Question as a senior undergraduate applicant

[tiper15]

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Hey guys,

I am currently in my last year of undergraduate, but as I have not been accepted yet, I have been worried about how to approach what I will do the next year.
I have the option of not graduating and simply taking a 5th year, or graduating and currently unsure what I would do before my next application cycle.
The issue I'm having is that I know that some schools accept all the way until April, but by then I would have had to apply to graduate already. So I am currently conflicted on what to do.
I was wondering what other people in my situation have already done for this issue.

I am a Canadian applicant.

Thanks!

 

[Its_Me_G]

Graduate and work for a year to save up some $$$

 

[dnature4real]

Graduate and work. Find a job that will complement your desire to be a physician. Here in the U. S most of my friends who've decided to take a gap year will be working with Doctors as Scribes

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using SDN mobile

 

[em369]

I was wondering if I can apply for the for the 2018-2019 application round if I will be finishing my undergrad fall 2018? Will I have to send my transcript prior to finishing my last semester to apply for thing round?

 

[Its_Me_G]

I was wondering if I can apply for the for the 2018-2019 application round if I will be finishing my undergrad fall 2018? Will I have to send my transcript prior to finishing my last semester to apply for thing round?

You’ll have to submit a transcript at the time you apply for your application to be complete. I recommend requesting it as soon as your spring 2018 grades are in. AADSAS also has an academic update period beginning in November 2018 where you can submit your final transcript after graduation

 

[Dr. Meliodas]

What is your cGPA or sGPA, if they are on the lower side it might be better to take a 5th year to improve those anyways. Whether to take a 5th year of undergrad or not really depends on what is lacking in your application.

 

[tiper15]

What is your cGPA or sGPA, if they are on the lower side it might be better to take a 5th year to improve those anyways. Whether to take a 5th year of undergrad or not really depends on what is lacking in your application.

They are both around 3.7.
I'm not really sure whats lacking in my application; maybe I should shadow more, but I have around 100 hours.
If I took a 5th year, I would end up graduating with a double major.

 

[Dr. Meliodas]

They are both around 3.7.
I'm not really sure whats lacking in my application; maybe I should shadow more, but I have around 100 hours.
If I took a 5th year, I would end up graduating with a double major.

Definetly do not need to take a 5th year with a 3.7, 100 hours of shadowing is a decent amount. Probably best thing to do in my opinion would be to work as a scribe for the year.

 

[tiper15]

Definetly do not need to take a 5th year with a 3.7, 100 hours of shadowing is a decent amount. Probably best thing to do in my opinion would be to work as a scribe for the year.

Is it a bad idea to take a 5th year to get a double major though?

 

[Dr. Meliodas]

Is it a bad idea to take a 5th year to get a double major though?

If the double major will open doors for you to accomplish other things you want to do as a physician then by all means get it. However, many medical schools offer joint MD - (PhD, MPH, MS in a bunch of different fields) that could potentially help you in the future with certain goals which is why I can't personally see a second major helping too much unless it will prepare you for the advanced degree. If you want a double major just for your own personal enrichment that is perfectly fine too. But if neither of those is the case there are other things that would help your app more (probably more clinical experience) and that will help you make a little income as well.

You just need to be able to justify your decision to admissions committee which should not be difficult either way depending on your what your second major is. If you are getting a major in Biology and a second major in Molecular Biology then there really is no point in the second major because they are too similar and presumably many of the core requirements are being double counted. If your first major is in biology and your second major is like bioinformatics, or biomolecular engineering then there is more merit to the second major again if you see yourself applying the additional things you learn as a physician. You might be interested on developing some sort of surgical device which then the biomolecular engineer major might potentially lead to you getting an MD-MS in biomolecular engineering and help you get to that goal.

In short just think of "why you are doing something" and make the best decision that will help you reach your future goals. If the second major is just because you are nervous of being out of school and working for a year - which is understandable, and from personal experience does feel a little odd at first - that would not be a good reason to do an extra year. Sorry for the novel 🤣hope it helped.

 

[tiper15]

Sorry for the novel 🤣hope it helped.

No, thank you for your reply. I'm actually doing a major in biochem and a minor in chem right now, so taking an extra year would upgrade that minor to a major. It's more for personal gain cause there are a couple of courses I haven't been able to take that I would like to. I'm just not sure how they look at 5th year applicants, excluding the co op ones.

How's your DAT? And when did you submit your application?

23AA 22TS 22PAT 21RC
I submitted in December (mainly on the 1st).

 

[tiper15]

Submitting in December may have hurt your chances significantly, as your application theoretically may have gotten reviewed recently, and seats are mostly filled by now.

Yeah, I know. that was my own mistake.