Advice: 1 vs. 2 gap years?

[catsandscrubs]

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[mdphdNYC]

It sounds like your profile is already solid with a 4.00, research and leadership, and with more experience in a medical context like scribing/volunteering you should be gravy to apply to your choice of schools. I think the concerns expressed on this site about taking the MCAT during the school year are overblown, and many very well prepared people are studying way longer than they need to be for the MCAT. If you have a solid background in the material (as a 4.00 in a biochem major strongly suggests), a summer should be more than enough time to study - there is no need to take over a year to prepare. It's easy to say "one or two gap years" on this site but don't undervalue a whole year of your life. If I were in your position I would take it in January and apply next cycle. If you are scoring consistently high on practice tests by the end of the summer you could even take it in September (still applying next cycle, but with one less thing to worry about).

 

[Blanky]

I just took a May MCAT post a light 12 credit semester. Originally I assumed it would be an easy semester and I could focus on my study. Wrong, you still seem to get busy work from those light classes and I worked nearly full time so it was a bad mix. I ended up with light study for 3 months and then had two weeks post finals to study and found my practice scores rising super fast. If I would have dragged the MCAT to end of summer I know I could have gained 5 points at least on my MCAT.