<p>My DD, a junior in college, is considering a gap year before med school. Good idea?</p>
<p>Great idea, and being done by many students. She doesn’t have to fulfill her pre-med requirements by the end of this year, doesn’t have to worry about starting to fill out applications this summer, etc. I was told by a pre-med adviser that oftentimes, students receive their best grades senior year in college, so it is helpful to bring up a GPA in that way. Of course, she can spend more time preparing for the MCAT’s and she should find something productive to do during her gap year (or two) preferably including something related to medicine, whether it’s a volunteer or paid position.</p>
<p>My husband took two years between undergrad and med school and worked as a chemist. I think it was a positive decision for him. We also met quite a few students with 1, 2, or more gap years. It’s not unusual or at least it wasn’t years ago.</p>
<p>Yes, it is a very good idea.
- She will be judged on what she’ll be able to accomplish in 4 years instead of 3 years.
- If she is aiming for med school, she can get a research position after she graduates, which will strengthen her application.
- She will not have to deal with applications and visits during her senior year.
- She can take her time studying for MCATs if she hasn’t taken it yet.
- She can recharge and start the grad school re-energized.</p>
<p>YES. YES. YES. It’s scary (and sad sometimes when September rolls around!) but she’ll feel quite good and excited to apply when she’s not under pressure by her regular schoolwork.</p>
<p>Of course a good idea, and it shouldn’t even be called a gap year. </p>
<p>It should not be the default expectation to go from high school to college to medical school to residency without any breaks along the way. Sure you can do it, but IMHO it isn’t a good idea.</p>
<p>Another great “gap year” idea is to get either CNA or EMT certified and to work in medicine during the year that you are applying to medical school. You will get plenty of great experience, jobs (CNA expecially) are generally available due to high turnover rates, and you can see whether medicine is really, really, really something that you want to do. Most community colleges offer these certifications which can be obtained over a relatively short period of time.</p>
<p>Taking a ‘gap’ year has become more common when applying to medical school in the last decade or so. Now, about 25% of the entering first year classes in med schools have had some time off after college. Thus, there is no negative associated with doing this. However, med schools do look at what an applicant did with their time. Working to make some money to lower debt, gaining experience in research or a clinical setting will help in an application. Taking the year to travel in Europe on their parents’ money will not be viewed as well. Make use of the year.</p>
<p>Gives more time to work on MCAT’s, LSAT’s, GRE’s.</p>
<p>The only down side is maintaining continuity of heath coverage if student does not get a job that provides it. Easy to remedy and to get back on parents when student rematriculates.</p>
<p>We invested in low cost minimal, catastrophic health coverage.</p>
<p>I’m surprised to see that it’s only 25% of medical students that are doing it. Among the people I know, the only ones who did not have at least a year between college and medical school were the ones entering MD/PhD programs. For people at my kids’ college, completing their undergraduate theses and applying to medical school at the same time would be very, very challenging, even with a couple of years of foresight and planning.</p>
<p>Sure, many students take time off to do a variety of things. If you haven’t done so already, visit the PreMed Topics subforum, lots of great information and very experienced posters there.</p>
<p>I am hoping my daughter will do the same - work for a year after undergrad and before grad school. Also she is interested in a school in a different state for grad school, so it would be practical from a tuition POV to live and work there for a year before she starts (assuming she gets in there).</p>
<p>I wish I had taken a gap year between college and law school! I was so burnt out from college that I had trouble my first year in law school. The best students in our class were NOT the students who went directly from undergrad!</p>
<p>dd is taking a gap year between college and law school. doing this enabled her to have more time to study for the October lsat.<br>
lsat score results are now back and she is very pleased with her score. her applications to T14s and others are now in process and she has the time to work on them.
taking a gap year has definitely been a good decision.</p>
<p>My DD had an internship with Georgia Capital Defenders during her gap year. It will really help her get the summer placement she wants. Without a gap year she would not have that to show on her resume.</p>
<p>And very few of the students in her program came directly from college. On average they have been out from one to three years.</p>
<p>My nephew spent a year as an EMT while he applied to med schools. Helped solidify for him for sure that he wanted to go to med school (and he did).</p>
<p>I’m a PA student, so my view is probably skewed because we were required to get healthcare experience before school, but I would encourage her to look at getting some kind of healthcare position, like CNA, medical assistant, or EMT, as was previously mentioned. It probably won’t do much, if any good for her application - I talked to a first year at our med school who was an ER tech for a few years and he didn’t think it did much for him application-wise - but what you see and do is so, so helpful once you get to school. When you learn about something, you can say,“Oh yeah, I saw that while I was working, and that’s why the doc treated it that way.”</p>
<p>In addition, it would allow her a chance to take a break from the books for a while before getting “thrown into the fire” of med school.</p>
<p>Wow! such great advice everyone! Quite a few of DD classmates are doing this too. She does plan on continuing the research she is currently doing, and possibly doing a 2 month stint abroad, doing volunteer service. DD thinks this will give some real-world experience and prepare her for med school, but also a year without school stress. Thanks for the wonderful advice all!</p>