Glide year: One year MS or work as EMT?

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You guys have been giving me good advice.

I'm a senior applying this coming cycle, which means if I get in on the first try I'll be going to med school next year (2017). I'll have one year to do as I please, what do you think I should do?

I've been thinking of doing a one-year masters program to get a head start on the med school material, but I'm now thinking that maybe it might be better to get some clinical experience beforehand.

I should note that my GPA and MCAT is fine, the one year glide is just logistical.

 

[Bruskie_77]

Use the time to make up for anything you are lacking in your application or use it to build a even stronger one. I'm not sure if getting an EMT license will be practical since it will probably take more time than you have to get sufficient experience. Also, getting a masters so you can prepare yourself for med school classes seems like a waste of time and money if you will already learn the same stuff in med school and since you're not spending time on parts of your app that could use improvement. If you haven't taken any anatomy or physiology it would benefit you to pick up a course at the CC but I don't think it will benefit you more to do a masters than to work on your app.

 

[Tenk]

Become an EMT if you can do it fast. It will help you a lot on your clinical rotations, and it's pretty fun.

 

[candbgirl]

It's hard to advise with such limited info but what are your ECs like? Any holes there?

 

[spiffysteve]

If your GPA/MCAT isn't a problem like you say, I would definitely not do a master's. If you really feel the need to get ahead before applying, you can do that by yourself without getting $40,000 in debt. Just buy a Step 1 study book or something.