Explaining Gap Years

[Camacho Mt. Dew]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello again all -

I had another question/concern and was hoping for your thoughts pertaining to my gap years between my undergraduate degree and application.

The reason for my gap years were specifically due to my financial situation in 2013 (tried to qualify for fee waiver, but didn’t) and then when I could afford it my MCAT retake dropped in 2014. Now that I am financially stable and have what I think is a decent rebound score on the new MCAT I am ready to apply.
My question is, do you think it would be appropriate to state I was unable to apply due to these reasons? I don’t want to portray a sob story regarding money issues and I recognize that the previous MCAT take is my fault, but these are the genuine reasons for my delay. My GPAs were fine, so I didn’t feel the need to take more classes (cGPA: >3.5; sGPA >3.7) and I also have continued shadowing and work in rural healthcare the entire time. Any input is appreciated.

 

[IIIIIII]

No one cares that you had a gap year or not (some actually prefer it).
It only matters what you did during the gap year.
Financial reason maybe, but low mcat score is not something you need to say to explain why you didn't apply. That's something you can mention during interview it ever comes up.
And according to your other post, you did apply to an MD school.
You aren't making yourself look good on here.

 

[Camacho Mt. Dew]

No one cares that you had a gap year or not (some actually prefer it).
It only matters what you did during the gap year.
Financial reason maybe, but low mcat score is not something you need to say to explain why you didn't apply. That's something you can mention during interview it ever comes up.
And according to your other post, you did apply to an MD school.
You aren't making yourself look good on here.

I applied to my state MD school, because I qualified for the FAP and it was a free application to a school that I felt had a good mission statement.

Thank you for your response.

 

[Bones 2020]

Just be honest! I'm not sure why so many people try to hide reasons for their actions. You could not afford it and your application was not strong enough, so you worked to save money and improved your app. It is a mature reason to delay applying

 

[osteohack10]

I took a gap year and it panned out nicely. Best advice would be do what you can to get a paid research or clinical job, even if it's CNA type work. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, at least make sure you get some volunteer hours in and potentially some shadowing (particularly a DO). I was never asked to explain why I took a gap year, but I had a lot of things to tell them I was doing during the year. If my memory serves me correctly, I didn't have a secondary that asked about a gap year.

 

[Camacho Mt. Dew]

Just be honest! I'm not sure why so many people try to hide reasons for their actions. You could not afford it and your application was not strong enough, so you worked to save money and improved your app. It is a mature reason to delay applying

I'm going to be I just want to tell them exactly why I took that time off without it sounding like I'm trying to justify a low MCAT score I guess. I want to portray that I recognized these issues and tried to remedy them over my time off. I just didn't feel I would be competitive.

I took a gap year and it panned out nicely. Best advice would be do what you can to get a paid research or clinical job, even if it's CNA type work. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, at least make sure you get some volunteer hours in and potentially some shadowing (particularly a DO). I was never asked to explain why I took a gap year, but I had a lot of things to tell them I was doing during the year. If my memory serves me correctly, I didn't have a secondary that asked about a gap year.

I have been working as a medical assistant at a rural clinic and shadowing a D.O as well as tutoring at my local college in addition to studying for the new MCAT.

 

[EvolutionaryRevolutionary]

I also have gap years! So, I can completely understand. It's hard and can be very emotional when you see others ahead of you. Remember, you can't think about your success if you think of others success first. Stay positive and in the game.

 

[ChrisMack390]

Adcoms haven't cared about gap years since like 1982.

 

[Gandyy]

Adcoms haven't cared about gap years since like 1982.

I loled.