Graduating Undergrad a Year Early?

[deleted988749]

I have 30 credits from HS AP classes so I'm able to graduate a year early. I want to have a gap year for myself to play league of legends or travel the world depending on my mood. Just do whatever I want but the problem is I don't want to seem unproductive in that gap year. I have a good amount of hours in ECs so I'm thinking I could take the MCAT and apply sophomore year summer, then defer matriculating for a year to have a gap year for myself so they can't deny me for a useless gap year. Should I just compromise and do 3.5 years instead(maybe study aborad with the extra semester?) Would med schools understand if I explain my situation?

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[Saturday’s Child]

Not a single medical school will allow you to defer matriculation in order to travel or play a game. Deferrals are typically granted to allow the pursuit of some kind of additional degree or research through a scholarship program, or possibly for personal hardship. It does not sound like you have any worthwhile “situation” to explain to schools.

Also, I’m not sure what your definition of “a good amount of hours” is, but I find it hard to imagine anyone getting enough hours of extracurriculars within their first 2 years of college to apply successfully to med school. Hours are also not the only thing that matters—schools want to see things like long-term commitment, leadership, etc. within your experiences.

Do not apply after your sophomore year. Apply after junior year at the earliest, and plan to have something productive to do if you take a gap year.

 

[KnightDoc]

Not a single medical school will allow you to defer matriculation in order to travel or play a game. Deferrals are typically granted to allow the pursuit of some kind of additional degree or research through a scholarship program, or possibly for personal hardship. It does not sound like you have any worthwhile “situation” to explain to schools.

Also, I’m not sure what your definition of “a good amount of hours” is, but I find it hard to imagine anyone getting enough hours of extracurriculars within their first 2 years of college to apply successfully to med school. Hours are also not the only thing that matters—schools want to see things like long-term commitment, leadership, etc. within your experiences.

Do not apply after your sophomore year. Apply after junior year at the earliest, and plan to have something productive to do if you take a gap year.

OP really has nothing to worry about here. 2/3 of all matriculants don't have enough on their CVs to be admitted without a gap year or two graduating after 4 years; it's highly unlikely OP will be admitted after 3 years no matter how great he thinks his ECs are, so he'll be doing more than he realizes during his gap year, while also enjoying his second cycle.

 

[m1redsox]

Lol jeez y’all are being preeeeetty harsh. PLENTY of people get in by applying after junior year (like yours truly). I even had low-average ECs. If OP can score well enough on the MCAT and has a high enough GPA, then I see no reason why he could not get into a low-mid tier MD school or any DO school. If OP wants to go T20 then yeah, he’ll need a 518/3.85 and stellar ECs.
I wouldn’t recommend applying after Sophomore year because you probably will not have enough ECs by then, and it will be hard to defer and explain that you want to take a gap year to game. But even still, if you look on MSAR, some schools grant deferrals regardless of the situation (most schools are on a case-by-case basis).
Generally, it is recommended to have 250+ hours of clinical hours and 200+ hours of volunteering. If you have that, the stats (say minimum 3.7+ and 512+), and apply to the right schools, you should be fine. TONS of students take a gap year to relax and game before matriculating. I had very few schools ask if I was taking a gap year and what I’d be doing during that time.
Nevertheless, the previous posters have a point in that you should anticipate the possibility that you will be one of the 50% of applicants who don’t get in on the first try. Try to spend some time doing more ECs and improving your application for the next cycle until you have that acceptance in your inbox. Then you can dedicate yourself solely to travel and gaming haha.

