I hate hearing the word "gap year" and "post-bacc"

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minicutcarrots said:
Did two gap years and don't regret it at all. Even if you don't need a post-bacc (or some other form of grade repair), a gap year isn't a terrible idea. There's a lot of growing up to be done out of college and I applied as a more mature and well-rounded individual because of it.

With that said, different strokes for different folks. Apply when you're strongest.

Sending good vibes your way, OP. I hope you seek out professional help as others have recommended here.
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your profile pic looks delish.
 
timephone said:
I really do feel like a gap year after high school should be mandatory. But then I also like European models of education where career-tracks begin in 9th grade...
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Same thing in East Asian countries. You enter medschool straight outta high school and it's 6-7 years long depending on country (Taiwan - 7 years, Japan - 6years). You then specialize into something after.

A "premed" in these systems would basically be high schoolers intending to go into medicine lol
 
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Good attitude, Poor execution
 
Frogger27 said:
I would have been no way ready to go to medical school right out of undergrad. I needed to detox my liver and mature a little bit. Took a couple years off to strengthen my app and gain real world experience. I will be a 100x better Med student because of this. I almost think it should be a pre requisite for the vast majority of candidates.
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I vehemently disagree. While I do believe that a those 1-2/3 gap years are necessary for some candidates, that would really suck for a majority of students who don't actually need a gap year -- further lengthening the track to becoming a physician in the US. I do think that at a 4-year degree from an undergraduate institution is a good prerequisite: I've grown and learned so much these past four years, that it's unimaginable to think that some people just go straight from high school!

To make "a couple years off" a prerequisite, however, is too much -- and contrary to what we hear a lot, I don't think it will ever become the norm. There are still thousands of highly qualified applicants that "check all the boxes" and still manage to have a life. It's hard, but it's doable!
 
begoood95 said:
I vehemently disagree. While I do believe that a those 1-2/3 gap years are necessary for some candidates, that would really suck for a majority of students who don't actually need a gap year -- further lengthening the track to becoming a physician in the US. I do think that at a 4-year degree from an undergraduate institution is a good prerequisite: I've grown and learned so much these past four years, that it's unimaginable to think that some people just go straight from high school!

To make "a couple years off" a prerequisite, however, is too much -- and contrary to what we hear a lot, I don't think it will ever become the norm. There are still thousands of highly qualified applicants that "check all the boxes" and still manage to have a life. It's hard, but it's doable!
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That is why I said "almost" a pre-requisite. If you look at my next post I said:

Most people I know who applied straight out of undergrad were either:

1) absolute rockstars
2) good candidates who ended up selling themselves short (usually getting into a lower quality school than they could have) by applying a little too early
3) wildy unprepared and miss the ball

If you are one of the rockstars, there is no reason to delay the process. But from my experience, most people would greatly benefit from gaining some real world experience before Med school. not everyone has the same amount of personal growth in undergrad that is necessary to thrive in medical school. I'm not even really talking about handling the course work.. I'm taking about gaining real world experience so that the transition from student--> actually working is smoother. A good amount of people coming directly out have never worked a full time job.
 
Frogger27 said:
That is why I said "almost" a pre-requisite. If you look at my next post I said:

Most people I know who applied straight out of undergrad were either:

1) absolute rockstars
2) good candidates who ended up selling themselves short (usually getting into a lower quality school than they could have) by applying a little too early
3) wildy unprepared and miss the ball

If you are one of the rockstars, there is no reason to delay the process. But from my experience, most people would greatly benefit from gaining some real world experience before Med school. not everyone has the same amount of personal growth in undergrad that is necessary to thrive in medical school. I'm not even really talking about handling the course work.. I'm taking about gaining real world experience so that the transition from student--> actually working is smoother. A good amount of people coming directly out have never worked a full time job.
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I saw the "almost" qualifier, and was just disagreeing with the general sentiment; I read the following post -- I wasn't necessarily responding to you personally, just the notion that it should be a prerequisite.

Also, your anecdote is an anecdote and is not representative of the applicant pool😉 Most people who applied straight out of undergrad were neither options 1, 2, nor 3. (Well, I guess a majority of applicants are rejected, so they might be three.)

