Gap Year Question Regarding EC's

[fre3play]

Lets say I take a year off after I graduate from undergrad and do research/volunteering throughout that year. How would I show this on my AAMC application? By the time schools are interviewing/sending out decisions, this will be too late for me to reflect on my gap year experiences.

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[jeghaber]

I started my current gap year research position a week after I submitted my AMCAS, but opted not to include my new job in my primary application as 1) I didn't have much to write about having not started the job yet and having only a general idea of what it would actually entail and 2) while the AMCAS allows you to now include "future" hours, I already had 15 other activities listed and didn't feel the need to bump my other activities. Whether you'll want to include it in your own AMCAS is a personal decision. Either way, however, you'll be able to update most(*) schools throughout the cycle with whatever you end up doing.

I updated all of my schools with information about my job and the productivity from it as the cycle continued. I spaced out the timing of this update depending on whether I had heard back from schools regarding interviews. For the schools I had yet to hear back regarding an interview, I sent the updates in mid-October and received invites from 3 of the 7 schools within a week of doing so. For the schools I had already heard back, I sent essentially the same update (personalized only with a short blurb addressing each school's specific fit/appeal) about a week after attending each interview. What I had been up to since graduation actually became a point of conversation at several of my interviews and was a nice way to add completely new information to the interview (which, I think, my interviewers often found more refreshing than the typical "I read you did X; tell me more"), so I'd say it worked out pretty well.

(*) Some schools won't accept updates to your file prior to extending an interview invitation, and others are happy to accept them at any point. Look at a few school-specific threads to see where the majority of your intended school list falls. That might be a factor in deciding whether to list your prospective job/volunteering work in your AMCAS.

EDIT: Some schools will also have a section in their secondaries that specifically ask what, if applicable, you've been since submitting your primary application. Point is, there are plenty of opportunities to show what you've been doing in your gap year throughout the process. Best of luck!

 

[Narmerguy]

I started my current gap year research position a week after I submitted my AMCAS, but opted not to include my new job in my primary application as 1) I didn't have much to write about having not started the job yet and having only a general idea of what it would actually entail and 2) while the AMCAS allows you to now include "future" hours, I already had 15 other activities listed and didn't feel the need to bump my other activities. Whether you'll want to include it in your own AMCAS is a personal decision. Either way, however, you'll be able to update most(*) schools throughout the cycle with whatever you end up doing.

I updated all of my schools with information about my job and the productivity from it as the cycle continued. I spaced out the timing of this update depending on whether I had heard back from schools regarding interviews. For the schools I had yet to hear back regarding an interview, I sent the updates in mid-October and received invites from 3 of the 7 schools within a week of doing so. For the schools I had already heard back, I sent essentially the same update (personalized only with a short blurb addressing each school's specific fit/appeal) about a week after attending each interview. What I had been up to since graduation actually became a point of conversation at several of my interviews and was a nice way to add completely new information to the interview (which, I think, my interviewers often found more refreshing than the typical "I read you did X; tell me more"), so I'd say it worked out pretty well.

(*) Some schools won't accept updates to your file prior to extending an interview invitation, and others are happy to accept them at any point. Look at a few school-specific threads to see where the majority of your intended school list falls. That might be a factor in deciding whether to list your prospective job/volunteering work in your AMCAS.

I think this is a fantastic approach!