Delay in applying to Medical School, Version 2 (aka "she wants to what?")

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I've been mulling this over since it was sprung on me this summer, so I though I'd throw it out there for comments. I don't know that D1 is willing to change her plans, but perhaps she can at least avoid any major pitfalls in taking this far off the beaten track route.</p>

<p>She is currently a jr majoring in English (hopefully a creative writing concentration). She's doing her physics this year and will finish up her last Bio course and a couple of labs next year. She's always planned to take a gap year, but now has decided to apply for 2-yr MFAs in CW. She really loves it and has had some solid success and encouragement so far. She knows the minuscule odds of this actually turning out to be her profession, but wants to give it a shot now because she knows that once she starts down the Med school path, she won't have time to pursue her writing intensively for a long time. </p>

<p>She'll only apply to programs that support students with fellowships, grants, etc., and of course she'll keep up with medical interests (EMT, clinics, etc.), but I can't see that there'll be any strong improvements in her Med school profile, such as research. Her medical plans are definitely towards primary care and working with Latino communities.</p>

<p>Pros and Cons (mostly)?</p>

2

<p>Makes her an interesting applicant, to say the least. Strengthens her other extracurriculars, as long as she keeps up with the medically related stuff. How long is the program?</p>

3

<p>Thanks, I hope so. She’ll only apply to the 2 yr programs; some are 3 yrs, but there’s the concern of how long her MCAT is valid.</p>

4

<p>Some premeds take MCAT at the end of the summer after sophomore, and apply after a gap year. So if she takes MCAT the summer after graduation, I think it should be fine.</p>

5

<p>That’s good to know! She’s planning on taking a prep course right after graduation and then sitting the MCAT before starting the MFA.</p>

6

<p>entomom, A particular case that comes to my mind when I wrote the above is ncg, a long time contributor to this forum. (I think we all appreciate his inputs from time to time.) He took MCAT in the summer between sophomore and junior (and got a very impressive score). After he graduated, he did a year of research at NIH (BTW, he has also had several great posts about what the NIH research is like in the past) before going to a medical school in a big city on the east coast. (As a long time lurker here, I managed to remember what happened many years ago :))</p>