Applying med school after 2nd year

[SamHose]

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Hi,

I am a sophomore at my undergraduate and planning to graduate in three years. I am planing to take MCAT in June and then apply to medical school in July. What are my chances of gettinng into medical school? Should I apply in early decision program? Should I wait one more year and apply to medical school in my junior year?

Has anyone applied to medical school in their sophomore year?

I have a high GPA of 3.9 and I am scoring around 32 practice MCAT. I have two years of research and has some leadership. Involved in ER program.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[IlDestriero]

Why would you apply in your 2nd year? Are you hoping to get in without completing your degree? It's technically possible, but I've never heard of anyone not completing their bachelors program. (excepting combined programs, but I think they still get an undergrad degree)
They're not going to admit you and defer you a year to (hopefully) complete your degree.

 

[Laryngophed]

Why would you apply in your 2nd year? Are you hoping to get in without completing your degree? It's technically possible, but I've never heard of anyone not completing their bachelors program. (excepting combined programs, but I think they still get an undergrad degree)
They're not going to admit you and defer you a year to (hopefully) complete your degree.

This. My school has an explicit expectation that applicants/matriculants will finish whatever program in which they are currently enrolled before classes begin. Besides OP, if you hate medical school and decide it isn't for you (it happened to two in my original class) you will be left without a bachelors degree and no medical degree. And all of the debt to boot. That doesn't seem wise.

 

[oohhii]

.

 

[Laryngophed]

I think the poster means that s/he will complete the major in three years. I'm in the same boat. I'm overloading on credits, research, volunteering, etc., but I can't decide if I should graduate in 3 years and apply to medical school during summer 2012 or follow the traditional route with a double major.

Ahh, reading the OP would have been helpful on my part. I would think that 3 years or 4 probably won't matter, so long as you would be a competitive candidate. That means getting in all of the shadowing, volunteering, working, research, etc. that others have another complete year to acquire. The other issue that may arise is an issue of age and maturity, but I am speculating on that.

 

[Astarael]

You lot all need to read the OP again. He/she is graduating in three years. That means that he/she will have the degree by the time he/she matriculates, which fulfills all of those requirements.

OP, you'll run into a couple problems applying this early, but they can be overcome. The first is that you will have a year less than all many other applicants to get all of your extracurricular activities done. You can look around elsewhere on SDN to see what is typical for a competitive applicant.

The second problem might be a little more difficult to overcome. You need to be pretty mature in order to get into medical school. If you're a traditional applicant, that will make you about 20 years old by the time you apply. It isn't unheard of, but it might be a bit of a hurdle; there may be some admissions committee members who see you as too inexperienced to be admitted to medical school. This may be an unfair assumption based only on your age, but you should know about it now. And in the end, it might not be a problem at all. Only you can really know if you are a mature person, and if you can communicate that effectively.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do!

 

[IlDestriero]

Forget it. You're actually applying in your 3rd (and final) year not your second year as you stated. My advice, take 5 years and have more fun. You're only in college once.

 

[theWUbear]

Why would you apply in your 2nd year? Are you hoping to get in without completing your degree?

Hi,

I am planning to graduate in three years.

IlDestriero - I think you misunderstood the original post. It seems he has enough credits that his second year is like his junior year.


OP: you will be discriminated against not based on your age but perhaps (and i'm assuming here) based on a relative dearth of experiences. Frequently, early graduation applicants, with only two college years to gain sufficient clinical experience and EC's, are short on this measurement. Also - do you have your Letters of Recommendation ready? People applying this year are having them uploaded to AMCAS right now. If you don't have them, you need to give the prof at least a month to write it, give all of your letters to your pre-health committee, wait a month for them to write the committee letter, wait a week for it to be uploaded to AMCAS. I don't see that getting done by early July.

If your LOR situation is ok, GPA + MCAT is most of the equation, so if you have enough work in the ER you could be ok. Do not do early decision - it is not the same thing as it was for undergrad.

What you need to do is get everything done on AMCAS and verified so that the day your MCAT comes out your application goes to 20 schools (more if you're in Cali). But I suspect you have overlooked the LOR's, which means year off for you.

 

[Astarael]

Forget it. You're actually applying in your 3rd (and final) year not your second year as you stated. My advice, take 5 years and have more fun. You're only in college once.

Haha this is awesome advice!

OP, something I wanted to add to my previous post: the earliest year in which you can apply is the last year that you plan on being in school. So if you have two years of school done, and are on your way into your third, you could apply. If you are going to be a sophomore this upcoming year (if you have one year of school behind you) then you cannot apply.