 

[Med.School.Hopeful]

Requesting a deferral so you can play video games for a year. Lololololol

 

[KnightDoc]

Lol jeez y’all are being preeeeetty harsh. PLENTY of people get in by applying after junior year (like yours truly). I even had low-average ECs. If OP can score well enough on the MCAT and has a high enough GPA, then I see no reason why he could not get into a low-mid tier MD school or any DO school. If OP wants to go T20 then yeah, he’ll need a 518/3.85 and stellar ECs.
I wouldn’t recommend applying after Sophomore year because you probably will not have enough ECs by then, and it will be hard to defer and explain that you want to take a gap year to game. But even still, if you look on MSAR, some schools grant deferrals regardless of the situation (most schools are on a case-by-case basis).
Generally, it is recommended to have 250+ hours of clinical hours and 800+ hours of volunteering. If you have that, the stats (say minimum 3.7+ and 512+), and apply to the right schools, you should be fine. TONS of students take a gap year to relax and game before matriculating. I had very few schools ask if I was taking a gap year and what I’d be doing during that time.
Nevertheless, the previous posters have a point in that you should anticipate the possibility that you will be one of the 50% of applicants who don’t get in on the first try. Try to spend some time doing more ECs and improving your application for the next cycle until you have that acceptance in your inbox. Then you can dedicate yourself solely to travel and gaming haha.

I'm not sure why you are saying we are harsh when you are saying the same exact thing (i.e., while plenty (approximately 1/3 of class) are successful applying after 3 years, we all agree it's next to impossible to have enough ECs to be successful after two years)!

And you are 1,000% correct about deferrals being granted on a case-by-case basis. It's highly unlikely one of the successful cases will be "I wanted to lock in a spot after two years so I can spend a gap year relaxing" because (a) the application is unlikely to be attractive after only two years and (b) case-by-case isn't usually meant to be "sure, go enjoy yourself, you're so awesome that we'll hold a spot for whenever you're done playing League of Legends." In fact, admitting that's what you want to do with a gap year is more likely to get your acceptance rescinded than to get your deferral granted!!!

By the way, it's not 50% of applicants that are unsuccessful; it's closer to 60%, and it's a virtual certainty that a sophomore graduating early will be among them, regardless of how great the stats might be, because there simply won't be enough time to round out the application when 2/3 of applicants can't do it after 3 years.

 

[m1redsox]

I'm not sure why you are saying we are harsh when you are saying the same exact thing (i.e., while plenty (approximately 1/3 of class) are successful applying after 3 years, we all agree it's next to impossible to have enough ECs to be successful after two years)!

And you are 1,000% correct about deferrals being granted on a case-by-case basis. It's highly unlikely one of the successful cases will be "I wanted to lock in a spot after two years so I can spend a gap year relaxing" because (a) the application is unlikely to be attractive after only two years and (b) case-by-case isn't usually meant to be "sure, go enjoy yourself, you're so awesome that we'll hold a spot for whenever you're done playing League of Legends."

By the way, it's not 50% of applicants that are unsuccessful; it's closer to 60%, and it's a virtual certainty that a sophomore graduating early will be among them, regardless of how great the stats might be, because there simply won't be enough time to round out the application when 2/3 of applicants can't do it after 3 years.

Lol nah I get you man/girl. I'm sure I just didn't translate the tone well. I just felt like you were saying he will definitely get rejected on his first cycle, and that he will realize his mistakes during his gap year. That just hasn't been my experience or the experience of anyone I know. I haven't really seen the data that says that 2/3s of matriculants take a gap year either (and whether it was because they had to for better ECs or just wanted to like OP). It makes sense since they probably have better ECs, I'm just saying that OP has a decent chance if he has solid stats and even low ECs. And then the other poster's comment felt like it was condemning the kid for liking to play videogames and not doing "something productive" during his gap year haha. I'm sure that was just my interpretation of it though. Haha, no worries.

 

[KnightDoc]

Lol nah I get you man/girl. I'm sure I just didn't translate the tone well. I just felt like you were saying he will definitely get rejected on his first cycle, and that he will realize his mistakes during his gap year. That just hasn't been my experience or the experience of anyone I know. I haven't really seen the data that says that 2/3s of matriculants take a gap year either (and whether it was because they had to for better ECs or just wanted to like OP). It makes sense since they probably have better ECs, I'm just saying that OP has a decent chance if he has solid stats and even low ECs. And then the other poster's comment felt like it was condemning the kid for liking to play videogames and not doing "something productive" during his gap year haha. I'm sure that was just my interpretation of it though. Haha, no worries.

