<p>Unless you saw them assess a 20 year old and not express concern, I think we can safely say that that’s not a relevant concern. Of course, some eighteen-year olds will do very well; one of my classmates is approximately that age. That just means the rest of their application had to be stronger to compensate. And it is completely unreasonable to argue that “a lot” of sub-20 year olds end up in medical school – this is first off blatantly untrue, since you can see for yourself that the average is 24 (so lots of 20’s would require lots of 28’s, too), but second, that doesn’t remotely mean that they weren’t harmed by it. A lot of sub-29 MCAT scores get in to medical school, but that doesn’t mean that the MCAT score didn’t hurt them.</p>
<p>Many experiences are very valuable for medical school, and in fact medical work experience is among the least valuable you can have. You’ll get tons of that anyway. BRM has a great explanation about how waitering is extremely useful experience for dealing with patients, particularly in a busy ER. This is something several of my classmates have expressed.</p>
<p>Most of the main advice-givers in this particular forum have been admitted to medical school, and some of us have completed a large proportion of medical school. If you’re lucky, there are also several practicing physicians, some of which have been affiliated with extremely selective medical schools. You will be well served to remember that you are dealing with an extremely experienced group of people on this board.</p>