<p>DS was advised that med schools today are looking for students that do this and take their time preparing for the rigors of med school and perform research during that year rather than jumping right in after graduation.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any experience doing this and if so what are your thoughts?</p>
<p>DS did this. From our point of view, the main benefit is for him to know for sure that he really wants to go into this field after one additional year of experiences of working with people in the medical school or hospital environments.</p>
<p>D. is going straight to Med. School. We have told her that it will be no gap year because of our age and she said, no problem. She also had no problem getting acceptance to several Med. Schools without gap year although she is one of the youngest out there.</p>
<p>
We happen to do the opposite: We told him while he was a freshman in college that the earliest time he will apply to medical schools (if ever) is with a gap year. Some kid just needs more time to figure out what he wants to do for his life.</p>
<p>Some may even say that, at the same age, the girl is more mature, mentally :)</p>
<p>mcat2,</p>
<p>How has this worked out for your son? What semester of his senior year did he take the MCAT? Did he feel waiting til his senior year helped him to prepare? Do you or he feel that applying later limited his med school options?</p>
<p>^^^^ it shouldn’t limit his options…</p>
<p>^^^^ it shouldn’t limit his options… </p>
<p>At all. In fact, it is one of the better ideas out there IMO.</p>
<p>D1 took 3 years off after finishing her UG, during this time she worked a variety of non-professional jobs, took her pre-reqs part-time (she didn’t decide on med school until during her senior year when it was too late to enroll in them), earned her EMT-B and EMT-I and did extensive volunteer work in both public hospitals and public clinics that work the medically underserved, both locally and in South Africa. (She spent 3 months in SA working as a EMT at a public township hospital.)</p>
<p>She got plenty of hands-on experience (including a bunch of 12 hours shifts in an emergency psychiatric facility–which was kinda scary at times), gained a wider awareness of people from very different cultural backgrounds, and learned that waitressing is hard work that she doesn’t want to do for the rest of her life.</p>
<p>She also got chance to get out from under the academic treadmill for a while, live on her own and be responsible for her own financial support. She gained maturity, compassion and got a better, broader perspective on life.</p>
<p>
His sequence of taking prereqs and MCAT is not very normal/optimal, maybe because he was thinking of changing his major multiple times in college.</p>
<p>To answer your question directly, he took his MCAT right after he graduated (The test day might be 5 days after his graduation.) He must have prepared well in the summer after his junior year, because it was the only time when he was intensively prepraring for it. (In senior year, he was mostly busy catching up on his research project which is required for his graduation.) I do not think he took many MCAT-related classes in senior year. He took many labs and evolution stuff (most freshmen may take these 
His academic advisor jokingly said why he took many classes in a reverse order: the difficult ones first: immuno before the part 2 of intro bio. He dutifully fulfilled all the requirements for his major.</p>
<p>He read a lot of papers that year as demanded by PI/postdocs – maybe the efforts of reading many densed papers (and many densed textbook?) in a short time help with his MCAT taking? I really do not know.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Great post, WOWMom!
