What disadvantage is there to reapplying? You are saying that it is some kind of failure? If you have a 40 MCAT and 4.0GPA and you applied too late and didn't get in you are suddenly a failure? Come on. Even with this guy's stats, that is a stretch to make that statement. If he was sitting on a 27 MCAT, I'd be on board with waiting so he could retake first.
Holy reading random things I never said into my post, batman! Having to reapply is not a "failure," except in the sense that it's a waste of time and money to reapply when a more strategic and stronger first app would have gotten the person accepted on the first try. I wasn't making a value judgment on the OP's worth as a human being!
I strongly disagree with your viewpoint, of telling someone to give up because of "possible emotional distress", and the likelihood that they will get rejected this time around. That is a stupid reason not to apply.
I didn't say that either. Telling someone to *postpone* submitting their app is not the same as telling them to give up altogether. The problem with applying late is that most med schools give out II's on a rolling basis, and many also give out acceptances on a rolling basis. So a person who applies in June or July has better odds of getting an II just because there are more II's left to give out at that point. In contrast, a person who applies right before the school's deadline may be perfectly competitive and wind up on hold/waitlisted because there just isn't room to have them come interview or be accepted to the class.
FWIW, I postponed my own app by a year because I got my MCAT score back in October. My MCAT score was a 43 with a 4.0 GPA for my PhD. (I didn't have an UG GPA since I attended a P/F college.) I think no one would argue that my stats were an issue. But instead of being a late applicant that year, I applied on June 1 the following year and was one of the first completed applicants. Could I have still gotten in if I had applied in mid-October of the year I took the MCAT? Maybe. But you know, I wound up having more and better options by postponing my app by a year, because I applied so early that I was well before the deadline of every school. In the end, I went to my top choice med school on a full ride. (FWIW, scholarship offers are also often made on a rolling basis.)
Applying this cycle represents no risk to OP, but you are making it out to be like putting his career on the line. The only loss to OP would be some money for secondaries, and the time he probably already put in to AMCAS. The alternative is getting accepted and not burning a year of his life.
See what I said above and also Lizzy's post for what some of the risks are. And again, I think you underestimate the demoralizing effect of being rejected everywhere, especially when it seems like all of your fellow applicants are trying to decide which med school to attend while you're left gearing up for another app attempt. Premeds, med students, and physicians are type A people for the most part, accustomed to success and expecting success in proportion to the effort they put into something. So spectacularly failing to get an acceptance anywhere is a pretty hefty ego hit to many people.
Some schools actually look MORE favorably at re-applicants, but you didn't mention that either.
That's because they're the exception that proves the rule. In fact, offhand, I don't know of any med school that looks more favorably at reapplicants versus first-time applicants. I can tell you that the high power research schools I was applying to, as well as my unranked state schools, definitely didn't hold that viewpoint. Their admissions folks were the ones telling me to sit out for a year so I could apply earlier in the app season.
Obviously, if you don't get in the first time you apply for whatever reason, then yes, you have to reapply. But hopefully you learn something from your first go-round failure, and you avoid failing again. That includes correcting any identified deficiencies in your app, but it also includes having a good app strategy, including applying broadly enough and also early enough.
