Should I take two gap years?

[premedlovesbread]

Hi everyone!

I'm a rising senior who decided relatively late in the game that I wanted to pursue medicine, and while I'm fully on track to complete my course requirements by the time I graduate, I'm lacking in clinical experience. I took a caregiver job this summer that I'll continue into the semester with a woman who has cerebral palsy (I help with med administration, catheter care, mobility, etc. in addition to assisting with activities of daily living). I'm also taking a Health Advocacy course next year that involves clinical exposure in the second half of the academic year, so that should help add to my experience as well. COVID-19 certainly didn't help with finding opportunities, but I'm doing my best to seek out my options. I'll have plenty of time to pursue employment/volunteering in a clinical setting during my application year, but I've seen other students advised not to rely too much on projected experience and I think it's probably not ideal if most of my clinical experience happens after I submit my application.

All that said, does it make more sense for me to take an extra gap year in addition to my application year in order to get more clinical experience? For financial reasons, that wouldn't be my preference, but I'm not sure about my chances if I don't. I have plenty of research/volunteering/leadership experience, and my GPA is great, but I'm concerned that my extracurricular record doesn't really represent my interest in medicine and I won't have a strong chance of admission even if I crush the MCAT. What would you do if you were in my position? Any advice would be very much appreciated!

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[GreenDuck12]

The reasons you articulated for taking an extra year prior to applying to medical school makes sense. The clinical experience is an important part of an application as programs want to be sure that you have a good idea what you're getting into. Additionally, the clinical experiences tend to help folks flesh out their ideas, motivations, and passions when writing personal statements and secondary essays. I'm a big advocate of applying when your application is strong - medical schools aren't going anywhere. Best of luck to you.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Not sure why you need two gap years given that you are already getting clinical experience. You need 100+ hours of clinical experience provided you have good stats. What's your GPA and when are you planning to take MCAT?

 

[premedlovesbread]

Not sure why you need two gap years given that you are already getting clinical experience. You need 100+ hours of clinical experience provided you have good stats. What's your GPA and when are you planning to take MCAT?

My GPA currently stands at a 3.99 (although physics might mess that up next year). I'm planning to take the MCAT in March because I'll have completed the majority of my prereqs at that point, but I don't know if it makes sense to take it sooner. Maybe I'm just overthinking this, but I'm a little intimidated by the quality and quantity of clinical experience that other premed students have and I don't know how well I'll stack up when I apply.

 

[KnightDoc]

My GPA currently stands at a 3.99 (although physics might mess that up next year). I'm planning to take the MCAT in March because I'll have completed the majority of my prereqs at that point, but I don't know if it makes sense to take it sooner. Maybe I'm just overthinking this, but I'm a little intimidated by the quality and quantity of clinical experience that other premed students have and I don't know how well I'll stack up when I apply.

You don't have to stack up to the SDN outliers, so please don't allow yourself to be intimidated. It's not about hours per se, nor necessarily abut "quality" of experience -- it's about what you get from the experience, what you give to others, and how you are able to express it when writing your essays. Given the interruption the entire world experienced due to COVID, I absolutely do not think you need an additional year just to blow out your numbers.

 

[LizzyM]

Your clinical experience is not in a health care setting and so I would highly recommend waiting to submit your AMCAS application until you have some employment or volunteer service with patients in a health care setting. Caring for a person with a disability in their home is a gray zone because the person living their life in their home is not a patient by some people's definition. It is great to get experience providing what is, essentially, nursing care, but it doesn't give you a broader perspective on what it is to work/volunteer in a clinical setting where physicians are typically employed. Part of the "clinical experience" is to test your interest in working in such a setting.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

My GPA currently stands at a 3.99 (although physics might mess that up next year). I'm planning to take the MCAT in March because I'll have completed the majority of my prereqs at that point, but I don't know if it makes sense to take it sooner. Maybe I'm just overthinking this, but I'm a little intimidated by the quality and quantity of clinical experience that other premed students have and I don't know how well I'll stack up when I apply.

Even one or two courses mess up, your GPA still be 3.9x, so don't sweat on it. Take MCAT when you are consistently hitting your target score. As per clinical experience LizzyM is correct that your experience may not go well with all adcoms. You should be able to get couple of hundred hours in next one year and submit app next summer so I still don't see need for 2 gap years.