Early Assurance Program - Or Gap Year For Higher Ranked Med School?

[premedthrowaway3514]

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Hey Everyone,

I'm really lucky to be posting from this situation but I was wondering what all of your opinions are on my current situation. I was recently accepted to an early assurance program that will essentially allow me to enter a top 30-40 medical school straight out of undergraduate. I am a sophomore and have not taken the MCAT yet but the minimum score I have to get is an 80% percentile combined score. I have 400+ hours of volunteering with longevity (3+ years) in the organizations. I also have a 3.9+ College GPA and a 3.9+ Science GPA, leadership roles and a good chunk of shadowing down (30 hours in two specialties). I am also starting research with a PI who knows and will help me publish.

However, the more I think about the program, the more conflicted I feel about going to the program. First, I wouldn't be able to apply to other medical schools so I wouldn't be able to price check against different medical schools. The school is also pretty expensive (300000+) with only a bit of financial aid. In addition, the match list is alright but not amazing. I feel as if I am almost under selling myself and I don't know how much impact medical school prestige has on residency placements. Or if prestigious residency's even have an impact on clinical work/salary (I don't plan on going into research for life, I would like to work as a clinician).

On the other hand, the pros are if I decide to accept the program, I would likely save a year of opportunity cost and application fees to go to a top 30-40 medical school. This means that I would probably be able to work one more year in my life time. I would also graduate from medical school at the age of 26 and likely start as a resident at the age of 27. In addition, if I do decide to try to go for more prestigious residencies, I can begin to start focusing on research and publications/posters towards the residency I desire as a Junior in college as I would no longer have to jump through too many hoops and really focus on research.

On the other hand if I were to decide to throw the dice, then I would have to take a gap year according to my original plan. But like stated before, I could throw the dice and really try my hand at a top 5-10. It would also give me a year to take a breather from under grad and focus on research as well. Finally, I looked at the match lists for some of the top 10's and was shocked at how often the schools seemed to select it's own graduates. So at the end of the day, it would be a risk (a big one) but if it made choosing a top notch residency easier, it could be worth attempting. But a huge con is that my cycle could go horribly and I could end up at a worse medical school, maybe even worse than the one I am in.

I think the question at the end of the day is if trying to go to a top 5-10 medical school is worth the risk and price of a gap year. And if, I do get one of the power house residencies, if it ultimately makes an impact on the salary of someone planning to do clinical work for the rest of their life. Thanks for reading this far and I look forward to your opinions!

TL;DR; Throw the dice for a higher ranked medical school and take a gap year or save one year of my life and roll with the guaranteed acceptance.

 

[altblue]

You could always accept the program and keep your doors open. If you study hard for the MCAT when the program asks you to and get the score you want for more desirable programs, you could apply broadly and leave the early assurance program. Of course, you wouldn't simply be booted from the program just for getting a high MCAT score, so that would remain an option as well.

 

[premedthrowaway3514]

You could always accept the program and keep your doors open. If you study hard for the MCAT when the program asks you to and get the score you want for more desirable programs, you could apply broadly and leave the early assurance program. Of course, you wouldn't simply be booted from the program just for getting a high MCAT score, so that would remain an option as well.

Hmmmm, the only thing that kinda worries me about that path is that I'm required to take the MCAT at a specific time. I don't believe I would be prepared as well as I could be if I had to take the MCAT at that time as it is during the school year. In addition, I would have to take several courses that are really hard (a one year medical course regarding human anatomy) that could hurt my GPA. Also, If I were to drop out of the program, I wouldn't have continuity in my volunteering as I would likely focus on research rather than volunteering if I decide to stay in the program (seeing as I could use the research in the future but I have heard that volunteering is essentially reset in Medical School).

Thanks for the advice though, I appreciate it!

 

[tiramisucheese]

That MCAT requirement is actually kind of tough IMO. 80%ile in every subsection? While my total score was above this, one of my subsections was not. What happens if you don't meet their requirement?

 

[premedthrowaway3514]

That MCAT requirement is actually kind of tough IMO. 80%ile in every subsection? While my total score was above this, one of my subsections was not. What happens if you don't meet their requirement?

Oh whoops, my bad. Correction, a combined score of 80% percentile, not individual subsection score!

Edit: So apparently, the MCAT score is "taken in consideration" by the committee. I'm assuming students are probably asked to leave though

 

[thegreengreatdragon]

Hey, OP! So I am also an early acceptance student, and I'll be matriculating to med school this fall.

I had my heart set on the COM I'll be attending, and so, for me, the early acceptance was a no-brainer. I was thrilled when I was accepted and am excited about starting med school once I graduate.

I can tell you some of the pros that I experienced personally:

• Obviously the certainty. This is the best part. Knowing that you are in med school is honestly one of the best feelings. I watched my friends apply this cycle, and med admissions suck (no surprise there, I hope). I saw one friend in particular with higher stats than me have a really hard time: wasn't getting a lot of IIs, got waitlisted a bunch of times, etc (he ended up getting accepted to 2 pretty good MD schools recently, though, so I guess all's well that ends well).
• For my program, we had to keep a minimum 3.5 GPA. There were no course requirements, either, so I got to spend my last two years of college taking classes that I actually wanted to take and not have to worry too much about my grades. I got pretty poor grades (for me) last semester, but I'm still WELL above a 3.5, so it didn't matter.
• Going easy on the EC's. I quit volunteering because the hospital I volunteered at for 400+ hours suddenly changed their policy, and I really wasn't about it. But since I didn't need the hours anymore, I could afford to quit (on good terms). I didn't have to worry about shadowing (which is hard to come by where I'm from), and I instead got the chance to do awesome things I maybe wouldn't have had time for if I'd been worrying about med admissions: tutoring an adult ESL learner, coaching a science olympiad team at the local high school, spending more time on my writing.

But like I said, I knew that I wanted to go to my COM, so I was thrilled. The fact that you're having doubts right now is telling me that maybe this isn't the best option for you.

I had a friend who did something similar to you, actually. She got into the same early acceptance program I am in, but she suddenly wasn't sure if she wanted to be a doctor or if she wanted to go to law school. She took a year off to do research and think about it, did some soul-searching, fell in love and got married to a dude who was going to med school across the country, and ultimately realized that a) she did want to go to med school and b) she didn't want to go to this med school anymore because it was way too far away from her husband. So she ended up taking two gap years, applied to schools on the west coast, got into hubby's school, and is now very happily applying to residency programs. So doing the gap year thing is also very much an option. You need to do what's best for you, and right now, it sounds like maybe you think the early assurance thing is not.

And as for that last comment you made about MCAT scores: for my particular program, there was a girl in my batch who didn't do well enough on her MCAT and was subsequently kicked out. It was not pretty. She a) thought she'd be able to retake it, which was not the case and b) found out about it too late in the application cycle to do the regular application so she's currently taking a gap year. Nothing wrong with a gap year necessarily, but since she wasn't planning on it, it was sad. So, I mean, make sure you do well enough on the MCAT haha.

anyway, PM me if you'd like to talk to me more about my experience