And... I don't really know if I buy or agree with your logic that getting "real world experience" facilitates the any relevant transitions, on the whole. My time spent "in the real world" (God I hate that phrase) waiting tables does not really prepare me anymore for being a physician than its absence would harm me. Now, my experience working in an ophthalmologist's office does, but you can do that in undergraduate -- i.e., that doesn't necessarily require gap years.

Again, I agree that some people benefit from a gap year. I don't agree that it prepares you any more or less, most of the time, however. If anything, the gap year is expressly for the purpose of bettering your application -- of which can clearly be considered "checking the boxes."

Lol, and to your last point: please tell me I need to have had a full time job to become better a physician. You didn't say it explicitly, but you are implying that somehow having a full time job makes me better prepared for medical school and/or my time as a physician. I've never worked a full time job. I highly doubt I'm going to be any worse off on the whole than someone who has.
 
You don't understand, BeGood95. We're just kids. We aren't ready for anything XD
That was sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell.
 
mwsapphire said:
You don't understand, BeGood95. We're just kids. We aren't ready for anything XD
That was sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell.
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Yeah... I completely understand and agree that, with older age and more experience under your belt, you make better decisions and etc. in some areas in life.

However, it's completely BS to map that onto the entire domain of life such that, somehow, if you're older you're automatically 100 times more qualified in any and every aspect of life -- especially if you've been a "big boy/girl" and had a "big boy/girl" job.

No. (And @Frogger27 I'm not attacking you specifically) Just because you're old doesn't make you automatically more intelligent, better at decision making, and etc. than someone who's younger than you are. There's this narcissism and entitlement that comes with old age (ironic, huh? We're supposed to be the entitled ones) that muddies their judgement, and makes them think they're automatically superior to us "youngsters." Nah, your generation screwed up our economy and our futures, and now we have to fix it.

Okay now I'm getting political and charged so I'll stop.
 
Some non trads really do benefit from the experience they get between UGrad and med school, but just b/c they needed time doesn't mean every single person does and they are automatically ten times more wise or knowledgable about med school/ being a doc etc because not everyone needs that time.
Pre meds are pre meds, regardless of age.
 
begoood95 said:
I saw the "almost" qualifier, and was just disagreeing with the general sentiment; I read the following post -- I wasn't necessarily responding to you personally, just the notion that it should be a prerequisite.

Also, your anecdote is an anecdote and is not representative of the applicant pool😉 Most people who applied straight out of undergrad were neither options 1, 2, nor 3. (Well, I guess a majority of applicants are rejected, so they might be three.)

And... I don't really know if I buy or agree with your logic that getting "real world experience" facilitates the any relevant transitions, on the whole. My time spent "in the real world" (God I hate that phrase) waiting tables does not really prepare me anymore for being a physician than its absence would harm me. Now, my experience working in an ophthalmologist's office does, but you can do that in undergraduate -- i.e., that doesn't necessarily require gap years.

Again, I agree that some people benefit from a gap year. I don't agree that it prepares you any more or less, most of the time, however. If anything, the gap year is expressly for the purpose of bettering your application -- of which can clearly be considered "checking the boxes."

Lol, and to your last point: please tell me I need to have had a full time job to become better a physician. You didn't say it explicitly, but you are implying that somehow having a full time job makes me better prepared for medical school and/or my time as a physician. I've never worked a full time job. I highly doubt I'm going to be any worse off on the whole than someone who has.
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begoood95 said:
I saw the "almost" qualifier, and was just disagreeing with the general sentiment; I read the following post -- I wasn't necessarily responding to you personally, just the notion that it should be a prerequisite.

Also, your anecdote is an anecdote and is not representative of the applicant pool😉 Most people who applied straight out of undergrad were neither options 1, 2, nor 3. (Well, I guess a majority of applicants are rejected, so they might be three.)

And... I don't really know if I buy or agree with your logic that getting "real world experience" facilitates the any relevant transitions, on the whole. My time spent "in the real world" (God I hate that phrase) waiting tables does not really prepare me anymore for being a physician than its absence would harm me. Now, my experience working in an ophthalmologist's office does, but you can do that in undergraduate -- i.e., that doesn't necessarily require gap years.

Again, I agree that some people benefit from a gap year. I don't agree that it prepares you any more or less, most of the time, however. If anything, the gap year is expressly for the purpose of bettering your application -- of which can clearly be considered "checking the boxes."