It's all good, but, yeah, I WAS saying that if he applies after sophomore year, he will get rejected on his first cycle; you said the same thing!!! 🙂

And, yes, the stats are that 2/3 of matriculants have at least one gap year. It could be to beef up ECs, by choice, or because they are reapplicants.

 

[caterwaiter]

(maybe study aborad with the extra semester?)

Do this!! Hell, study abroad for an entire year if you can. Spend more time in your ECs--give yourself time to make a meaningful impact somewhere, maybe gain a leadership role. There's not any reason to rush this process.

 

[AMCASTuesdays]

I have 30 credits from HS AP classes so I'm able to graduate a year early. I want to have a gap year for myself to play league of legends or travel the world depending on my mood. Just do whatever I want but the problem is I don't want to seem unproductive in that gap year. I have a good amount of hours in ECs so I'm thinking I could take the MCAT and apply sophomore year summer, then defer matriculating for a year to have a gap year for myself so they can't deny me for a useless gap year. Should I just compromise and do 3.5 years instead(maybe study aborad with the extra semester?) Would med schools understand if I explain my situation?

I don't think traveling or taking a break is necessarily a useless gap year, especially if you've already taken the MCAT by that time and/or will be a younger applicant. It might even help you on the maturity piece to have taken a year to actually go out and be in the world. I also think you need to have a legitimate reason to defer, so I'm not sure how safe it would be to bank on that.

Edit: lol totally missed that you're a sophomore, modified comment

 

[m1redsox]

It's all good, but, yeah, I WAS saying that if he applies after sophomore year, he will get rejected on his first cycle; you said the same thing!!! 🙂

And, yes, the stats are that 2/3 of matriculants have at least one gap year. It could be to beef up ECs, by choice, or because they are reapplicants.

My apologies - I thought you meant OP would definitely not get in if he applied after his junior year (because of your gap year comment and almost certain second gap year). I think he should not get overconfident, but if he has the stats and at least some minimal ECs, he should be just fine.

Edit: I only say these things because I had decent stats but pretty low ECs because I decided junior year that I wanted to do medicine (and therefore only had one year to do clinical ECs), but was still accepted to multiple MD and DO programs during my senior year.

 

[KnightDoc]

My apologies - I thought you meant OP would definitely not get in if he applied after his junior year (because of your gap year comment and almost certain second gap year). I think he should not get overconfident, but if he has the stats and at least some minimal ECs, he should be just fine.

Edit: I only say these things because I had decent stats but pretty low ECs because I decided junior year that I wanted to do medicine (and therefore only had one year to do clinical ECs), but was still accepted to multiple MD and DO programs during my senior year.

It's all good. A full 1/3 of matriculants go straight through, and you are one of them. My only point is that, given that 2/3 of matriculants need (or want) to take gap years to beef up their applications, it's a very long shot that anyone, no matter how good they are, will have the time necessary to have adequate ECs after only 2 years. It's a common misconception to believe that schools give you credit for the hours you anticipate participating in ECs during your application year. If this were not the case, we could all do nothing until we apply, and then claim 10,000 hours spread across all kinds of interesting activities during our application year! (Yes, I know this could be checked before matriculation -- I'm not serious and am only exaggerating to make a point!)

 

[m1redsox]

It's all good. A full 1/3 of matriculants go straight through, and you are one of them. My only point is that, given that 2/3 of matriculants need (or want) to take gap years to beef up their applications, it's a very long shot that anyone, no matter how good they are, will have the time necessary to have adequate ECs after only 2 years. It's a common misconception to believe that schools give you credit for the hours you anticipate participating in ECs during your application year. If this were not the case, we could all do nothing until we apply, and then claim 10,000 hours spread across all kinds of interesting activities during our application year! (Yes, I know this could be checked before matriculation -- I'm not serious and am only exaggerating to make a point!)

Right I understand you cannot claim future activities.

