Will admission committees consider what I do after I send in my application?

[surely]

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sGPA: 4.00
cGPA: 3.67 overall, 4.0 post-bacc
Undergrad degree in Information Technology
MCAT: PS 11, VR 12, BS 12 = 35

Since my last post here, I completed the pre-reqs, took eight upper-division BCPM classes, beefed up my extracurricular activities including biology research and leadership, kept working my full-time job in IT, and rocked the MCAT.

I'm applying in June 2013, and my letters of recommendation and application are pretty solid. However, I'm trying to plan out my schedule of classes and activities during my application year, and I don't want to do anything that would be seen as a red flag. My question is, how much do admission committees notice or care what I do after my AMCAS application has been submitted?

1. What do non-trads typically do during their gap year?
   
2. Could my taking Microbiology (with lab) over the summer possibly help my application, or would it go entirely unnoticed? Grades would not come out until long after my application is in.
   (I'll be busily writing secondary applications and doing data analysis for my long-term research project while working full-time, and I don't think Microbio would make much of a difference in my overall healthy post-bacc performance.)
   
3. Is it necessary/super helpful to continue taking 3-4 upper level science classes in the fall, or will that not factor into an admission decision? How about the spring?
   (I've just about run out of relevant classes that I can take, and I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to pad my schedule with classes like Instrumentation in Chemistry or Scientific Journal Writing solely for the sake of maintaining a full-time schedule. Since my post-bacc GPA is 4.0, I think I've demonstrated that I can handle the workload. And though Scientific Journal Writing sounds like an interesting class, it's one of those classes where you get out what you put in, and I probably won't be able to put that much into it if I'm also taking the other three classes and working and so on.)
   
4. If I leave my job sometime after submitting my application, I don't need to notify the schools, right?
   
5. Similarly, if I discontinue my involvement in one of my long-running extracurricular activities, I don't need to notify the schools of this, right?
   
6. My university doesn't offer a post-bacc program, so I'm technically enrolled in a degree program for chemistry. I don't intend to complete this degree, but I needed to sign up for this program in order to register for the pre-reqs. On the AMCAS, I won't list this degree as a degree I anticipate earning, so medical schools won't be able to insist that I finish the degree before matriculating, correct?

Thanks for any insight you can offer!

 

[step213]

Taking classes after your application is submitted doesn't help unless it is just to fulfill a prerequ a certain school has. so don't take micro unless you want to (and it isn't necessary nor will it help much in med school as you will relearn everything with a medicine bent on things) - basically schools don't care about anything after you submit your application unless it is REALLY amazing or it is REALLY bad. Ie you publish first author in nature magazine or you get busted by the law for something worst then just speeding tickets or running a stop light. Go have fun during your gap year - don't take classes, if you aren't excited about your long term extracurricular activities then quit them and do something you've wanted to do for awhile because after you start school there won't be as much free time.

My caveat to this would be if you aren't sure that you are going to get in, if you think you might have to do a second admission cycle (if you apply broadly there is no reason you shouldn't get in unless you have red flags) then it is beneficial to keep up the premed "life".

 

[surely]

Thank you! That's what I was expecting and hoping to hear. I really love being involved in this particular extracurricular activity, but I'm looking to try new things that will impose scheduling conflicts, so I wanted to make sure I had flexibility before making any decisions.

I'm so used to managing 80-hour weeks and planning my life around "What will the adcoms think of this?" It's weird having any freedom at all.

 

[LUCPM]

You already have good numbers, so I don't think it'll make a big impact on your application. Just make sure you don't get DUI.

 

[galaxyx]

i would keep up some sort of clinical and/or other volunteer activity so that if you need to reapply you have something to add. Also, a lot of secondaries ask what you're doing in your gap year, so it would probably been good to keep your full time job until you fill out secondaries so you can be honest on your secondaries and not look like a slacker.