Lol, and to your last point: please tell me I need to have had a full time job to become better a physician. You didn't say it explicitly, but you are implying that somehow having a full time job makes me better prepared for medical school and/or my time as a physician. I've never worked a full time job. I highly doubt I'm going to be any worse off on the whole than someone who has.
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I am not sure why you are taking my opinion personally. I never implied anything about you specifically, I have no idea who you are. There are plenty of physicians and adcoms on here that share similar sentiments as I do. There are even some medical students who say they are jealous of the students who took gap years because they are more mature/prepared. It has nothing to do with having to wait tables to prepare you for med school. It has to do with the personal growth that happens over time/through a diversity of life experiences. Again, I am not saying that you do not have this.

I looked at your post history... you have a 3.8 and a 525 MCAT.... you obviously fall into option 1 in the groups I laid out earlier 😉

and @mwsapphire I did not respond to you because your posts scream immaturity and I do not want to get in a pissing war with a 19 year old
 
Sarcasm, metaphors, and irony travel poory over the electrons.
 
@begood95 @Frogger27 Let's have some fun.

First of all, I don't think @Frogger27 is from the Baby Boomer Generation. And by Baby Boomer Generation, I presume that's the generation that supposedly screwed up the economy and forced the poor premedical Millenials into waiting tables during their gap year. Blaming a supposed age cohort for the subprime mortgage crisis of 2009 is pretty absurd. Absurd in the sense that if you blame the Baby Boomers, then who do you blame for the dot-com crash of 2001? In fact, who do you blame for the current student loan bubble that is occurring with education inflation? Do you blame your debt on your alma mater, Wall Street, or the students who feed the fires of the machine complex in order to get get ahead of the curve and land themselves a decent job? You know, the one they tell you, "I hope it's six figures, but I don't care if I only make around high five figures like starting $65,000 and then maybe around $80,000."

When Michael Burry left his work as a Stanford Hospital neurology resident in order to start his own hedge fund, he had a knack for seeing things other people couldn't see when it came to market trends. It made him and his clientele a lot of great returns. When he saw the volatility of the mortgage market, he came up with an arrangement to set up credit default swaps (CDS) against mortgage backed securities (MBS) because he recognized that the banks were treating loans as actual credit (subprime mortgage). By mixing it with other crappy bottom tier investments they "de-risked" the investment via diversification, thereby garnering tripe A ratings from credit rating agencies who were afraid that the banks would go to their competitors to receive a more favorable rating. Michael Burry essentially deduced this and executed a plan that would punish the banks when they were exposed for not possessing the actual capital they claimed to possess within their investments. These investments are known as toxic assets.

Michael Burry was 46, do you consider him to be at fault for screwing up the economy or the future of Millenials? Do we still blame an age cohort for the: Wells Fargo phony account scandal, the Libor scandal, the HSBC money laundering scandal, JP Morgan's London Whale, Detroit's Bankruptcy or the Enron scandal? How about the culture within these workplaces such as from the book, "Why I left Goldman Sachs" where bankers refer to their clientele as muppets when they dupe them into bad investments or the movie, "The Wolf of Wall Street" where penny stocks were sold to shmucks who thought they were investing in the next Microsoft when they were actually investing into the pocket of the brokers who were making margins they would never receive from any other type of stock.

Entitlement is the idea that you can actually type out a response that blames an entire generation for your crappy job at a Denny's, McDonald's, or What-Have-You-Inc when you have a degree in biochemistry, molecular genetics, biomedical engineering, or whatever super cool awesome degree you thought would get you a maybe-5ok-job out of college. Meanwhile your friends in business are watching Broadway plays and living the life in a penthouse condo in Manhattan bragging about working a job in mutual funds for Blackrock or Vanguard. People who are older weren't more mature when they were your age. They were brash and naive, many of them are just as ignorant about how the world turns or where their money goes when they deposit it into the bank. It's just as likely that they also blamed everyone else for their own predicament. It's just that when you blame 100 people for your crappy life, but you get older and nothing changes, then you begin to realize that you're the only constant and the only variable at fault for not finding the solution to why you're living in a literal **** hole.