I would only agree with the idea that students are more likely to get in after a gap year compared to straight after junior year (when applied to OP) if there were some studies/statistics saying that students are more likely to get in on their second attempt, but that is not the case. In fact, studies show students have a higher chance on their first attempt.

 

[KnightDoc]

Right I understand you cannot claim future activities.

I would only agree with the idea that students are more likely to get in after a gap year compared to straight after junior year (when applied to OP) if there were some studies/statistics saying that students are more likely to get in on their second attempt, but that is not the case. In fact, studies show students have a higher chance on their first attempt.

Yes, and, even so, 2/3 have at least one gap year after senior year. Why?

 

[Cornfed101]

Generally, it is recommended to have 250+ hours of clinical hours and 800+ hours of volunteering.

I've never heard this general recommendation... 800+ hours of volunteering is more than the vast majority of applicants

 

[m1redsox]

Yes, and, even so, 2/3 have at least one gap year after senior year. Why?

Didn’t you already answer that question? Either a) they want a break (or are a non-trad applicant), b) to boost their application (improving ECs, MCAT, or GPA), or c) because they’re a re-applicant. If you remove the reapplicants and non-trads from your 2/3s pool, I would bet that, right now, it would be closer to 60/40 or even 50/50 for first time applicants after junior year vs first time applicants after senior year (in the future this may change as med school gets more competitive). Nevertheless, you imply that OP won’t get in following his junior year because his ECs will be deficient, but there are TONS of reasons that applicants may fail to matriculate the first time (retake MCAT, raise GPA, boost ECs, etc). I would argue, based on personal experience, that strong stats will be more indicative of his matriculation chances, and OP can matriculate if he applies correctly and has bare minimum ECs.

 

[m1redsox]

I've never heard this general recommendation... 800+ hours of volunteering is more than the vast majority of applicants

You're right. 200-300 would probably be more appropriate. I thought I read that on a past Goro guide, but I couldn't find anything, so you're probably right.

 

[KnightDoc]

Didn’t you already answer that question? Either a) they want a break (or are a non-trad applicant), b) to boost their application (improving ECs, MCAT, or GPA), or c) because they’re a re-applicant. If you remove the reapplicants and non-trads from your 2/3s pool, I would bet that, right now, it would be closer to 60/40 or even 50/50 for first time applicants after junior year vs first time applicants after senior year (in the future this may change as med school gets more competitive). Nevertheless, you imply that OP won’t get in following his junior year because his ECs will be deficient, but there are TONS of reasons that applicants may fail to matriculate the first time (retake MCAT, raise GPA, boost ECs, etc). I would argue, based on personal experience, that strong stats will be more indicative of his matriculation chances, and OP can matriculate if he applies correctly and has bare minimum ECs.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. Reapplicants are there for a reason, and deficiencies in ECs are as likely a reason as any, so you shouldn't exclude them. The same goes for the growing preference for non trads.

You're arguing based on 4 year experience. You don't have 3 year experience, and based on the trend toward gap years and the emphasis on ECs, I just don't think it's possible. Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of anyone going straight through in less than 4 years who isn't coming out of an accelerated BS/MD program? I don't.

 

[deleted988749]

OP really has nothing to worry about here. 2/3 of all matriculants don't have enough on their CVs to be admitted without a gap year or two graduating after 4 years; it's highly unlikely OP will be admitted after 3 years no matter how great he thinks his ECs are, so he'll be doing more than he realizes during his gap year, while also enjoying his second cycle.

Wow, so 66% of matriculant

Requesting a deferral so you can play video games for a year. Lololololol

I'm guessing you're some kinda work bot that's always on the grind?

 

[Cornfed101]

You would probably be better off just managing your time well during the app cycle and playing video games and traveling then

 

[deleted988749]

I don't think traveling or taking a break is necessarily a useless gap year, especially if you've already taken the MCAT by that time and/or will be a younger applicant. It might even help you on the maturity piece to have taken a year to actually go out and be in the world. I also think you need to have a legitimate reason to defer, so I'm not sure how safe it would be to bank on that.

