<p>I'm a current freshman in college. After talking to some pre-meds at my college, it sounds rather common to take a gap year before applying to medical school. </p>
<p>After looking at a thread called "timing alert" I realize that if I want go to medical school the fall after graduation, I need to apply to medical schools during my junior year. As a result of the time crunch, I may have slightly less developed EC's compared to gap year applicants. Will medical school admission officers take into account when I apply? Or is the quality of my application more important than applying "on track" ?</p>
<p>If you want to go to medical schools the fall after graduation, you need to apply to medical schools during your senior year (actually you'll start the process the summer before your senior year and it will continue into your school year). You'll probably want to take the MCAT in your junior year or early in the summer after your junior year.</p>
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Will medical school admission officers take into account when I apply? Or is the quality of my application more important than applying "on track" ?
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<p>Quality is more important. Med schools like older, more mature applicants with interesting experiences. Obviously, if your application is strong enough, there's no reason a med school wouldn't take you. Plenty of applicants go straight from college to med school. But, someone with an extra 1-2 years post-grad experience will likely have garnered better EC's. However, people who take time off after college tend to be weaker academically so they aren't necessarily your competition.</p>
<p>Hi ginnyvere,
hmm are you sure I start applying during senior year to go to med school the fall right after senior year? From some previous threads, it sounded like I needed to ask for recommendations and start essays in spring of my junior year since the app is due in the summer after junior year (June) and interviews start in fall of senior year. I'm not positive though, so it would be great if you or someone else could clarify this for me.</p>
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Plenty of applicants go straight from college to med school. But, someone with an extra 1-2 years post-grad experience will likely have garnered better EC's. However, people who take time off after college tend to be weaker academically so they aren't necessarily your competition.
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Norcalguy, could you specify how much weaker they tend to be academically?</p>
<p>I can't quantify it. It stands to reason that weaker students have to take time off to improve their GPA or retake the MCAT or reapply to med school (because they were denied the first time). A few colleges break up their admissions data b/w seniors and alumni and, in general, alumni have slightly lower acceptance rates to med school. Considering the fact that med schools actually prefer older applicants, this decrease in acceptance rate must be due to the fact the alumni were weaker academically.</p>
<p>Obviously, not everyone who takes time off has poor stats. I had a 3.9/37 but took time off to enjoy this time of my life more. Now that I'm in med school, I'm glad I was able to chill in DC for a year.</p>
<p>Sorry. If you're calling asking for recommendations the beginning of the application process, that will probably happen in the Spring of your junior year. You'll submit your AMCAS the summer after your junior year (it can be as early as June, you're right, though it's not strictly due in June), and then you'll work on secondaries in the summer and throughout the first months of your senior year. Then interviews will be anywhere from September-ish until March of your senior year. I feel like most of the process was definitely in senior year and not junior year, but I guess some people would have different views of that.</p>