Second,
 
Lol @Sardinia I am not about to get into an internet debate about the causes of the subprime mortgage crisis -- on S[DOCTOR]N no less. You may type out your long responses as you please, but I'm not going to respond. This would be a discussion better held in person, and not on someone else thread as this has nothing to do with it and I regret bringing it up in the first place.

I've got other priorities, so I'm checking out, but by all means have fun✌
 
Sardinia said:
@begood95 @Frogger27 Let's have some fun.

First of all, I don't think @Frogger27 is from the Baby Boomer Generation. And by Baby Boomer Generation, I presume that's the generation that supposedly screwed up the economy and forced the poor premedical Millenials into waiting tables during their gap year. Blaming a supposed age cohort for the subprime mortgage crisis of 2009 is pretty absurd. Absurd in the sense that if you blame the Baby Boomers, then who do you blame for the dot-com crash of 2001? In fact, who do you blame for the current student loan bubble that is occurring with education inflation? Do you blame your debt on your alma mater, Wall Street, or the students who feed the fires of the machine complex in order to get get ahead of the curve and land themselves a decent job? You know, the one they tell you, "I hope it's six figures, but I don't care if I only make around high five figures like starting $65,000 and then maybe around $80,000."

When Michael Burry left his work as a Stanford Hospital neurology resident in order to start his own hedge fund, he had a knack for seeing things other people couldn't see when it came to market trends. It made him and his clientele a lot of great returns. When he saw the volatility of the mortgage market, he came up with an arrangement to set up credit default swaps (CDS) against mortgage backed securities (MBS) because he recognized that the banks were treating loans as actual credit (subprime mortgage). By mixing it with other crappy bottom tier investments they "de-risked" the investment via diversification, thereby garnering tripe A ratings from credit rating agencies who were afraid that the banks would go to their competitors to receive a more favorable rating. Michael Burry essentially deduced this and executed a plan that would punish the banks when they were exposed for not possessing the actual capital they claimed to possess within their investments. These investments are known as toxic assets.

Michael Burry was 46, do you consider him to be at fault for screwing up the economy or the future of Millenials? Do we still blame an age cohort for the: Wells Fargo phony account scandal, the Libor scandal, the HSBC money laundering scandal, JP Morgan's London Whale, Detroit's Bankruptcy or the Enron scandal? How about the culture within these workplaces such as from the book, "Why I left Goldman Sachs" where bankers refer to their clientele as muppets when they dupe them into bad investments or the movie, "The Wolf of Wall Street" where penny stocks were sold to shmucks who thought they were investing in the next Microsoft when they were actually investing into the pocket of the brokers who were making margins they would never receive from any other type of stock.

Entitlement is the idea that you can actually type out a response that blames an entire generation for your crappy job at a Denny's, McDonald's, or What-Have-You-Inc when you have a degree in biochemistry, molecular genetics, biomedical engineering, or whatever super cool awesome degree you thought would get you a maybe-5ok-job out of college. Meanwhile your friends in business are watching Broadway plays and living the life in a penthouse condo in Manhattan bragging about working a job in mutual funds for Blackrock or Vanguard. People who are older weren't more mature when they were your age. They were brash and naive, many of them are just as ignorant about how the world turns or where their money goes when they deposit it into the bank. It's just as likely that they also blamed everyone else for their own predicament. It's just that when you blame 100 people for your crappy life, but you get older and nothing changes, then you begin to realize that you're the only constant and the only variable at fault for not finding the solution to why you're living in a literal **** hole.

Second,
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MyzN6Pl.jpg
 
Sardinia said:
@begood95 @Frogger27 Let's have some fun.

First of all, I don't think @Frogger27 is from the Baby Boomer Generation. And by Baby Boomer Generation, I presume that's the generation that supposedly screwed up the economy and forced the poor premedical Millenials into waiting tables during their gap year. Blaming a supposed age cohort for the subprime mortgage crisis of 2009 is pretty absurd. Absurd in the sense that if you blame the Baby Boomers, then who do you blame for the dot-com crash of 2001? In fact, who do you blame for the current student loan bubble that is occurring with education inflation? Do you blame your debt on your alma mater, Wall Street, or the students who feed the fires of the machine complex in order to get get ahead of the curve and land themselves a decent job? You know, the one they tell you, "I hope it's six figures, but I don't care if I only make around high five figures like starting $65,000 and then maybe around $80,000."

