Hey! Making my schedule for junior year on Monday and I’m torn between AP and dual enrollment. I wanna take a gap year after high school, because with medicine I’ll be basically giving up my twenties and I’ll have a packed schedule and very little time to live a little. I plan to get a job full time during my gap year, by the way.
Pros of dual enrollment (pre med at IRSC - AA Degree)
• can get a better job for my gap year
• I’ll be saving on the cost of education
• I’ll have more room in my schedule for extra curriculars during junior and senior years.
All AP
• more competitive
• better chance at UF (?)
• this would look better when I apply to med schools, right?
Cons
• very heavy course load, takes up most of my time
• stressful, a little higher chance of burning out probably
So will AP look better when I apply to med school? Or should I dual enroll in pre med at Indian River State College and then try to transfer to UF, then try for UF College of Medicine?
Will taking a gap year hurt my appearance to med schools?
Thanks
No, but it’s definitely more traditional (and in my opinion, a better idea) to do a gap year between college and medical school rather than between high school and college. You’ll have much better job opportunities with a bachelor’s degree than an associate’s and you’ll be applying to medical school after graduation rather than after junior year which means more grades on the transcript, more ECs, and later MCAT test date. I also would rather be 22 than 18 during a year in which the point is to “live a little.” I don’t know how they handle high school-college gap year people, but standard practice is to not include anything on your med school app from before college unless it’s longitudinal or very, very, very prestigious. In contrast, you absolutely include what your college-med school gap year will entail in your app.
I don’t think it really matters, but here’s the big difference: Whatever grades you earn in your dual enrollment will be reported to medical schools and factored into the GPA they use when screening applicants initially. AP course grades are not reported at all. If you get less than an A in DE, you start off your quest to a 4.0 with a handicap. Do poorly in AP courses, no handicap.