Edit: lol totally missed that you're a sophomore, modified comment

Yea but everyone's doing their scribe job, postbacc, smp, research, or something premed related. I'm looking to not do any of that. Would that still look useless to adcoms?

 

[deleted988749]

Do this!! Hell, study abroad for an entire year if you can. Spend more time in your ECs--give yourself time to make a meaningful impact somewhere, maybe gain a leadership role. There's not any reason to rush this process.

Yea maybe. I'll study abroad the entire year so I can pay the traveling with scholarship money instead lmao. But I'm scare adcoms will see it negatively.

 

[AMCASTuesdays]

Yea but everyone's doing their scribe job, postbacc, smp, research, or something premed related. I'm looking to not do any of that. Would that still look useless to adcoms?

Yeah by see the world i mean travelling^^

 

[valkirieas]

Yea but everyone's doing their scribe job, postbacc, smp, research, or something premed related. I'm looking to not do any of that. Would that still look useless to adcoms?

You don't have to necessarily do anything strictly premed, but you shouldn't expect to just live without any responsibilty. You can play games and travel, as long as that's not the Only Thing you do during the year. You could work in whatever field even if it's not medically relevant, save up or pay down debts, etc. while doing fun stuff on the side. I would recommend keeping up with some kind of volunteering or activity that does show a sustained interest in a career in medicine, but this does not have to be significantly time consuming if you have enough experiences otherwise.

 

[KnightDoc]

Wow, so 66% of matriculant

I'm guessing you're some kinda work bot that's always on the grind?

Yes, when you do a deeper dive you'll see how hard it is for anyone to get in without a gap year. Applying in your third year will only magnify the difficulty, regardless of how good your stats are. Nowadays, schools pride themselves on their holistic review, and only having two years' worth of ECs at the time of application will kill your chances.

 

[KnightDoc]

It would be three years of EC with projections into a fourth. While one-third of applicants do not have a gap year, this is defined as having one of more years since graduation from college. I would speculate this number is in a sense even lower as many students may start college later and/or take more than 3 years to finish school. So someone who takes a gap year between HS and college and/or takes 5 calendar years to complete thru junior year, would have more life Experience and EC opportunities and still would be considered as a not taking a gap year

No; he was talking about applying after sophomore year, graduating early, and then deferring for a year to goof off, so he would only have 2 years with projections into a 3rd.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

We'll just have to agree to disagree. Reapplicants are there for a reason, and deficiencies in ECs are as likely a reason as any, so you shouldn't exclude them. The same goes for the growing preference for non trads.

You're arguing based on 4 year experience. You don't have 3 year experience, and based on the trend toward gap years and the emphasis on ECs, I just don't think it's possible. Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of anyone going straight through in less than 4 years who isn't coming out of an accelerated BS/MD program? I don't.

I know (from CC) a girl who went to 4+4 BSMD program, finished BS in 3 years, applied out and got into T30 school last cycle.

 

[theKingLT]

I have 30 credits from HS AP classes so I'm able to graduate a year early. I want to have a gap year for myself to play league of legends or travel the world depending on my mood. Just do whatever I want but the problem is I don't want to seem unproductive in that gap year. I have a good amount of hours in ECs so I'm thinking I could take the MCAT and apply sophomore year summer, then defer matriculating for a year to have a gap year for myself so they can't deny me for a useless gap year. Should I just compromise and do 3.5 years instead(maybe study aborad with the extra semester?) Would med schools understand if I explain my situation?

