When should a person start considering to take a gap year?

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Lina19

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I'm a junior, and after this semester, my gpa will be around a 3.56 or 3.58. I wanted to know when a person should start thinking about taking a gap year.
I wanted to apply to medical schools in the summer. I have shadowed several doctors, have been volunteering at a hospital for the past 2 years, and have done research for 2 1/2 years.

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I think it'd be useful to just sit down and assess how ready you are to apply. By the summer, will your GPA be where you want it to be, or could senior year strengthen it? Did you take the MCAT yet (if not, would you be able to study during next semester to take it before June)? How do you look as an applicant, aside from the clinical stuff?

I was in your position last year (I'm a senior now) and ultimately decided to take a gap year, for reasons including more time for the MCAT. I'm stoked about my gap year and this was definitely the right choice. Looking back, I don't think I was ready to apply at all.
 
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Taking a gap year is based on the entirety of an application, not a single metric and a couple of vague statements about ECs. It is different if you have a sub 3.2 GPA or equally poor MCAT.

cGPA:
sGPA:
MCAT:
Research: (Publications, contributions)
Clinical exposure:
LOR: Who is writing and what they can attest to (I use a loose standard of, "student is 1 in x" where x stands for a number of students, higher being better)
Big picture stuff:
 
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If you don't plan on taking the MCAT by late spring then you should consider a gap year
 
If you have something lined up (job, activity, whatever) that you're passionate about and think that deferring med school by a year is worth it in order to pursue it in order to learn more about something, then you should take a gap year or two.
 
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