These are all things med schools like to see in an applicant, and they are definitely an advantage. Med schools want a diverse, well qualified class, and that doesn’t just mean a few non-science majors sprinkled in there. I know I mentioned this in another thread recently, but the average age for matriculants is 24-25, IIRC. Most people do take at least one year off after undergrad, and there are lots of benefits to doing so.</p>
<p>I can understand the benefits of getting some medical related experiences and completing all requirements after graduation. But, I am wondering how many premed students would purposely delay applying to medical schools even though they have already gotten fine GPA, MCAT, research, and volunteering by the end of Junior year? Would you still advise these students to take a gap year?</p>
<p>While many students take gap years to bolster their resume, it’s perfectly fine to to take a year off even if your resume is fine. During my gap year, I lived in a new city, experienced living by myself, made some new friends, did some research, caught up on books and movies and it was all lovely, especially without the added stress of interviewing and attending class at the same time. Once you enter into med school, you will dedicate the next 7+ years to medicine. I see nothing wrong with taking a year to live life whether you could’ve applied or not as a college senior.</p>
<p>“We happen to do the opposite: We told him while he was a freshman in college that the earliest time he will apply to medical schools (if ever) is with a gap year. Some kid just needs more time to figure out what he wants to do for his life.”</p>
<p>How could you “tell” a 20-22 year old man when to apply to medical school? I don’t understand.</p>
<p>Yeah, right. You just don’t understand. lol. You are just playing with the word choice here, moneymatters. We “tell” our kids lots of things. Whether they do it or not, that’s their call. ;)</p>
<p>And, yeah. I’d tell any student that applying after graduation is a reasonable path. It was a pain for my D to juggle senior year and applications. Of course, there needs to be awareness that they need flexibility during their app year. A job without flexibility would be much worse.</p>
<p>Great advice. I feel so much better. It sounded odd to wait a year, but after reading these posts it all makes perfect sense and I am glad DS has been advised to do so. He’s on the east coast for UG, but I hope he will consider returning to Texas for med school :)</p>
<p>Is there any difference in the interview/acceptance practice if you have taken a gap year and would like to return to your resident state for med school? It doesn’t sound like it is frowned upon at all regardless of location. I just wondered if there was an advantage (besides seeing DS) to returning to your home state.</p>
<p>RE: coming back home. </p>
<p>For D1, it maintained her state residency since a 12 month absence from the state for ANY reason, including military service, would DQ her as in-state. You need to check to with your state schools to see if a period of absence will change his residency status–because remember once he’s out of school his state of residence is no longer automatically yours. It’s where <em>he</em> lives.</p>
<p>D1 had to submit all kinds of documentation proving her in-state status, including a lease agreement/utility bill/property tax bill, driver’s license, car registration, voter’s registration (plus her NM HS diploma and NM university diploma and her NM birth certificate!!!) She also had to document how long <em>I’ve</em> lived in NM.</p>
<p>Do not give up Texas residency for any reason. My gosh, IMO, it is the single best factor in med school admissions. (I’m not kidding, either.)</p>
<p>Curmudgeon, can you elaborate on how it is the single best factor in med school admissions? Texas is and always will be HOME. I just hope HE feels the same way after being away so long. My brother-in-law went through the UTHSC in SA and I would love it if he would have the same opportunity. I have heard that admission is easier in your home state, but you hear a lot when you are always listening : /</p>
<p>Some great (and all good) med schools at a bargain cost that have to (by law) take 90% of their class from Texas and a private school ( to keep funding in place) that almost hits that percentage, too.</p>
<p>Check out the matriculant stats at all Texas med schools except Southwestern and Baylor. Not that scary. Then check out the UC schools. <shudder></shudder></p>
<p>Curm is correct, TX has multiple medical schools and requires a minimum% of the class to be Texans. The tuition is pretty darn good, the average stats are a bit lower than some other states (like CA!) so a better chance to get in and less loans upon graduation.</p>
<p>DD took a gap year, this was decided when she could not take the MCAT before August after her junior year. It felt a bit behind the curve when reading others stories, but she had 3 friends who graduated with her and who did the same thing. </p>
<p>Why was it good? DD did a year of university lab research whilst being paid enough to live on plus benes. She presented at a conference. Her flexible schedule allowed her time off for interviews without having to juggle missing exams, lectures, sports, and ECs.</p>
<p>Best of all from my perspective, she got off the academic track and had to make friends in a new town. By halfway through the year she was looking forward to getting back to the academic track group of buddies (this did not pertain to the labmates, but to all the friends she made who were just working for a living, no college, no goals, just dinking around) and she had a breather so she could approach the intensity of medical school after having had a break both just to rest her brain and to verify her certainly before proceeding on such a rigourous course of study.</p>