Gap Year?

[badmedicine]

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I am a rising junior, and I have learned that I more or less will have to take a gap year to get into medical school (I'm not going to bother applying when I'm not ready).

While I am extremely unhappy about this (not to mention it will ruin graduation for me when all my other premed friends are going to medical school), I do want to make the most of it. FYI I have a 3.83 and 3.70 GPAs (overall and BCPM respectively) and plan to take the MCAT in the spring of my senior year.

I have already done research, including with a presentation at a professional conference, and quite frankly I find research quite boring. As such, I want to spend the year doing other things. I have little clinical experience, but I have been offered a job working in my college's admissions office as an assistant director of admissions (which is a job I really really like). Would it be acceptable to have this job full time and then do clinical work/hospital volunteering on the weekends?

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

So you have 2 years till you graduate. Why do you need to take a gap year?

 

[badmedicine]

i wont be able to get clinical experience in time nor will i be able to take the MCAT this year because unfortunately i had to withdraw from orgo II, so i'll have to give it another go in spring of junior year....can't wait.... 😛

 

[sinombre]

i wont be able to get clinical experience in time nor will i be able to take the MCAT this year because unfortunately i had to withdraw from orgo II, so i'll have to give it another go in spring of junior year....can't wait.... 😛

You can take the MCAT before you take orgo II... there's hardly any organic chemistry on the MCAT as is.

Also, I took two gap years. Those were probably the best two years of my life. Medical education isn't a race to the finish... try and enjoy the ride or you'll be miserable for a lot of years.

 

[badmedicine]

What did you do during those years? And is my idea acceptable or would that job be worth nothing?

 

[sinombre]

What did you do during those years? And is my idea acceptable or would that job be worth nothing?

I worked as a research coordinator at a medical school, did a lot of camping, a lot of snowboarding, a lot of random weekend trips, played a lot of video games, did a lot of reading, and had a great time doing all of it.

It doesn't matter what you do as long as you have enough clinical experience... and I don't really know how to quantify that (probably worth doing a search, that topic has been discussed a bajillion times so you'll probably get a pretty good idea by reading threads on sdn and looking at mdapps profiles of successful applicants).

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

They offered you a job two years in advance? That's odd.

I'd shoot for 200 to 400 hours you could call clinical. Could be weekends.

Can we all agree to stop using the word rising?

 

[AM90]

You can take the MCAT before you take orgo II... there's hardly any organic chemistry on the MCAT as is.

Also, I took two gap years. Those were probably the best two years of my life. Medical education isn't a race to the finish... try and enjoy the ride or you'll be miserable for a lot of years.

Agreed. I am about to start my second gap year as well. I spent the first on a Fulbright. Not sure what I will be doing for this upcoming year besides research and taking it easy.

Regardless, taking a gap year was the best decision I've made so far.

 

[Lambda Phage]

Rising senior taking a gap year here.

I'll be doing research and shadowing during mine.

 

[RCPreMD]

.

 

[badmedicine]

Yeah, they offered me a job in advance based on the fact that one of the assistant directors of admissions will be leaving at around the time I graduate! It's really nice opportunity.

 

[TheBossDoctor]

I just graduated and am taking a gap year. I couldn't imagine going straight to medical school this fall. I'm burnt out and tired of classes, and I need a year off to take a break and re-energize before continuing on this long road.

 

[badmedicine]

Thanks for the feedback guys...I was kind of afraid that taking a gap year is something to be embarrassed about. You know, like it's giving off the impression to people that you couldn't get your act together in time. It's good to know that it sounds like it's not something shameful to do.

I'm glad I can experience the world a bit (and not to mention enjoy the rest of my college experience with less stress) rather than having to fix my organic chemistry issue, taking the MCAT, and applying to medical school right now. I just hope the W in orgo II doesn't crucify me in admissions if the rest of my application is good. I've gotten A's or A-'s in all non-orgo classes so far haha.

