Medical Should I turn down an acceptance and reapply next year?

[TheBoneDoctah]

I am a young applicant, 21 y/o. My academics are pretty strong, 4.0 overall GPA, 4.0 Science GPA, and a 524 MCAT (August 2020). I applied to some very good schools, Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard, Kaiser and UCSF all were R's pre-interview. Some next tier schools USC, Bayor also R's pre-interview. I have been accepted to my state school with a generous scholarship. I am on the WL for two schools that would really intrigue me, including Mayo. Covid 19 dramatically impacted by patient exposure hours. I was literally in training for a wonderful patient exposure opportunity when the world shut down. I have about 100 hours of shadowing, I also have a little more than 100 Patient exposure hours. In all candor, I am also light on other EC's other than research, which I have over 1,000 hours. I also have 2 publications and soon will be adding a third. My long-term goals are to be involved in academic medicine in what is considered a competitive specialty. Should I consider turning down my acceptance to my state school and work in strengthening my EC's? Is it worth taking a year or two to do this?

Ugh IMO this is tough. Usually I would say never turn down an acceptance but dang. Those stats are amazing and you are young. I think if you beefed up your ECs in a gap year you would have a very successful cycle but there is always a risk of not getting accepted the second time around.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[gyngyn]

There is no state MD school that cannot prepare you for a career in academic medicine.

 

[Goro]

The single worst mistake a pre-med can make is to turn down an acceptance

 

[GoSpursGo]

This is why one should not apply to a school that they would not attend, and why stats are not everything.

The fact that you got a scholarship to the state school also really seals this for me. Why delay a year for an opportunity to pay more to get the same degree? If you choose to turn down this acceptance, you burn the bridge at your state school forever, and while you should eventually get in somewhere else that honestly seems like a terrible idea.

 

[MusicDOc124]

Where you go to school may matter in some instances, but realistically, while GPA/MCAT aren't great predictors, having those GPAs and MCAT are highly suggestive of success and good work ethic.

Thus, where you go to school, will not matter as much.

I can understand the dilemma, and along with TheBoneDoctah, I contemplated a bit.

However, I stand with the rest of my colleagues based on what I stated in the first line or two. I think in your case, it's all relative. I would not delay the end goal by one year for a school name.

... not to mention 1) there is no guarantee with reapplication, and 2) you only have 1 acceptance currently and by declining it to reapply, you can write this one off for the following cycle.


TLDR: Go where you're accepted and do well. If you get in off the waitlist at Mayo or the other place, then go to one of them.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Stay in-state and take the scholarship. Go for the prestige in your internship.

 

[lord999]

I'm going to give a contrary position.

If it is purely academic medicine but not heavy research, then I would go to the state school, it will be fine. If you are going for an MD/PhD, I would go to a school where you have a good research PI advisor and don't worry about the ranking (a good example of this is Duke or Case Western where they are not in the top 10 overall for research, but for certain programs is definitely #1 or #2 and are respected beyond their ranking). If you are dead set on Ivy League and friends for an academic medicine career, it's hard to get in if you are not Ivy, and it would be a consideration to turn down.

However, you would have a major knock against your application for turning down an acceptance especially with funding such that you are not pristine for an application next year despite your stats.

Rejecting the acceptance and applying to the highest tier with that sort of blemish is a very high to suicidal risk of failure. Ask yourself, are you really good enough to overcome that blemish and be competitive with essentially the best candidates?