Does this sound like a good idea...

[deleted74029]

I'm seriously considering holding off a year on applying to medical school to make myself a better well rounded candidate. I plan to get my masters, more clinical experience and other things to improve my application. However, I do have a pretty competitive MCAT score and pretty strong ties that could help me get into one certain medical school. Would it be smart to apply to this one medical school this year and if I'm not accepted apply to all the other Medical schools I'm interested in the following year, that way I won't have to worry about being a reapplicant to all these other schools?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[wizenedone]

Is your GPA good?

 

[deleted74029]

Is your GPA good?

Definitely not, thats the primary reason I am waiting a year.....

 

[wizenedone]

Definitely not, thats the primary reason I am waiting a year.....

Well you could apply but remember that getting a masters won't fix (or help) your uGPA.

 

[fireflygirl]

You would be doing a better thing for yourself by waiting out the year. I have a really good friend who applied to Penn's Vet School two years ago who runs her own aviary and has a stellar GRE score. She had a tremendous list of ECs and leadership positions that should have made her a shoe-in for Vet school. Her parents are big names around Philadelphia and the Dean of Admissions for the Vet School at Penn is often present at my friend's families' yearly lavish parties so the Dean and my friend's family are pretty tight. Wouldn't you know that they rejected her outright because her GPA was too low? My friend thought she had a shot there so she neglected some key courses and didn't apply broadly. She was devastated upon finding out because she really thought she had a chance and even got interviewed there, but looking back, she thinks they intended to reject her all along and were just doing her family a favor.

If you have some flaws in your application, don't think they'll be overlooked because you have strong ties somewhere. They may but they may not as was in my friend's case. Strengthen your application and apply broadly. Be hopeful of that school where you have the ties, but don't bet on it. Go in there pretending you have no ties and that you're like any other applicant. You just want to be prepared as best as you can so that if you don't make it into that one school, you have other options. Good luck!

 

[deleted74029]

You just want to be prepared as best as you can so that if you don't make it into that one school, you have other options. Good luck!

Thats exactly what I'm trying to do. I'm prepared to not get accepted into that one school I'm just wondering if it will be harmful to my application the following year, which is when I plan to apply to numerous schools. Basically applying there this year is a "just in case" type thing where I really don't plan on getting accepted there but I'm gonna apply there and just in case I do I have no problem with attending there, if I don't I'm gonna hold off a year and apply to lots of other schools.

 

[fireflygirl]

Thats exactly what I'm trying to do. I'm prepared to not get accepted into that one school I'm just wondering if it will be harmful to my application the following year, which is when I plan to apply to numerous schools. Basically applying there this year is a "just in case" type thing where I really don't plan on getting accepted there but I'm gonna apply there and just in case I do I have no problem with attending there, if I don't I'm gonna hold off a year and apply to lots of other schools.

I don't think it's going to be harmful persay but what if it comes up in an interview if you had applied previously? How would you deal with saying that you applied to one school, "just in case it worked out"? I don't know if that's a possibility or not but that is one thing that came to mind. I personally think you should wait it out and then apply all at once and see what happens while you have time to bring up whatever is lacking. I mean who's to say that you would spend money and time applying to this one school this year and then get rejected for something that you could have fixed over the next year and then had a better shot of getting in?