How has waiting until senior year to apply (gap year) made you a stronger applicant?

[timothyiv]

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Sometimes, I get uneasy knowing all my friends will apply in their junior spring and go right into medical school and not take a gap year. I know a gap year is better for me (bad freshman grades)... but how? Please share.

 

[Hospitalized]

You will presumably gain invaluable life experience.

Applying the June after you graduate is optimal in my opinion. You lose the class schedule so you are free to complete your secondaries and interviews around your work schedule. You get the summer before matriculation to go live a little before buckling down.

About 15 years from now, is anyone going to care if you've been practicing 5 years vs 4 years? Probably not.

About 15 years from now, will you be able to talk about that adventurous backpacking trip you took the summer before you started medical school? Probably.

 

[Ace Khalifa]

Why should you give a sh** about what others around you are doing? Do not apply until you have the best application prepared possible.

 

[Kelevra]

I agree with @Ace Khalifa. None of your "friends" give a damn about your application, and you shouldn't even consider feeling anything towards their own.
When you're in residency and beyond, and you discuss medicine, is anybody going to ask you why you took a gap year? Is anybody going to ask you if you took a gap year? If they do, is anyone going to care that you took a gap year? By then, will you even care that you took a gap year?

 

[Psai]

no

 

[Doctor Dream]

Sometimes, I get uneasy knowing all my friends will apply in their junior spring and go right into medical school and not take a gap year. I know a gap year is better for me (bad freshman grades)... but how? Please share.

Why are you taking a gap year if you don't know why it'd be beneficial?

 

[ZymurgySurfer]

You get a taste of the "real world" which I feel that interviewers really appreciate. Its a good time to make connections that you can't make during undergrad. In my gap year I've been able to interact with some people whose LORs have undoubtedly gained me at least 1 ii, presented a poster, will give a talk at a preeminent conference in my field, and have at least 1 first author pub and a number of second author pubs. I decided to take one mainly because I felt that I could improve my MCAT, but also because nearly every doctor I talked to either took a gap year or wished they took one.

 

[Goro]

For one thing, it adds a year of maturity to the interviewees I see.

Sometimes, I get uneasy knowing all my friends will apply in their junior spring and go right into medical school and not take a gap year. I know a gap year is better for me (bad freshman grades)... but how? Please share.

 

[Eppur Si Muove]

-extra year to improve GPA
- allowed me to do all the things I couldn't do in undergrad (travel, binge on Netflix, catch up on books)
- worked in the real world for a year in a medically related field
- made some money so I'm not completely broke going into med school
Gap year= best decision I've made about this cycle

 

[Big_Burd]

100%. I've talked about my gap year experience for the majority of each interview. I highly recommend this to any friend I know who is thinking of applying in the future.

 

[sundancing]

• Extra year to boost GPA (this was important for me)
• A year away from academics (prevents burnout)
• Being able to make enough money to actually apply (this was the biggest reason for me)

 

[RedPhys]

Extra year to improve gpa

Ended up doing some activities senior year that got me killer LORs (one of them was super gushing about me thanks to lucky timing my senior year)

Good experiences during gap year to give me a better understanding of medical field that I was able to integrate into my interviews

 

[Scribblers]

For one thing, it adds a year of maturity to the interviewees I see.

Echoing what Goro has said, I probably would not have gotten into medical school if I had applied in 2013 rather than 2014 because of the difference in life experience and maturity, setting aside the various other ways my application improved over the extra year.

 

[Rainbow Zebra]

More ECs to compete with folks you have more than 2 years (and real work experience). I will be 2.5 years out of college if I matriculate next cycle. FYI, the average age at matriculation is about 24, so most folks have 2 gap years to gain life experience. Why put yourself at the lower end?? The bar just seems to keep moving up. Best wishes to us all!