Gap Year Opinions, Experience, and Thoughts

[mcloaf]

So did you end up getting a pretty good score? Seems like it would be nice to not have to worry about other school obligations and just solely focus on preparing for the MCAT.

Yeah. Not having school to deal with helped for sure.

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[iyoasi]

I don't think adcoms care about the topic of your research, intellectual engagement is much more interesting and useful. As far as marketable skills, can you code? C? Matlab? Python? Competent programmers are invaluable to labs. If you are at all interested in electrophysiology or fMRI, there is a ton of interesting computational work to be done

I've done MATLAB. I'd love to learn C or python if I can find a place willing to let me learn. Do you mind if I send you a PM to ask a little more about opportunities in electrophysiology and fMRI?

 

[kyamh]

I've done MATLAB. I'd love to learn C or python if I can find a place willing to let me learn. Do you mind if I send you a PM to ask a little more about opportunities in electrophysiology and fMRI?

Sure thing

 

[Bovary]

I'm midway through a 2-year gap. I'm glad I did this because my experiences in the last year since graduating have made me a MUCH stronger med school candidate. I really beefed up my work and volunteer experience. But I wish I didn't need to; I wish I didn't have to put my career essentially on hold for these two years, although in the end doing so will open up more doors for that career.

 

[Gregor Wiesmann]

I'm midway through a 2-year gap. I'm glad I did this because my experiences in the last year since graduating have made me a MUCH stronger med school candidate. I really beefed up my work and volunteer experience. But I wish I didn't need to; I wish I didn't have to put my career essentially on hold for these two years, although in the end doing so will open up more doors for that career.

haha, is your avatar a Synapse? That's cool......did you do work in Neuroscience or something?

 

[iyoasi]

But I wish I didn't need to; I wish I didn't have to put my career essentially on hold for these two years

+1

Exactly. Being a premed is a huge commitment. Even if you want to have life changing experiences during a gap year, its always gonna weigh in on the back of your mind. Your career, your life, it all just gets put on hold. This is my biggest issue with taking a gap year... I'm even more afraid of what happens if, after all that, I still don't get into med school. I'll be out years of my life and have to start from scratch to find other work.

 

[Bovary]

haha, is your avatar a Synapse? That's cool......did you do work in Neuroscience or something?

Studied neurobio in school. Gonna try to get back into the neuro research game in med school.

+1

Exactly. Being a premed is a huge commitment. Even if you want to have life changing experiences during a gap year, its always gonna weigh in on the back of your mind. Your career, your life, it all just gets put on hold. This is my biggest issue with taking a gap year... I'm even more afraid of what happens if, after all that, I still don't get into med school. I'll be out years of my life and have to start from scratch to find other work.

I agree entirely. If med school doesn't work out, then I've wasted so much time, money, effort, connections on a dead end path. I'm fairly confident that I'll get in somewhere this application cycle (just takes 1), but I'm kicking myself for not getting started on volunteering earlier in college and thus obviating the need for this bull**** time off.

 

[chillinillinkillin007]

Studied neurobio in school. Gonna try to get back into the neuro research game in med school.



I agree entirely. If med school doesn't work out, then I've wasted so much time, money, effort, connections on a dead end path. I'm fairly confident that I'll get in somewhere this application cycle (just takes 1), but I'm kicking myself for not getting started on volunteering earlier in college and thus obviating the need for this bull**** time off.

when did you start volunteering in college? I doubt you need numerous years of volunteering to show commitment.

 

[deleted436726]

I don't think adcoms care about the topic of your research, intellectual engagement is much more interesting and useful. As far as marketable skills, can you code? C? Matlab? Python? Competent programmers are invaluable to labs. If you are at all interested in electrophysiology or fMRI, there is a ton of interesting computational work to be done

If you have a computer science background or programming experience, definitely look into software engineering positions, especially at biotech and healthcare companies. It's a good way to distinguish yourself to adcoms (anyone can be a lab monkey or scribe after on-the-job training), pays way better (average salary in Silicon Valley is close to $100K) and in case med school doesn't work you've just set yourself up on a very nice backup trajectory.

 

[Ace Khalifa]

when did you start volunteering in college? I doubt you need numerous years of volunteering to show commitment.

It depends on each individual applicant. Those who are weak in some areas need to show commitment in others. For me, I have no research experience, but I have dedicated my undergrad years to community service with APO and had leadership positions within it. Service and leadership within APO were 2 of my 3 most meaningful experiences on my AMCAS. There's nothing wrong with taking a gap year or two to strengthen your application.

 

[Ace Khalifa]

If you have a computer science background or programming experience, definitely look into software engineering positions, especially at biotech and healthcare companies. It's a good way to distinguish yourself to adcoms (anyone can be a lab monkey or scribe after on-the-job training), pays way better (average salary in Silicon Valley is close to $100K) and in case med school doesn't work you've just set yourself up on a very nice backup trajectory.

Yo, don't hate on us scribes lol. We have an important role and have a blast with all the ER clinical experience.

 

[deleted436726]

Yo, don't hate on us scribes lol. We have an important role and have a blast with all the ER clinical experience.

Haha, I'm not hatin' on you guys at all! Scribes certainly have an important role - I was just trying to say that it's often one of the first things that come to mind for premeds looking at a gap year. You certainly do get a lot of clinical experience.

