Since she has no clinical or shadowing experience she can not and should not apply next year.
So her plan is to apply in June 2022 ( that is why she will have 2 gap years ).
Planning to utilize the two gap years to get clinical ( mostly cna} and shadowing experience while working full time .
She has got a well paying job in data engineering which she wants to take up on graduation.
Home state is IL and will be working in ilL.
The only reason I would postpone 2 years is because I have bad grades or MCAT and need post bac/additional classes. I would never postpone application due to missing volunteering/shadowing when application season is 8 months away. There should be ways to accumulate some of that.
I want her to go into medical school fully knowing what it takes. With the Covid situation shadowing , getting clinical experience - everything is challenging for now.
Will see how it goes.
She does not have to rush and apply to medical schools. Taking a couple of years between undergrad and grad is becoming increasingly the norm. @WayOutWestMom can give the %age of students who don’t apply directly out of undergrad…or even a year later.
Sample of one. My kid graduated from undergrad and then went into the Peace Corps for 27 months. Like your daughter, she was not a pre-Med intention in undergrad but did take all the prerequisite courses. Her degree was in engineering…double major biology. She got back from the Peace Corps, got a job as an EMT, took an MCAT prep course and studied a LOT. She also shadowed a doctor weekly. She applied to Med school as a 25 year old. Started at age 26. She wasn’t the .oldest in her class at all.
Your daughter has a good plan. I don’t see any reason to rush!
Thank you thumper1 . Your words are very reassuring.
@rockyboston
Most kids drop out of premed not because of academics, but because of the medical profession. You just cannot wake up one day and decided to work on to become a physician. A lot of medical schools students have had lots of interest in medicine earlier in their life. From HS, volunteer in hospitals or other medical facilities, even they are not clinical. In college, they shadow doctors or work in clinical situations as nursing aid, EMT, or the like.
For example, my classmate’s wife is a physician, had a private clinic in a medical building. From early on, her two sons have been around her clinic and had lots of exposures with other doctors in the building. One of her son did not like medicine, so he did not pursue the medical profession. The other son is interested, he had no problem to get into a medical school and become a physician.
If your D has no part of those, it is critical to get her feet wet ASAP as WOWM said. While Covid did throw a monkey wrench in this difficult situation, you may be getting better voluntary opportunities on the “Home Care” front.
There are plenty of students applying to medical schools who are non-traditional…meaning they aren’t applying directly out of undergrad. Some did none of what you mention as undergrads…at all. But they took a year or two (or longer) after undergrad to do shadowing, clinical work, volunteering. This is not unusual.
@WayOutWestMom can you please let @artloversplus know the %age of applicants that are not right out of undergrad school?
Per the AAMC MSQ,
Only 34.8% of all new medical students, enter directly from undergrad, 43.8% had 1-2 gap years. 13.4% had 3-5 gap years and 7.9% had 5+ gap years. (Or ~ 2/3rds of all new med student had taken at least 1 gap year.)
The number of direct-from-undergrad med students has been steadily declining for the past 8 years.