How old will you be when you start medical school?

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I realized today I'll be 26 when/if I start med school. I know it's not super old and doesn't really bother me much. But makes me wonder about how much different my life will be with starting 3 or 4 years later than average (if 22 or 23 is the average lol). It's also so surreal to me that I'll graduate at 30!

How do you all feel about the age at which you'll start school? Do you wish you would start later and enjoy more free time before diving into the pressure cooker? Or wish you started earlier? And does your age play into your decisions about which specialties to pursue/which schools to go to, etc.

Imo taking a few gap years was the best thing I did, maturity wise. I feel like it prepared me well for the future, mentally.
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I will be 33 when I matriculate next year. I an an Army nurse and a family nurse practitioner for 10 years. I do not regret it at all, on the contrary, it affirms my passion for medicine. I have cleaned patient, put IV, inserted foley, NG tube, stayed with patient at their bedside when they passed away. I want to do Interventional Cardiology, and will be 43-45 when all is over. My experience makes me realize how fortunate we all are to make it to med school and to practice medicine. Hope you all enjoy this journey, and with a smile on your face when you look back and realize the accomplishment you have achieved.
 
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Started med school after 3-4 gap years and similar age to yourself. Wouldn’t change a thing. I get why people go directly from undergrad, but there’s no way I would’ve been ready as a 22 or 23 y/o. Sure, I’m a year or two older than most classmates... but working professionally has given me an edge with the way I attack this opportunity.
 
CJhooper123 said:
Started med school after 3-4 gap years and similar age to yourself. Wouldn’t change a thing. I get why people go directly from undergrad, but there’s no way I would’ve been ready as a 22 or 23 y/o. Sure, I’m a year or two older than most classmates... but working professionally has given me an edge with the way I attack this opportunity.
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Yeah definitely agree with this. I applied first time with no gap year. Looking back now, I'm actually glad for it bc I have had access to so many more opportunities that will help me immensely when I'm actually a doctor and have grown an insane amount in just the one year since graduating.
 
I will be 24 when I matriculate, assuming I get in this cycle. Taking two gap years was the best decision for so many reasons, especially because it has given me greater clarity on “why medicine” and has allowed me to understand what it means to work full-time long term.

I do think I had the emotional maturity to go straight through, but time off has only allowed me to build that up even further. Most importantly, I felt so burned out at the end of undergrad. Now I feel refreshed and excited to start learning again.

Interestingly enough, I suspect it will be easier for me to befriend people older than me than those who are coming straight through. In some ways, after working full time and especially as someone who won’t have a ton of financial support in med school, I think it’s easier for me to connect with nontrads. But I hope that my future med school class is filled with diverse people, including in age.
 
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Early 40's. If I had it to do over again, I would have like to do this all when I was younger. However, I'm not sure I would have been as equipped to handle it back then.

I know my strengths and weakness much better now and how to adapt to them, which is pretty significant IMHO.
 
I’ll be turning 29 when I matriculate, and although it would have been nice to already be further on in my career, my experiences have made me a more mature and resourceful student and human being. That being said, I wouldn’t change a thing!
 
IsleyOfTheNorth said:
Early 40's. If I had it to do over again, I would have like to do this all when I was younger. However, I'm not sure I would have been as equipped to handle it back then.

I know my strengths and weakness much better now and how to adapt to them, which is pretty significant IMHO.
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Based on your username I expected you to be significantly younger...
 
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If I get in this year I'll be about 23 ( med school starts in July and I was the youngest in my grade) after 1 gap year and I feel like Im a little young. I consider myself reasonably mature ( emotionally and such) , so its not something I'm worried about, but def fee like 26 is more than fine. You're still a spring chicken, as one of my old profs would say.
 
Dr panda said:
The average is 25, I believe, so you are not far from that. You will be 30 anyway but you can have an MD degree on top of that. You will still have to work till middle 60s, but you can spend these years being a doctor.
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life is so short
 
Schwifty said:
I was 21 when I matriculated, but I know people in my class that are in their mid and late 30’s, so I wouldn’t worry about being 26. Honestly, I wish I would have taken a couple gap years, but it’s whatever now.
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For the record I'm not bothered at all about starting at 26! I'm very happy that everything turned out the way it did. I just can't help but be a little (a lot) amused at how different everything is panning out-in a good way-compared to what I had expected (and hoped) in my junior year of college.
 
and 99 others said:
For the record I'm not bothered at all about starting at 26! I'm very happy that everything turned out the way it did. I just can't help but be a little (a lot) amused at how different everything is panning out-in a good way-compared to what I had expected (and hoped) in my junior year of college.
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I will say that med school would be significantly easier if I didn’t have kids, but I still wouldn’t change anything about how things happened.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
I will say that med school would be significantly easier if I didn’t have kids, but I still wouldn’t change anything about how things happened.
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Ah yeah this is another perspective I've been wanting to get: being an older student and taking into consideration how to incorporate building a family. I feel like for those students straight out of college or with 1 gap year, it's less of an immediate thought. Granted I'm still unmarried and unchilded but it's definitely become a much more serious thought and desire in recent years. So im always mindful about how ill go about that and whether I should wait till med school or residency is done. I understand there's no ideal time, but the older I get, the more pressing it becomes
 
and 99 others said:
Ah yeah this is another perspective I've been wanting to get: being an older student and taking into consideration how to incorporate building a family. I feel like for those students straight out of college or with 1 gap year, it's less of an immediate thought. Granted I'm still unmarried and unchilded but it's definitely become a much more serious thought and desire in recent years. So im always mindful about how ill go about that and whether I should wait till med school or residency is done. I understand there's no ideal time, but the older I get, the more pressing it becomes
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Are you a man or a woman? Unfortunately that matters in determining when the ideal time is.
 