When Michael Burry left his work as a Stanford Hospital neurology resident in order to start his own hedge fund, he had a knack for seeing things other people couldn't see when it came to market trends. It made him and his clientele a lot of great returns. When he saw the volatility of the mortgage market, he came up with an arrangement to set up credit default swaps (CDS) against mortgage backed securities (MBS) because he recognized that the banks were treating loans as actual credit (subprime mortgage). By mixing it with other crappy bottom tier investments they "de-risked" the investment via diversification, thereby garnering tripe A ratings from credit rating agencies who were afraid that the banks would go to their competitors to receive a more favorable rating. Michael Burry essentially deduced this and executed a plan that would punish the banks when they were exposed for not possessing the actual capital they claimed to possess within their investments. These investments are known as toxic assets.

Michael Burry was 46, do you consider him to be at fault for screwing up the economy or the future of Millenials? Do we still blame an age cohort for the: Wells Fargo phony account scandal, the Libor scandal, the HSBC money laundering scandal, JP Morgan's London Whale, Detroit's Bankruptcy or the Enron scandal? How about the culture within these workplaces such as from the book, "Why I left Goldman Sachs" where bankers refer to their clientele as muppets when they dupe them into bad investments or the movie, "The Wolf of Wall Street" where penny stocks were sold to shmucks who thought they were investing in the next Microsoft when they were actually investing into the pocket of the brokers who were making margins they would never receive from any other type of stock.

Entitlement is the idea that you can actually type out a response that blames an entire generation for your crappy job at a Denny's, McDonald's, or What-Have-You-Inc when you have a degree in biochemistry, molecular genetics, biomedical engineering, or whatever super cool awesome degree you thought would get you a maybe-5ok-job out of college. Meanwhile your friends in business are watching Broadway plays and living the life in a penthouse condo in Manhattan bragging about working a job in mutual funds for Blackrock or Vanguard. People who are older weren't more mature when they were your age. They were brash and naive, many of them are just as ignorant about how the world turns or where their money goes when they deposit it into the bank. It's just as likely that they also blamed everyone else for their own predicament. It's just that when you blame 100 people for your crappy life, but you get older and nothing changes, then you begin to realize that you're the only constant and the only variable at fault for not finding the solution to why you're living in a literal **** hole.

Second,
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I, too, have seen The Big Short.
 
Sardinia said:
@begood95 @Frogger27 Let's have some fun.

First of all, I don't think @Frogger27 is from the Baby Boomer Generation. And by Baby Boomer Generation, I presume that's the generation that supposedly screwed up the economy and forced the poor premedical Millenials into waiting tables during their gap year. Blaming a supposed age cohort for the subprime mortgage crisis of 2009 is pretty absurd. Absurd in the sense that if you blame the Baby Boomers, then who do you blame for the dot-com crash of 2001? In fact, who do you blame for the current student loan bubble that is occurring with education inflation? Do you blame your debt on your alma mater, Wall Street, or the students who feed the fires of the machine complex in order to get get ahead of the curve and land themselves a decent job? You know, the one they tell you, "I hope it's six figures, but I don't care if I only make around high five figures like starting $65,000 and then maybe around $80,000."

When Michael Burry left his work as a Stanford Hospital neurology resident in order to start his own hedge fund, he had a knack for seeing things other people couldn't see when it came to market trends. It made him and his clientele a lot of great returns. When he saw the volatility of the mortgage market, he came up with an arrangement to set up credit default swaps (CDS) against mortgage backed securities (MBS) because he recognized that the banks were treating loans as actual credit (subprime mortgage). By mixing it with other crappy bottom tier investments they "de-risked" the investment via diversification, thereby garnering tripe A ratings from credit rating agencies who were afraid that the banks would go to their competitors to receive a more favorable rating. Michael Burry essentially deduced this and executed a plan that would punish the banks when they were exposed for not possessing the actual capital they claimed to possess within their investments. These investments are known as toxic assets.

Michael Burry was 46, do you consider him to be at fault for screwing up the economy or the future of Millenials? Do we still blame an age cohort for the: Wells Fargo phony account scandal, the Libor scandal, the HSBC money laundering scandal, JP Morgan's London Whale, Detroit's Bankruptcy or the Enron scandal? How about the culture within these workplaces such as from the book, "Why I left Goldman Sachs" where bankers refer to their clientele as muppets when they dupe them into bad investments or the movie, "The Wolf of Wall Street" where penny stocks were sold to shmucks who thought they were investing in the next Microsoft when they were actually investing into the pocket of the brokers who were making margins they would never receive from any other type of stock.