 

[theWUbear]

Lol took me too long to post, inb4'd many times

 

[theWUbear]

The second problem might be a little more difficult to overcome. You need to be pretty mature in order to get into medical school. If you're a traditional applicant, that will make you about 20 years old by the time you apply. It isn't unheard of, but it might be a bit of a hurdle; there may be some admissions committee members who see you as too inexperienced to be admitted to medical school. This may be an unfair assumption based only on your age, but you should know about it now. And in the end, it might not be a problem at all. Only you can really know if you are a mature person, and if you can communicate that effectively.

I recognize that OP will face this, but I think its pretty foolish seeing as there are schools like NJMS that have 1/4 of their entering class in a given year in 7-year med programs (that put people in 3 years at a second tier state school before med school). I imagine the number of one-year-early applicants through 7 year programs is in the thousands, so 19 year old applicants doing it the non-7-year-track are not really exceptionally young - just exceptionally gifted

 

[Astarael]

I recognize that OP will face this, but I think its pretty foolish seeing as there are schools like NJMS that have 1/4 of their entering class in a given year in 7-year med programs (that put people in 3 years at a second tier state school before med school). I imagine the number of one-year-early applicants through 7 year programs is in the thousands, so 19 year old applicants doing it the non-7-year-track are not really exceptionally young - just exceptionally gifted

Oh yeah, I totally agree with you. Especially with the part about being exceptionally gifted; I am of the opinion that anyone graduating in three years with a competitive enough application to get interviews is likely more mature than the vast majority of the general population. Still, when you're a 20 year old student interviewing next to 25 year olds, it's almost inevitable that someone will wonder how mature you are. Not super fair to the OP, but forewarned is forearmed.

 

[SamHose]

IlDestriero - I think you misunderstood the original post. It seems he has enough credits that his second year is like his junior year.


OP: you will be discriminated against not based on your age but perhaps (and i'm assuming here) based on a relative dearth of experiences. Frequently, early graduation applicants, with only two college years to gain sufficient clinical experience and EC's, are short on this measurement. Also - do you have your Letters of Recommendation ready? People applying this year are having them uploaded to AMCAS right now. If you don't have them, you need to give the prof at least a month to write it, give all of your letters to your pre-health committee, wait a month for them to write the committee letter, wait a week for it to be uploaded to AMCAS. I don't see that getting done by early July.

If your LOR situation is ok, GPA + MCAT is most of the equation, so if you have enough work in the ER you could be ok. Do not do early decision - it is not the same thing as it was for undergrad.

What you need to do is get everything done on AMCAS and verified so that the day your MCAT comes out your application goes to 20 schools (more if you're in Cali). But I suspect you have overlooked the LOR's, which means year off for you.

Let me clearify couple things. I have completed second year of college but I have enough AP credits that I can graduate in 3 years. I will be starting my 3rd year in fall.

As far as EC's, I have following so far.
2 years of research
ER program
couple job shadowing
International research
Leadership experience
Summer research
4 years of volunterring at hospital during high school years
Hospital internship program during high school


I will get all of my LOR by the end of June. I am taking MCAT in June and apply to med school when I get MCAT score in July.

Questions:
1. Do you or know someone who applied to med school after second year?
2. Do I have enough EC's?

Students from combined BS/MD programs get into med school one year early so why does age matters if I apply one year early?

 

[courtnes]

Let me clearify couple things. I have completed second year of college but I have enough AP credits that I can graduate in 3 years. I will be starting my 3rd year in fall.

As far as EC's, I have following so far.
2 years of research
ER program
couple job shadowing
International research
Leadership experience
Summer research
4 years of volunterring at hospital during high school years
Hospital internship program during high school


I will get all of my LOR by the end of June. I am taking MCAT in June and apply to med school when I get MCAT score in July.

Questions:
1. Do you or know someone who applied to med school after second year?
2. Do I have enough EC's?

Students from combined BS/MD programs get into med school one year early so why does age matters if I apply one year early?

Your application actually sounds great. You have all of the requisite experiences to apply. One question I have is do you have any hobbies or really unique experiences/interests that you plan to include in your application? The international research sounds intriguing but without much in the way of detail, you risk coming off as one-dimensional. This process is about being a well-rounded, interesting person to some extent and you want adcoms to have something to remember you by. Part of this involves being able to really show adcoms your personal experiences from ECs and in the personal statement - the hard part is that it's rare to have an exceptional PS.

 

[trophywife]

i know a girl who completed his undergrad in 2 years. took the mcat after her 1st year. is at baylor immediately following graduation

 

[SamHose]

i know a girl who completed his undergrad in 2 years. took the mcat after her 1st year. is at baylor immediately following graduation

I thought you need to have 90 college course work to get into medical school. Does AP credit counts towards 90 credit requirements?


Are there any others who applied after two years?

 

[ridethecliche]

i know a girl who completed his undergrad in 2 years. took the mcat after her 1st year. is at baylor immediately following graduation

Did she have a sex change somewhere in there too?

Nttawwt.