This plan is dumb and will not work. Just graduate and then apply. You're not expected to be super productive while applying, so take that year as your year off. Travel before/after interview season and game whenever, or if you're rich just fly back to the states whenever you need for interviews. Get yourself on a research team where you can work from anywhere or just do some volunteering while abroad so you've got something to say about what you're up to during the cycle. Keep in mind if you have to reapply, but spent the whole cycle slacking off, it will set you back at least 2 years

 

[deleted849476]

What people think of as a gap year can be a little different. Reading what you seem to value, I would just suggest/remind you that you can graduate your year early, apply that summer (which would be your peers' equivalent of applying their junior year, which is totally acceptable), and then do secondaries over the summer, interview throughout fall/winter, and have all the time in between for whatever else you want. Sounds like you are in a position where you don't need to work, etc., so this should be plenty of time for relaxing. I did this, although I graduated in 5 years and applied after graduation (wasn't premed to start), and among my 4 interviews, I was never asked what I was doing in my gap year. In fact, with all the apps they read, my guess is they're probably not paying a ton of attention to remembering your chronology, just the takeaways. And in fact, I DID do scribing, etc., and had to make an effort to bring it up at interviews. By the way, applying is fun, but now that I have been accepted, I am kinda bored even with working full-time and relaxing a lot, and I still have 6 months before school!

I would say there are 3 classes of applicants in regard to when they apply, those: 1) applying junior summer, 2) applying senior summer and thus with a "gap year" (filled by the application process), and 3) those who apply not senior summer, but any subsequent years after that for whatever reasons (and consequently have at least 1 year of technically being able to do "nothing premed" for that whole year, if not more). Of course the latter two groups may be doing x,y,z extracurriculars as opposed to "nothing."

It would be interesting to know what you end up doing; among two friends and myself, we fell into categories 1,2,3 perfectly and although the last hasn't applied, his app will probably be better than mine and I'm anticipating 3/3 of us will have had acceptances first shot. Definitely consider the tier of school you want into, your GPA, MCAT, LoRs, and your narrative for why med and you should get a good understanding of which group you should be in. We each chose our own ways because we had various degrees of unpreparedness paired with chickening out and taking X more years to build our apps before applying

 

[KnightDoc]

I know (from CC) a girl who went to 4+4 BSMD program, finished BS in 3 years, applied out and got into T30 school last cycle.

But did she apply during her third year, or after it?

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

But did she apply during her third year, or after it?

Yes, 3rd year of UG and graduared at the end of 3rd year and matriculated to med school.

 

[Caterpillar34]

Yes, 3rd year of UG and graduared at the end of 3rd year and matriculated to med school.

Is she an SDNer? If not, may you ask her if I can contact her?

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Is she an SDNer? If not, may you ask her if I can contact her?

Not on SDN, but on CC.

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of anyone going straight through in less than 4 years who isn't coming out of an accelerated BS/MD program? I don't.

I’ve seen it, they were a truly exceptional applicant...in terms of everything GPA/MCAT, ECs, maturity, interpersonal skills. They were also one of the top students in my class and are likely going to match well.
In short they are a rarity in the extreme

 

[Med.School.Hopeful]

Wow, so 66% of matriculant

I'm guessing you're some kinda work bot that's always on the grind?

Nope I'm taking a gap year right now and I'm having a good time. But you should be somewhat productive as well.

 

[Peter Pan.]

Sitting around and playing video games for a year? Get a job.....

 

[deleted988749]

Nope I'm taking a gap year right now and I'm having a good time. But you should be somewhat productive as well.

Do you know if I can just put traveling as "understanding other culture" or some bs to make it look productive? What are you doing for your gap year that's consider productive?

 

[vrazzles]

I never am sure whether it's a troll or not anymore...

 

[Jeremy Bearimy]

Do you know if I can just put traveling as "understanding other culture" or some bs to make it look productive? What are you doing for your gap year that's consider productive?

Instead of just backpacking around for a year, try looking for jobs and programs that let you live internationally. Don't just "understand other culture", go ACTUALLY understand other culture by living and working abroad (assuming you do all your ECs that you need in the US, like shadowing, etc).

I understand the desire to go travel for a year, I wish I could too, but instead I've lived and worked abroad for the past 3 years, integrated into other communities, studied with people from dozens of countries, learned about incredibly different health systems. I assume it also is partially what makes me a somewhat interesting candidate and gives me a lot to talk about in my interviews and essays. Don't just call it some bs to make it look productive, make it actually productive.