 

[cyaneidae]

I just graduated and am taking a gap year. I couldn't imagine going straight to medical school this fall. I'm burnt out and tired of classes, and I need a year off to take a break and re-energize before continuing on this long road.

+infinity

This is my situation exactly. I originally decided on a gap year for a different reason, but after going thru senior yr I realized exactly how burnt out I was and how much I really needed a year off from school.

 

[911 Turbo]

I worked as a research coordinator at a medical school, did a lot of camping, a lot of snowboarding, a lot of random weekend trips, played a lot of video games, did a lot of reading, and had a great time doing all of it.

It doesn't matter what you do as long as you have enough clinical experience... and I don't really know how to quantify that (probably worth doing a search, that topic has been discussed a bajillion times so you'll probably get a pretty good idea by reading threads on sdn and looking at mdapps profiles of successful applicants).

lol just noticed the status change to medical student.... u excited man?!

 

[Chillbo Baggins]

I worked as a research coordinator at a medical school, did a lot of camping, a lot of snowboarding, a lot of random weekend trips, played a lot of video games, did a lot of reading, and had a great time doing all of it.

It doesn't matter what you do as long as you have enough clinical experience... and I don't really know how to quantify that (probably worth doing a search, that topic has been discussed a bajillion times so you'll probably get a pretty good idea by reading threads on sdn and looking at mdapps profiles of successful applicants).

I'm really glad I'm doing the gap year plan. It's nice to just focus on med school apps/interviews/etc. without classes getting in the way.

Plus I played more video games yesterday than I did in probably the past year and a half, haha.

 

[lovemango]

Thanks for the feedback guys...I was kind of afraid that taking a gap year is something to be embarrassed about. You know, like it's giving off the impression to people that you couldn't get your act together in time. It's good to know that it sounds like it's not something shameful to do.

Definitely not the case at all. Taking a gap year is becoming very common; quite a few people I met on the interview trail last year had taken one or two gap years. I've enjoyed having time off - I worked as an ER scribe, developed my own small business, had a 2-week vacation in South Korea and took trips to Washington DC, Austin, and San Francisco, and just hung out with friends and caught up on books and TV shows. I feel relaxed and ready to start med school next month 🙂

 

[Myrtle1990]

Thanks for the feedback guys...I was kind of afraid that taking a gap year is something to be embarrassed about. You know, like it's giving off the impression to people that you couldn't get your act together in time. It's good to know that it sounds like it's not something shameful to do.

I'm glad I can experience the world a bit (and not to mention enjoy the rest of my college experience with less stress) rather than having to fix my organic chemistry issue, taking the MCAT, and applying to medical school right now. I just hope the W in orgo II doesn't crucify me in admissions if the rest of my application is good. I've gotten A's or A-'s in all non-orgo classes so far haha.

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I want to add to the chorus -- taking a gap year is NOT something to be embarrassed about and unless you sit on your ass the whole time, it can do nothing but ENHANCE your competitiveness as an applicant. Adcoms don't look down upon it; in fact, I get the idea that many prefer it. I've done a gap year working in a rather non-traditional job and I'm applying now. Granted, the cycle is just beginning, but I feel like my job improved my application immensely. So much more to talk about in secondaries, and when adcoms read my application they'll have something out-of-the-box to remember me by.

Think about it -- if you apply after junior year or even after senior year, how much can you truly have done that distinguishes you from all of the other 3.8s+ and 36s+ who checked all the boxes? Sure, that's sufficient to be competitive and I don't mean to speak poorly of anyone who goes that route, but your application is going to look similar to lots of others. Even if you do a "traditional" gap-year activity (scribing, research, etc.) you've reflected for one more year on a medical career and differentiated yourself that much more. The gap year is a way to grow as a person, but ultimately, in this process, it's also a way to make your application the one an adcom remembers after reading through twenty pre-med robots applying after three years of undergrad.

