Should I take one or two gap years? (personal stats)

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questionsgalore

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I just had a long conversation with a friend of mine who is in a similar life situation as me and applied to medical school this past cycle. She didn't get into any medical schools and is taking a second gap year, and told me she actually wished she had decided to take two gap years to start with, and recommended I do the same unless I was 100% confident in my application this cycle. I'm currently a senior (graduating in 3 weeks) and was planning on taking one gap year and matriculating into medical school in 2018. Here are my stats:

Cumulative GPA: 3.57
Science GPA: 3.38
MCAT: 506
SES Disadvantaged Student: Yes
Female/White
Home state: Florida
Research: One year but not on anything significant (studying online courses, made IRB protocol, doing data collection and analysis, publishing a paper).
Volunteer work: I have extensive non-clinical volunteer experience, but not a lot of clinical. I plan on doing clinical volunteering 1-2 times a week during my gap year(s) to make up for this.
Strong clinical shadowing
Recommendation Letters: I've become close with a lot of faculty members/professors at my university so I believe I'll have strong letters.
Strong leadership experience
Work experience: I've worked 15-20 hours per week since I was a sophomore.
Gap year(s): clinical research/research assistant

Thoughts? I'm really torn about this because I know I'm not a very strong applicant, and I can't afford to spend $5000+ applying this cycle if I won't get into anything.
 
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The most common mistake re-applicants make is applying again too soon without making any significant changes to their application.
The Ohio State University College of Medicine - Tips & Advice
You don't want to apply for a third time, so don't apply again until you feel confident and ready (and have addressed the possible reasons for not being successful the first time)
Did you apply to a broad range of schools? DO too? or just MD? Did you submit your application on time? or late in the cycle?
I'd personally say to take two years. Take the first full year to bump your clinical volunteering - shoot for 100 hours minimum with an ideal range of 150-250. Really try to learn from your experiences so you'll be able to write about them thoughtfully in your application and talk about them during an interview.
 
This thread may be better served in WAMC.
If it were me (and it was), I'd take another gap year (and I did!). There seem to be a few areas where your app can be improved, and rushing into another cycle in a month might not be the best decision. In your year off, you could take the MCAT again, get a paper published in your research assistant job, get some more clinical hours (which matter, or so I'm told), and take a few classes to get that sGPA moving a bit. Really though, your story and how you represent yourself could be as meaningful as any of those things, and growing as person and honing in on what is important to you as well as how to display that could be just as useful.

tl;dr Take another year off
 
The most common mistake re-applicants make is applying again too soon without making any significant changes to their application.
The Ohio State University College of Medicine - Tips & Advice
You don't want to apply for a third time, so don't apply again until you feel confident and ready (and have addressed the possible reasons for not being successful the first time)
Did you apply to a broad range of schools? DO too? or just MD? Did you submit your application on time? or late in the cycle?
I'd personally say to take two years. Take the first full year to bump your clinical volunteering - shoot for 100 hours minimum with an ideal range of 150-250. Really try to learn from your experiences so you'll be able to write about them thoughtfully in your application and talk about them during an interview.


Sorry, I didn't make it clear: I'm currently a senior and was only planning on taking one gap year.
 
Sorry, I didn't make it clear: I'm currently a senior and was only planning on taking one gap year.
Ah sorry, so you are graduating but you haven't applied yet? So one gap year means you would be applying this cycle (17-18) and matriculating in the fall of '18. Two gap years means you would skip this upcoming cycle, apply in the 18-19 cycle and matriculate in the fall of '19.
 
With your current stats you are competitive for any DO school so apply to at least 10 in June and you should receive several interviews. Some schools require a DO LOR. For MD schools you could receive interviews at some of your Florida schools so apply to all of them including the new Nova MD school (if it opens for 2018). If you decide not to apply this June then take additional undergraduate science courses in the coming year to raise your sGPA.
 
Ah sorry, so you are graduating but you haven't applied yet? So one gap year means you would be applying this cycle (17-18) and matriculating in the fall of '18. Two gap years means you would skip this upcoming cycle, apply in the 18-19 cycle and matriculate in the fall of '19.

Yes, that's correct! I'm already planning on doing clinical volunteering during my gap year and doing my research job, but I wasn't sure if I would benefit from waiting to apply next year.
 
Yes, that's correct! I'm already planning on doing clinical volunteering during my gap year and doing my research job, but I wasn't sure if I would benefit from waiting to apply next year.
If you don't have cold hard clinical hours completed and done, I would wait. Med schools want to see completed or ongoing activities (or at least something that lasts a substantial amount of time.) Saying in your application that you "plan" to do clinical volunteering during your year off isn't the same as having done it, plus you have no way of talking about or learning from an experience you haven't had yet. I would also try to find a DO to shadow and write a letter for you if you haven't already.
 
If you have extremely weak clinical hours then don't expect to have a successful cycle. If I am interpreting your post correctly you are contemplating applying this summer vs next summer. If you are relying on the bulk of your clinical experiences to come from your gap year that is coming up, it may be wise to take two instead, because applying this summer means your primary app will not have those hours (or will only have future projections). The future projections are not enough, you need to illustrate that you know what you are getting into with a career in medicine and so they will question how you can be sure you want to apply if you haven't done the hours and recognized that you enjoyed the experience.
 
With your current stats you are competitive for any DO school so apply to at least 10 in June and you should receive several interviews. Some schools require a DO LOR. For MD schools you could receive interviews at some of your Florida schools so apply to all of them including the new Nova MD school (if it opens for 2018). If you decide not to apply this June then take additional undergraduate science courses in the coming year to raise your sGPA.
I agree that OP will be competitive for DO. I feel MD will likely be a reach with her numbers regardless of additional extracurriculars.
 
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