Question about my Gap Year Situation - 1 or 2 gap years?

[RhinB]

All I'm looking for is opinions with some reasons why they chose that route eitherway. Currently my below material is biased towards the 2 years...so feel free to bring up any flaws in my thinking - in fact I welcome it!


I'm a senior in college and I've always been interested in medicine, health policy, and business in combination. During this past fall semester, some of my business-esque friends had been applying to consulting jobs and I thought I'd do the same - but with a focus in healthcare consulting.

I got a job with a nice salary - but during my interviews I didn't say per se that I wanted to work there one or two, or however many years. All I said was I was exploring my options and that I wanted to hold off on medical school for a "few years". I assume that this was an important part of their decision in hiring me but I could be completely wrong.

My problem is this: Should I take 1 and ONLY 1 gap year, or can I take 2? I am leaning towards taking 2 gap years vs. 1 gap year because I would want the recommendation letter from the job I will have, I would want to talk about my "real world" experience from there, and I would want to utilize any connections that I might make through employment (the firm I'll be working for deals with a lot of pharmaceutical companies and there are many different physicians that work for them - may or may not be relevant but I have an open mind).

If I take 1 gap year I'd basically be interview as I was JUST starting my job, and I might not have enough vacation days for it. I would basically be saying after only a few months at work "Hey...so I have to take ___ days off because I'm applying to Medical School and am not going to work here after a year!". I think it might be a bit weird.

Here are my stats for reference to see if they make an impact:

MCAT 36 (11, 12, 13 - PS, VR, BS)
3.62 Overall, 3.65 Science
2 Years Research Experience (school) and 1 paper published as coauthor.
Work experience as a General Manager is a small student run business (but generated 125k in revenue).
~400 hours of physician shadowing experience (1 full summer's worth. Due to a school's program that I had to apply for).
Cofounder of an Alziemer's organization (VP), and cofounder of a Medical Students in Diversity organization (VP)
~100 Community Service.

Thanks ahead of time for everything!

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[GavinThePremed]

All I'm looking for is opinions with some reasons why they chose that route eitherway. Currently my below material is biased towards the 2 years...so feel free to bring up any flaws in my thinking - in fact I welcome it!


I'm a senior in college and I've always been interested in medicine, health policy, and business in combination. During this past fall semester, some of my business-esque friends had been applying to consulting jobs and I thought I'd do the same - but with a focus in healthcare consulting.

I got a job with a nice salary - but during my interviews I didn't say per se that I wanted to work there one or two, or however many years. All I said was I was exploring my options and that I wanted to hold off on medical school for a "few years". I assume that this was an important part of their decision in hiring me but I could be completely wrong.

My problem is this: Should I take 1 and ONLY 1 gap year, or can I take 2? I am leaning towards taking 2 gap years vs. 1 gap year because I would want the recommendation letter from the job I will have, I would want to talk about my "real world" experience from there, and I would want to utilize any connections that I might make through employment (the firm I'll be working for deals with a lot of pharmaceutical companies and there are many different physicians that work for them - may or may not be relevant but I have an open mind).

If I take 1 gap year I'd basically be interview as I was JUST starting my job, and I might not have enough vacation days for it. I would basically be saying after only a few months at work "Hey...so I have to take ___ days off because I'm applying to Medical School and am not going to work here after a year!". I think it might be a bit weird.

Here are my stats for reference to see if they make an impact:

MCAT 36 (11, 12, 13 - PS, VR, BS)
3.62 Overall, 3.65 Science
2 Years Research Experience (school) and 1 paper published as coauthor.
Work experience as a General Manager is a small student run business (but generated 125k in revenue).
~400 hours of physician shadowing experience (1 full summer's worth. Due to a school's program that I had to apply for).
Cofounder of an Alziemer's organization (VP), and cofounder of a Medical Students in Diversity organization (VP)
~100 Community Service.

Thanks ahead of time for everything!

Your stats are more than good enough to gain medical admission right now. So it depends, do you want to go to Medical School earlier, or not? It's your option.

I'd only recommend 2 years if you were trying to improve upon your numbers.