 

[Bovary]

when did you start volunteering in college? I doubt you need numerous years of volunteering to show commitment.

Senior year. I worked part time through college, studied hard to get good grades, had a social life, got 7 hours of sleep every night, etc. wouldn't have dreamed of picking up any community service until I learned that I "had to" if I wanted to become a doctor.

 

[drmak89]

I am non-trad with a non science degree. I've taken gap few years lol. That said I don't regret it one bit! In fact I'm kind of glad it worked out this way for me. I feel so much more sure of my decision to pursue medicine and I have grown a lot. I've taken classes, worked full time in a few different positions (practically helping run a business), volunteered and just lived life. I hope to add serious traveling to that before I begin med school. It has been time well spent for me. I feel that I have much more to offer as a PERSON (not just as applicant #1234, or box checking if you will) and to me that is invaluable.

 

[drmak89]

+1

Exactly. Being a premed is a huge commitment. Even if you want to have life changing experiences during a gap year, its always gonna weigh in on the back of your mind. Your career, your life, it all just gets put on hold. This is my biggest issue with taking a gap year... I'm even more afraid of what happens if, after all that, I still don't get into med school. I'll be out years of my life and have to start from scratch to find other work.

I actually think a gap might be beneficial for this very reason. Yes, if it doesn't work out you will be "that much more behind." However, if your using your gap time not only to box check (as in straight research, shadowing. classes and nothing else) and maybe pursuing some other interests as well, if doesn't work out you have more experience now in something else other than being pre med.

 

[chillinillinkillin007]

did you guys live in your college town during your gap years while you worked?

 

[FutureOncologist]

Taking a gap year doesn't mean your application is weak. My application did not change in any meaningful way from my two years off I took. I'd do it every time though, whether that was working, doing a masters degree, researching, or something unusual like backpacking through Europe or working at a nonprofit in Cameroon. It's just good to challenge yourself with new experiences that you won't have time or opportunity for when you're in medical school. My gap has better prepared and clarified my reasons for starting medical school, and also given me the time to better understand what I want to get out of medical school instead of still sampling around and trying to figure things out while I'm doing the real deal.

To be honest I wish I would take another year off to pursue some of my plans but I'm too much of a sissy to commit and defer.

I know this is an older post, but may I ask what you did during your gap year? Your MDapp is amazing and was wondering, for those premeds that may need to take one, what you did?

To answer the original post, I was a traditional student and matriculated when I was 22, fresh out of college. Some days I really do wish I took a gap year to reconnect with old friends and work at a job I had from UG that I loved, maybe volunteer as well. Once you start medical school, there is no stopping.

 

[chillinillinkillin007]

I know this is an older post, but may I ask what you did during your gap year? Your MDapp is amazing and was wondering, for those premeds that may need to take one, what you did?

To answer the original post, I was a traditional student and matriculated when I was 22, fresh out of college. Some days I really do wish I took a gap year to reconnect with old friends and work at a job I had from UG that I loved, maybe volunteer as well. Once you start medical school, there is no stopping.

why didn't you take a gap year?

 

[G_Marker]

I'm taking a gap year now. It just logistically worked out better for me and gave me the opportunity to do some really cool things in my last year in college that I wouldn't have been able to do if I were applying to med school.

It's been a little weird to not be worrying about schoolwork and to think that this year will be the least academic year I've had since I can remember. I'm hoping I'll have the chance to shake out of my pre-med stereotype a bit. If I get into med school before May, I'd like to take off my full time clinical job early and go travel around Latin America for a bit or do some sort of experience that will improve my fluency in Spanish. It's nice to feel like my next year is really flexible. I don't think I'll ever have a year like this again, so I'm going to try to take full advantage.

 

[hmockingbird]

I didn't take one, and I don't regret it. My undergrad was in a non-science major (English) so I felt like I had already spent a lot of time having fun, away from studying science (at least for the majority of the time, I still obviously took the pre-reqs), and I was getting tired of English/a little burnt out and knew I wanted to move on to something I would be using for my career. (Now that I have been away from English, I'm like BRING ON THE PHD! Maybe years down the road lol.) I studied abroad during college, so I didn't feel like I was missing out on international travel opportunities. And finally, I've had a lot of "real world" experience growing up with multiple severe medical problems. So I felt like I knew about the environment I was getting into (I'm not trying to sound jaded or like I'm above stuff like shadowing, but between being sick myself and going to multiple specialties, being treated at an inner-city hospital, and having a physician as a parent, there has been very little that's surprised me about the healthcare system in med school, so I can truthfully say I knew what I was getting into) and had enough life experience to be comfortable with myself etc.

I have never heard gap years described as a negative though. I was actually worried that not having one would work against me but I just wanted to move forward to the next part of my life. We have some older non-trads, maybe 10-20% of the class, but I'd say the rest of my med school class is split pretty evenly between people who matriculated right out of college and people who took 1-2 years off.

 

[Ravens18]

Question: Did most of you take your gap year by choice or because you had to improve your application? Aren't there a lot of people who think pre med later in college and have to take time off to take those pre reqs or someone who needs to do a post-bacc to improve his/her grades or just someone who needs more volunteering/shadowing etc.? If your application was spot on would you have still taken the gap years(s) (to those who took the gap years without the intention of beefing up their app if that makes any sense). Just curious