When I applied the first time around, I was planning to apply w/o a gap year.
However, with the increasing competitiveness of norm applicant, gap year is more and more common. For example, some applicants might take a year off to finish their research project so they have a publication in hand when applying.
Blows my mind that 65% of last year's matriculating class didn't have debt prior to starting medical school. And here I am with 25k undergraduate debt and 45k SMP debt.
At least everything worked out lol, but still makes me feel weird. Hopefully I get extremely lucky and get some money from my schools next spring (but I seriously doubt it even though I received scholarships from both undergrad and graduate school).