Is it a good practice to take a post-grad gap year to prepare for a med school or apply for it directly before the college graduation? How did you enter the med school? Thanks for sharing.
The young doctors and residents we know…and we know a fair number. Only one applied and started the fall after undergrad graduation.
The average age of first year medical students is in the mid 20’s. Many take gap years to beef up things like working having patient contact, shadowing doctors, volunteering with underprivileged populations, prepare for the MCAT. Things like that.
So…is it “good practice”? It has become more and more common.
Some students do apply directly out of undergrad. Isn’t your student a college senior? Unless applications were sent last June, that student will be taking a year between undergrad and grad…because those applying this year will be enrolling in Fall 2024.
But in my opinion…that’s not a helpful gap year as it doesn’t give the student time to do the above things BEFORE applying to medical school.
Your student should be working with their school’s pre-health advisers to understand how competitive their med school app would be for both MD and DO programs.
Have they already taken the MCAT?
Many students take gap years to get more research and/or patient facing experience. Some do a post-bacc program to improve grades. These things typically strengthen med school applications. You can understand how it might be difficult for a student coming right out of undergrad to compete in admissions with a 24 year old applicant who has more research, more patient facing experience, and/or extra relevant classes.
Again, your student should start with their pre-health adviser. Does the school your student is at provide committee letters for med school applicants? If so, does everyone get one, or does the committee only write them for the students they think can get accepted?
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I also know only one student who went straight from undergrad to med school. Everyone else took at least a year or more in between to do research or gain more experience with patients.
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@compiler please answer these questions.
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What has your student done to prepare to apply to medical school? If this student is a junior, they need to have done a lot of what is expected, or be doing it…because applications are sent starting in June, I believe.
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Has this student taken the MCAT?
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Has this student done significant shadowing?
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Has the student done volunteer work?
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Does the student have significant work that included patient contact hours (MA, EMT, CNA, for example)?
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If interested in applying to medical school, has this student worked with the health careers advisors at their college?
If not, they will need a year or two to get these things done.
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@compiler I’m really not understanding all of these open-ended questions you ask and then abandon the thread.
As examples from this week:
Who is this student? Is this your child or are you taking the free advice and charging students for your services? Why aren’t the students asking their own questions? Why don’t you answer ever any of the questions that are asked of you, which will only result in better responses?
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Only 28% of all med students matriculate directly from undergrad to med school. This trend toward taking gap years has been true for the last 8-10 year and it has only accelerated in the past 5 years. In 2021, 31% of entering med students came straight from undergrad and in 2020, 34% entered directly from undergrad. 35% of new med students in 2022 took >2 gap years between med school and undergrad.
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A common answer for why a medical school applicant is applying after a gap year is that they got shut out the first time.
Whether a retry after a gap year is good practice depends on whether the applicant improved their medical school application resume / credentials and/or chooses a more realistic list of medical schools to apply to.
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I believe students are choosing to NOT apply at the end of their college junior year to start right after undergrad graduation. It’s not mostly because they get shut out the first time.
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A good reason for a year or two after undergrad is so the application will already be stronger.
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The most common reason for a gap year is that most students are not ready to apply at the end of their junior year in college and don’t apply until they have completed their senior year. Since the med school application cycle lasts more than a full year–students apply in June to begin med school in August or September of the following year–students who apply at the end of senior year must take at least one gap year of necessity.
During that gap year, students are advised to assume they are rejected from med school until their first acceptance arrives and to behave accordingly by continuing to strengthen their application by continuing to gain clinical exposure, community service and leadership experience, and to remediate any shortcomings their application may have.
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In 2022, there were 55,188 med school applicants.
38,722 of those were first time applicants; the rest were re-applicants.
Of the ~55,000 applicants, 22,712 began med school in fall 2022.
The number of applicants for the 2021-22 cycle was down from 62,443 in the 2020-21 cycle, an 11.8% decrease.
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An acceptance rate of 41%…
It would be very helpful if you gave us all more info to be honest.
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I know lots of people who have gone straight into med school. I know lots of people who have done a gap year, or several years.
The best course of action will depend entirely on the student’s particular situation. So we can’t tell you without knowing more details. Obviously taking 1 gap year as plan B is super common.
That make sense. If a college student can pass the MCAT with some clinic shadowing time during the college, probably s/he can apply for the med school directly before the graduation. Do you think the med school prefers the student from the college directly, having one year experience or doesn’t matter?
What is your particular student’s situation? Have they taken the MCAT and done clinic shadowing time?
I’m a med school professor and I’d love to help you but I can’t until you give me more info about your student.
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@compiler It doesn’t matter what the medical schools “prefer”. What matters is applying when the best possible application can be put forth.
If you are talking about your child…please answer these questions.
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What year in college are they…junior or senior?
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Is the student working with an advisor for those applying to medical school? If not, they should be. These folks can advise.
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Has the student taken the MCAT and was the score what they hoped for?
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Has the student done sufficient meaningful shadowing, volunteer work, and some sort of job or volunteer work where they have meaningful patient contact?
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What is their overall GPA and sGPA. Both are important.
The answers to these questions can determine if additional time is needed to beef up the application.
And lastly, the student should be in the drivers seat here.
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Med schools prefer well prepared students.
Are you asking for a current senior or a younger student?
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You’re misunderstanding what the MCAT is. The MCAT isn’t a p/f test. it’s a graded 7.5 hour long comprehensive standardized exam. Test takers receive percentile ratings for each of 4 subtests as well as an overall test rank.
Every individual med school will have its own floor for acceptable scores not just for the overall test, but for the individual sub scores as well.
Med school admission is. more than just academics and test scores. Those metrics are only the starting point of the evaluation process.
Med schools want individuals who have displayed evidence they met the 15 Core Competencies for Entering Medical School Students. This is displayed by their activities, ECs, life experiences, LOEs and the applicant’s personal statement and secondary essays. Also by the behavior, demeanor and oral responses during individual nterviews (should they get that far).
As far as being a competitive applicant for med school…having “some shadowing” just isn’t enough.
Applicants are expected to have significant clinical exposure through either paid work or volunteering in clinical settings where they interact directly with patients, significant and longitudinal non-clinical volunteer experience working with disadvantaged populations, some clinical or lab-based research experience and demonstrated leadership skills in their activities. Some med schools also expect applicants to have some teaching/coaching experience since one of the core missions of any physician is to educate their patients about their medical conditions and how their lifestyle choices affect their health.
Medical schools do not have any stated preference for age or gap year status of applicants. However, both direct-from-undergrad and post-grad applicants are judged by the same standards w/r/t maturity and accomplishments.
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