst bits of advice I’ve seen happen is people telling students they can apply up until the (end) deadline for apps. While this is technically true, since med schools fill their interview slots as soon as they have candidates they like there can be none left at the end tanking an otherwise good application. A student has the best chance if they have their app fully ready to go the minute it opens.
If one is intelligent enough to be applying to med school (as the OP is) they need to be looking at a lot of sources and sifting through advice. Bad advice can come from anywhere. Good advice is often repeated and comes from those who tend to be familiar with the process now.
I’m glad you pointed out what you did with Mercer. It will be helpful for the OP and can fix a wrong thought the PP had.
Personally, I don’t have any experience with GA med schools as I don’t know anyone who has gone to one. But getting in overall tends to show similar attributes from what I’ve seen with successful students.
I have come across an Indian American doing residency in Texas who attended morehouse as a Georgia resident. I have come across another who attended Howard doing residency and so I am unclear as to how many people attend that are not part of the HBCU mission. I thought I could find out from morehouse website but they are not very clear. I got this bit below from googling but I am not sure if the statistics apply exactly to the md program since they can include other masters and phd. One fact report says they have 43% OOS students.
The enrolled student population at Morehouse School of Medicine is 73.2% Black or African American, 10.2% Asian, 7.27% White , 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 2.15% Two or More Races, 0.165% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders, and 0.165% American Indian or Alaska Native.
"A significant percentage of students currently enrolled in Georgia’s medical schools are residents of the state.
Mercer University School of Medicine only accepts Georgia residents, so the rate is 100%, followed closely by the Medical College of Georgia where 98.5% of medical students are in-state residents. The proportion of Morehouse
School of Medicine students who are Georgia residents is 56.6%, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (GA Campus) rate is 50.4%, and Emory’s University School of Medicine’s proportion of in-state residents is 34.5%. "
@neelp2001 have you considered applying to one of the two campuses of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine located in Georgia? PCOM Georgia and PCOM South Georgia. They both are looking for students who will serve the underserved communities of Georgia.
Have you finished your bachelors already? Or will you be finishing in 2022? If so then you will be treated as a post-grad for committee letters.
Are you 19 now? Does that mean you will be 20 by the time of fall 2022? If so then is not a big difference vs someone who finishes college at age 21 and then starts med school right away.
There is no prize for finishing it all early, this is the beginning of real life. A person on the regular track, graduating at maybe 22, they would be well served to take a year or two away and do other stuff before med school. Once you jump on the treadmill-med school, residency, practicing, the system does not like to see you out of the loop, out of practice etc., so go have adventures and fun before starting med school. Not to prove you are mature enough for med school, but to have some “real life” before you jump into the fray.
Actually @somemom 's advice is right on. Med students go to school 12 months/year; you don’t get summers off. Residents maybe get 2-3 weeks vacation/year (and the weeks can’t be taken together, you get a max of 6 or 7 days at a time and 3-4 days is more common because if you’re not there, your co-residents have to cover their shifts AND yours which makes everybody unhappy). Physicians often have difficulty scheduling time off.
And being a physician grinds you down because you see so many bad outcomes–even in “happy” specialties. Burn out is tremendously high among all types of physicians.
This is not true in all residencies. Where my guy is they get two guaranteed 2 week time off periods - meaning 4 weeks total and guaranteed not to have to come in. This starts Intern year. Powers That Be asked for their preferences prior to starting and created the schedule. There will be no lack of coverage when the person is gone on vacation.
When someone is sick or has personal days outside of vacation for whatever reason, then others have to cover for them. He has times he’s on call to be that person if necessary.
Agreed. We were expecting all to be bad. They aren’t. Several others he interviewed with and ranked were also quite “resident friendly.” He ended up ranking some a bit lower that weren’t once he found out there were marked differences.