Entitlement is the idea that you can actually type out a response that blames an entire generation for your crappy job at a Denny's, McDonald's, or What-Have-You-Inc when you have a degree in biochemistry, molecular genetics, biomedical engineering, or whatever super cool awesome degree you thought would get you a maybe-5ok-job out of college. Meanwhile your friends in business are watching Broadway plays and living the life in a penthouse condo in Manhattan bragging about working a job in mutual funds for Blackrock or Vanguard. People who are older weren't more mature when they were your age. They were brash and naive, many of them are just as ignorant about how the world turns or where their money goes when they deposit it into the bank. It's just as likely that they also blamed everyone else for their own predicament. It's just that when you blame 100 people for your crappy life, but you get older and nothing changes, then you begin to realize that you're the only constant and the only variable at fault for not finding the solution to why you're living in a literal **** hole.

Second,
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begoood95 said:
Lol @Sardinia I am not about to get into an internet debate about the causes of the subprime mortgage crisis -- on S[DOCTOR]N no less. You may type out your long responses as you please, but I'm not going to respond. This would be a discussion better held in person, and not on someone else thread as this has nothing to do with it and I regret bringing it up in the first place.

I've got other priorities, so I'm checking out, but by all means have fun✌
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No way I am responding to all of this, but just so it is known I will be a 25 yo M1.. no baby boomer
 
Frogger27 said:
...I will be a 25 yo M1.. no baby boomer
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begoood95 said:
No. (And @Frogger27 I'm not attacking you specifically) Just because you're old doesn't make you automatically more intelligent, better at decision making, and etc. than someone who's younger than you are. There's this narcissism and entitlement that comes with old age (ironic, huh? We're supposed to be the entitled ones) that muddies their judgement, and makes them think they're automatically superior to us "youngsters." Nah, your generation screwed up our economy and our futures, and now we have to fix it.
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begoood95 said:
No. (And @Frogger27 I'm not attacking you specifically) Just because you're old doesn't make you automatically more intelligent, better at decision making, and etc. than someone who's younger than you are. There's this narcissism and entitlement that comes with old age (ironic, huh? We're supposed to be the entitled ones) that muddies their judgement, and makes them think they're automatically superior to us "youngsters." Nah, your generation screwed up our economy and our futures, and now we have to fix it.
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@Frogger27 I've never met you before, but I am going to assume your age as "medical student" is more than three standard deviations away from the mean. I think this is a reasonable assumption. Would you reject my alternative hypothesis? I'm sorry, it's not fair to lambaste someone like this. Not every student takes statistics.
 
Dear @begood95 I think your opinions are unique and interesting. It shows a lot of original thought which is connected to intelligence, decision making, and judgement. All of which are qualities relating to the frontal cortex. Because you show an interest in relative intelligence, I wondered how you felt about this direct quote regarding Robert Sternberg and his view of intelligence, "People with high IQ scores spend more time on the initial stages of problem solving, retrieving relevant information from memory. In contrast, those who score lower tend to skip ahead and make less informed guesses" (Feldman, 2017, p. 237-238).

References:
Feldman, R.S. (2017). Life Span Development: A Topical Approach - Third Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson.
 
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I have mixed feelings on gapping. I can see how some people gain a lot of growth from it, but others have already been financially independent, been employed, rented their own place, etc throughout college. I personally thought gap year was awesome for the start, and then it got old and now I struggle daily not to go out of my mind from boredom at work. I don't think sitting around spending half the day on SDN/reddit is preparing me to be better in med school. If I hadn't needed the gap year to finance the application process, I think right now I would have wished I'd gotten my app in order and applied straight out of school.