 

[sinombre]

lol just noticed the status change to medical student.... u excited man?!

Haha, yeah it's pretty cool. We'll see how long my enthusiasm lasts though.

 

[sinombre]

I'm really glad I'm doing the gap year plan. It's nice to just focus on med school apps/interviews/etc. without classes getting in the way.

Plus I played more video games yesterday than I did in probably the past year and a half, haha.

Yeah, it was sort of nice to not have to worry about anything else. The downside is that it becomes really easy to obsess over the application process... there's so much waiting involved in applying to med school. Every single step of the process involves so much waiting, and so little communication from the powers that be. You submit your primary app, then you wait forever to get verified. Then you submit secondaries, and you wait forever to be complete at each school, then you wait forever (up to 8 months for me) for an interview decision. Then you interview, and you wait for months (at most schools) for a post-interview decision. If you're waitlisted, you wait until more than a year after you began the process to hear whether or not you got in. All of this overlaps to some extent, but it's still insane how long the process takes.

tl;dr - it's great to have time off... just make sure you focus on hobbies and things you want to do outside of medicine, or the process will eat you alive.

 

[badmedicine]

Yeah, it was sort of nice to not have to worry about anything else. The downside is that it becomes really easy to obsess over the application process... there's so much waiting involved in applying to med school. Every single step of the process involves so much waiting, and so little communication from the powers that be. You submit your primary app, then you wait forever to get verified. Then you submit secondaries, and you wait forever to be complete at each school, then you wait forever (up to 8 months for me) for an interview decision. Then you interview, and you wait for months (at most schools) for a post-interview decision. If you're waitlisted, you wait until more than a year after you began the process to hear whether or not you got in. All of this overlaps to some extent, but it's still insane how long the process takes.

tl;dr - it's great to have time off... just make sure you focus on hobbies and things you want to do outside of medicine, or the process will eat you alive.

Good to know...

 

[csal09]

I'm also coming up on my senior year and have decided to take a gap year. For those of you who have done this or are doing this, did any of you have to deal with repaying student loans? My plan is to delay graduation and just take a 5th year with the minimum credit hours to be full time, just so I can defer my loans. Not sure if I'll regret this, but as of right now I don't think I could work enough to support myself and pay off loans while putting in enough time to boost my resume and work on apps. Any thoughts?

 

[TheBossDoctor]

I'm also coming up on my senior year and have decided to take a gap year. For those of you who have done this or are doing this, did any of you have to deal with repaying student loans? My plan is to delay graduation and just take a 5th year with the minimum credit hours to be full time, just so I can defer my loans. Not sure if I'll regret this, but as of right now I don't think I could work enough to support myself and pay off loans while putting in enough time to boost my resume and work on apps. Any thoughts?

Honestly you'd be better off ending now and start paying your loans instead of paying an extra year of tuition (or taking out more loans for that). You have a 6-9 month grace period anyways so you won't have to start paying til November-Februaryish and the payment is probably only around 200-300/month at most. Just get a job now (maybe clinically or research related) and start saving up so that you have that extra $ to help you pay starting in November.

And worst case, you can go for deferment/forbearance from November until when you start med school. The interest will accumulate but that will still probably be much less than the additional debt gained after one more year of tuition.

Also, if your parents co-signed any of your loans, you could do what I'm doing and just make them pay for it

 

[mvenus929]

Thanks for the feedback guys...I was kind of afraid that taking a gap year is something to be embarrassed about. You know, like it's giving off the impression to people that you couldn't get your act together in time. It's good to know that it sounds like it's not something shameful to do..

We took an informal poll last week during the first year orientation. A little more than half said that they took some time off prior to med school. There's nothing wrong with it.

 

[Lamel]

I would rather not have to take a gap year honestly.

But let me ask you guys a question. If you apply after junior year (matriculate right after undergrad), are you at any disadvantage these days?