Making the Most of a Gap Year

[Ruby31]

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I submitted my primary for this cycle before getting my MCAT score back, and once I got it back it was clear that I needed to retake it but there wasn't enough time. I went ahead and applied to some MD schools and have been receiving rejection letters already. I'm a biochemistry major with minors in math and medical humanities and pretty involved extracurricular wise. I have a cGPA of 3.51 and a sGPA of 3.38 (There is an upward trend in my gpa and I have nothing below a B). My MCAT was a 26 (8's in the sciences and 10 on verbal).

I am in my senior year now and I know at the end of this year both my cGPA and my sGPA will improve slightly or at least add to the upward trend by the end of the school year.

I already registered for another MCAT in March and have decided that taking a gap year is going to be the best choice for me. I have some ideas to volunteer in a few different hospital settings, and maybe take a couple graduate level biology courses but other than that what can I do to make the most of my gap year next year?

 

[touchpause13]

Why didn't you apply DO? You probably would be fine, your stats are right around average

 

[Ruby31]

Why didn't you apply DO? You probably would be fine, your stats are right around average

I was unsure about whether or not I wanted to go DO and I didn't want to get accepted to a DO school and then decide not to attend. There are some MD programs at some schools that let you get concentrations/certificates/ or dual degrees in medical humanities or bioethics and I was really looking into doing that. I haven't heard of a DO program with options like that otherwise I probably would have looked into it more.

 

[touchpause13]

I know kcumb has a dual degree in bioethics. Not sure where else tho

 

[Ruby31]

I know kcumb has a dual degree in bioethics. Not sure where else tho

Gotcha. I might look into it, but at this point I'm pretty set on the gap year. I already registered for another MCAT and have started studying again. Thanks for the info though!