Additional Gap Years and How Med Schools See Them

[RhinB]

This one doesn't apply to me directly but was curious as what other people thought about the issue.

I think it's been a trend to take more gap years bc hey, more experience, more research etc. can only help you right?

But how do medical school admissions view / compare applicants who are similar in terms of GPA/MCAT, but differ in terms of amount of experience?

One view is that MORE experience is better than less, but the flip side is that you've spent so much time getting that experience and maybe you have "less" to show for it. So maybe you have 10k research hours, but that's just because you were doing research for x # more years vs an undergraduate. Maybe this undergraduate has shown a greater amount of dedication/discipline in his/her undergraduate years and that's why they want to apply now.

lol idk just thinking out loud.

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[cantankerous]

The average entering class age is usually older than 22-24
what do you think

 

[ramifications]

It's a personal/economical issue to take a gap year. Just because someone takes it doesn't necessarily mean they want more experience. Nowadays with more debt than ever, I think it is quiet smart for those under-privileged to take up a job and earn money so they don't go through what they did during college. I represent that n=1 sample and though I regret not having applied straight, I also know the difference between jumping from a 30 feet building and roping down that height. At one point or another you will come across that epiphany and realize that the standard mentality of grade school kids is usually meant to stop by the end of college. After that event has passed you have to think like an adult and if you keep grounding yourself through life as if a train is passing by without stopping you may not achieve the most essential goal of your life and that is to enjoy it and care for it. The more you adhere to the true decisions that your heart says the better advice you can provide as a physician and we wouldn't have to deal with threads where people are contemplating their life after or in medical school.

 

[halcyonpage]

Can't speak to what adcoms think. But I'll have three gap years if I get in this cycle. Part of it was because I switched to premed junior year and didn't have an MCAT and all the ECs to get in after graduating. Part of it was to move away from my parents and spend quality time with my SO (whom my parents have a hard time approving of). I've grown up a lot since then and I honestly don't think a med school would have admitted me until this point. At least, not a med school I'd want to go to. *cough Caribbean cough*