Also how did this so suddenly derail into the housing bubble and boomers vs millennials lol
 
Speaking as a D1 athlete, there are many situations in which students don't feel able to adequately prepare an application in 3 years. There are many athletes and other very busy students who apply successfully after their junior year (our captain one year did), but this can be extraordinarily difficult in certain situations. Using my situation as an example, pre-meds on our team are up against:
  • ~30hrs/week of practice (+any additional PT/training, "optional" workouts, team-building, team meetings)
  • weekends spent traveling across the country and at competitions (we are in season/competing for most of the school year)
  • school breaks spent on campus or in training camps
  • limits imposed by practice schedules/coaches on course selection/labs (we essentially can't take orgo during the year or take any class after noon)
This makes it difficult to not only complete prereqs in 3 years, but to also find time to do research, volunteer, shadow and block off a chunk of time for the MCAT. I'm aware athletics is not unique in putting these strains on students' time, but it's probably on the more extreme end.

Also, to state the obvious here, many postbac students are students who didn't decide on medical school until after graduation (hence, post-baccalaureate) or who decided late in ug and still have prereqs left. So there's not really a choice there since one can't apply to med school without taking these prereqs. Since prereqs are just one tiny piece of the puzzle, non-trads then have to factor in time for volunteering/shadowing/studying for MCAT. So again, gap years become not so much a decision so much as a necessity.
 
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Not gonna lie but, I totally skipped over everything that was written by sarcastic sardines and johnny begood and streetfrogger. And theres no need to fill me in, thanks.


Take a gap year/s if you need them.
Don't if you don't.
 
mwsapphire said:
You don't understand, BeGood95. We're just kids. We aren't ready for anything XD
That was sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell.
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Yo who dat in your profile pic? Seen lots of med shows and haven't seen that actress.


nomsayin :joyful:🙄
 
efle said:
I have mixed feelings on gapping. I can see how some people gain a lot of growth from it, but others have already been financially independent, been employed, rented their own place, etc throughout college. I personally thought gap year was awesome for the start, and then it got old and now I struggle daily not to go out of my mind from boredom at work. I don't think sitting around spending half the day on SDN/reddit is preparing me to be better in med school. If I hadn't needed the gap year to finance the application process, I think right now I would have wished I'd gotten my app in order and applied straight out of school.

Also how did this so suddenly derail into the housing bubble and boomers vs millennials lol
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I feel you. I'm so bored. I'm ready for school to start.. I browse SDN as I sit in this laboratory all day long. Im going crazy.
 
jcorpsmanMD said:
I feel you. I'm so bored. I'm ready for school to start.. I browse SDN as I sit in this laboratory all day long. Im going crazy.
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I feel this so hard, but its even worse being on 3 WL's, one pending interview decision from February and no acceptances currently :lame:
 
aprilfools said:
I feel this so hard, but its even worse being on 3 WL's, one pending interview decision from February and no acceptances currently :lame:
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dang how can they be like a week from the deadline for school choice, and still not have released all decisions?
 
cactusman said:
Does dramatic irony not also fit?

"Irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play."
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LOLOLOL
 
freak7 said:
I'm sitting around in the lab all day grumbling like a jaded cop who's 3 months from retirement.
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I think my coworkers are insane when I just burst into laughter in the lab. they just don't understand the ridiculous stuff people say on sdn. better then memes I tell ya
 
jcorpsmanMD said:
I think my coworkers are insane when I just burst into laughter in the lab. they just don't understand the ridiculous stuff people say on sdn. better then memes I tell ya
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Try gong on SDN during class...when you sit in the front....
 
efle said:
dang how can they be like a week from the deadline for school choice, and still not have released all decisions?
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Its literally absurd dude. Einstein has only released 2 batches of straight acceptances. There were a few waitlists that went out like 2-3 weeks ago but other than that it has been silent since February.
 
I'm clearly the only nerd on SDN XD
 
aprilfools said:
Its literally absurd dude. Einstein has only released 2 batches of straight acceptances. There were a few waitlists that went out like 2-3 weeks ago but other than that it has been silent since February.
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has this been how they do things historically too? is it still possible for direct admits to go out this late or is everyone assuming WL at this point?
 
efle said:
has this been how they do things historically too? is it still possible for direct admits to go out this late or is everyone assuming WL at this point?
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This cycle has been wildly different than years past for Einstein. There has even been conflicting answer directly from the admissions office as to whether a HPWL even exists at all this year, despite existing in the past (admissions office has stated that it does not exist, but a few people have gotten explicit HPWL emails)

efle said:
you have the biggest phone screen i've ever seen
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This wasn't even posted from my phone I have no idea why it posted so large. Oops
 
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