M3 is a pretty good year to have kids. Back when I was worried about fertility I considered it then but I also can't imagine myself marrying in 3 years so that's out the window now.

I'm also less worried about fertility now because I learned my mom went through menopause a lot older than I had originally believed.
 
Sunbodi said:
M3 is a pretty good year to have kids. Back when I was worried about fertility I considered it then but I also can't imagine myself marrying in 3 years so that's out the window now.

I'm also less worried about fertility now because I learned my mom went through menopause a lot older than I had originally believed.
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M3 is not a great time to have kids imo. If you are a woman, you will be working 50-60+ hours per week on your feet all the time many times going long stretches without eating or drinking water. So you’ll be doing that while pregnant or with a small child. And you’ll have to take some time off.

As a man, you’ll be doing the same hours but obviously that’s slightly less of a problem. Though as someone who frequently worked 80+ hour weeks with very young kids, it is just exhausting working that much and raising a baby. You will be exhausted all the time plus putting a LOT of the responsibility on the mother.

I’m in a school with a 16 month Pre-clerkship curriculum. Pre-clerkship is definitely not easy, but you have so much more flexibility with your schedule. I have several classmates with babies who are doing just fine. I would personally try to time it for during M1/early M2 or M4.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
M3 is not a great time to have kids imo. If you are a woman, you will be working 50-60+ hours per week on your feet all the time many times going long stretches without eating or drinking water. So you’ll be doing that while pregnant or with a small child. And you’ll have to take some time off.

As a man, you’ll be doing the same hours but obviously that’s slightly less of a problem. Though as someone who frequently worked 80+ hour weeks with very young kids, it is just exhausting working that much and raising a baby. You will be exhausted all the time plus putting a LOT of the responsibility on the mother.

I’m in a school with a 16 month Pre-clerkship curriculum. Pre-clerkship is definitely not easy, but you have so much more flexibility with your schedule. I have several classmates with babies who are doing just fine. I would personally try to time it for during M1/early M2 or M4.
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Would going to residency interviews with a baby bump hinder chances?
 
I'll be 22 when I start my MD/PhD program next Fall. Part of me definitely feels like I am too young compared to most people I have met on my interview trail and wishes I had slowed down a little to smell the roses. The other part of me is grateful that I'll be starting when I do, considering by the time I finish my MD/PhD program and start residency I'll most likely be 30...
 
Cornfed101 said:
Just turned 30 a few weeks ago! I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else besides going to medical school next year. We will all be 8+ years older regardless, why not being doing something we love?
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Another 30 yo here starting next year when I’ll be 31. I’m extremely proud of my journey!


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nimbus said:
Depends on the program and the specialty.
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I was on an interview and a student who spoke with us was an M4 and pregnant. She was going into Peds and on all of her interviews they were so happy about it and it helped the conversations. But also it’s peds so that easily explains how it depends the speciality.


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Will be matriculating at 31 next year!
I sometimes have a twinge of "wish I had done this sooner" but that goes away quickly when I look back at my younger self; probably wouldn't have gotten in - didn't know what it would take.
Honestly, wouldn't change a thing. Everything happened exactly how it should've.

What's interesting is how I've always been the youngest whereever I've gone but now I'll likely be one of the oldest.
 
I started at 38. It is what it is, and most days I don’t regret when I chose this or the path itself. It’s a lot of time and hard at my age I’ve got to be realistic about what kind of practice I’ll have when I’m done but at the end I wouldn’t change anything
 
41 with 6 kids. I bring a lot of that old guy wisdom that only life can teach you but the years cost me brain power. Memorization is much harder for me now than it was. I wish I did this earlier so I didn’t have to miss so much time with my kids, but I wasn’t ready until now.
 
I'll be 27 but just a month away from 28 when I start. I'm also a little nervous about being older than average, but am happy with the things I used my gap years to accomplish. I also did apply right out of college and didn't get in so there's that haha
 
meepdog said:
I'll be 27 but just a month away from 28 when I start. I'm also a little nervous about being older than average, but am happy with the things I used my gap years to accomplish. I also did apply right out of college and didn't get in so there's that haha
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Yeah, as someone who took a break before reapplying, I feel like adcoms appreciate seeing applicants who display patience and show that they're taking this whole process seriously by waiting and making an effort to improve their app. In most cases, I am starting to think that people who don't get in the first time should take at least a year off before applying again.
 
bluepeony said:
Would going to residency interviews with a baby bump hinder chances?
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It’s not supposed to, but people are people. Knowing you’re about to have to take maternity leave and put all of your workload on your co-interns colors their opinion of you probably in certain fields. Others probably not. Also program dependent. But I’m just an MS1, so I’m just going by what I hear.
 
bluepeony said:
Would going to residency interviews with a baby bump hinder chances?
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It isn’t supposed to, but ive been told multiple times over the years (OB is where i heard it the most) that you should NOT be visibly pregnant at interviews.
 
acstylin said:
41 with 6 kids. I bring a lot of that old guy wisdom that only life can teach you but the years cost me brain power. Memorization is much harder for me now than it was.
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It's funny that you say this. I've heard this from others as well, but I don't find that the years have impacted my recall very much. Perhaps I'm just better at studying now? Maybe my memory of how good my memory was is inaccurate.

6 kids though... wow! 🙂
 
IsleyOfTheNorth said:
It's funny that you say this. I've heard this from others as well, but I don't find that the years have impacted my recall very much. Perhaps I'm just better at studying now? Maybe my memory of how good my memory was is inaccurate.

6 kids though... wow! 🙂
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Do you have any kids? I have 2 and I find that they suck brainpower out like vacuums.
 
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