Medical Deferral to extend undergraduate program?

[gyngyn]

I am on track to graduate college in 3 years (2019) and currently interviewing for med school. Over the past several weeks, I have realized that I would rather complete my degree in 4 years and matriculate that fall for a variety of personal reasons. Staying in my undergraduate program would be greatly preferable to taking a gap-year. I am wondering whether a 1-year deferral request to finish my undergraduate program and matriculate in 2020 would be feasible. I am under no commitment to my university to graduate early, and I will finish all the required classes this Spring either way. I have had a pre-med advisor tell me that some schools may grant this request, but I am skeptical given that med schools require you to have graduated or to be on track to complete an undergraduate degree by the end of the cycle in order to apply.

The degree to which medical schools are willing to defer can vary from year to year. When there are potentially too many matriculants for the seats available, they are happy to defer as many as possible, in lean years, not so much. Therefore, one cannot plan on a deferral because both the willingness to defer and the conditions which favor deferral cannot be predicted with precision.

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