Gap Year Before Medical School: Is it the Right Choice?

Top 5 Reasons to Take a Gap Year Before Medical School

1. Improve Your Application

Maybe you’re uncertain if you’ve truly got a strong med school application…or perhaps your application has fallen short and you’re a medical school reapplicant. In any case, working with a consultant during your gap year can help you identify your (or, your application’s) shortcomings and figure out where to start to make crucial improvements.

A gap year gives you time to reach out for medical school admissions help, prepare outstanding application components, improve your academic standing, and increase your experience in the medical field. A gap year also gives you time to prepare for the dreaded CASPer test by practicing CASPer sample questions and answers. 

Increase Your GPA

If you struggled with some of your courses and have a handful of unfavorable grades, you may already be thinking it would be wise to work on improving your marks before applying to medical school. The best thing you can do is to check medical school acceptance rates to see how your test scores and grades compare with accepted students from the previous year.

If you're seeing a trend where you're not meeting medical school GPA requirements or are falling below the average GPAs of successful students, it's time to consider improving your grades before you apply, and taking a gap year to do so may be necessary.

Sometimes, it can be as simple as re-taking a course or two in order to see an improvement in your GPA and that's because one or two low grades can really pull down your overall GPA or your science GPA, depending on the affected course. If on the other hand, your entire first year of undergrad was riddled with low marks, you may need to re-take a semester or apply to a post-baccalaureate program to significantly improve your marks.

While you can still get into medical school with a low GPA, it's going to be a lot more difficult so considering improving your existing GPA may be easier in the long run.

Complete Medical School Prerequisites

Other than failing to meet GPA requirements, if you haven't completed the medical school prerequisites, taking a gap year will be unavoidable. Medical school prerequisites are courses that you are required to take before you can apply to medical school.

Sometimes students think that if they've chosen a biological science major or other medical major, then they automatically meet prerequisites, but this is often not the case. Students who fail to check the requirements closely before they apply to medical school often find themselves missing courses and have no choice but to take a break between their studies to complete the required courses; since all requirements vary by program.

Study for or Retake the MCAT

In addition to your GPA, how you score on the MCAT will have a huge impact on whether or not you're invited to a medical school interview and offered acceptance.

According to the AAMC, the mean MCAT score of US matriculants is 511.7 so ask yourself, how does your score compare? More importantly, how does your score compare at your chosen medical schools? For example, even though the mean MCAT score of matriculants is just over 511, a school you want to apply to may have a mean accepted score of 517. This is why it's so important to use our medical school chance predictor so you can determine your chances of getting accepted at medical schools you're interested in based on your current GPA and MCAT.

Taking a gap year before medical school would allow you the opportunity to dedicate more study and preparation time for the MCAT so you can work on improving any unfavorable scores. As a general rule of thumb, you should only take the MCAT when you are 100% ready and prepared to take it and are scoring consistently well repeatedly.

One of our former students, Kannan, opted to retake the MCAT and sought our help in order to achieve a more favourable score for med school:

“I was aiming for over 510 [on the MCAT] but initially scored 497. After a month off, I prepped for six more months, improving to 510 nearly a year later. I found managing filler words and maintaining a professional demeanor challenging but improved with practice and feedback, valuing the mock interviews for their realism and helpful critique.” – Kannan, Former BeMo Student

Ask for Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are one of many medical school requirements, with most schools requiring three letters for submission with your application. If you were unable to secure these letters come application season because you couldn't gain good experiences, then you'll have to wait before applying.

According to an AMA study, letters of recommendation are one of the top 5 factors that admissions committees consider when deciding who should be offered an interview and who should be offered acceptance. This is why some students opt to utilize a year (or two) off before med school—it’s a great opportunity to form close bonds with supervisors, mentors and physicians and secure great recommendation letters.

Write a Knockout Personal Statement

Before you sit down to write your personal statement, read the best medical school personal statement examples to get some ideas for your own. Then, you can use your time to consult a professional for feedback. Your personal statement should help you stand out as a strong applicant, without question! You must ensure it’s free of errors, concise, and that it flows well.

2. Enhance Your Premed Extracurriculars

Another way to improve your application is by maximizing your extracurriculars for medical school. This includes experiences you'll discuss in the AMCAS work and activities section, such as research experience, clinical experience, and volunteering experience. You may also wish to explore premed gap year jobs.

When you look at your potential application, think of how the committees will view you as a candidate – if you have unsatisfactory or minimal experience shadowing a doctor, for instance, you might now stand out as a strong candidate. 

3. Save Money and Pay Down Debt

Medical school tuition is astronomical, with students spending $40,000-$70,000 (depending on whether their school is public or private), not including other fees like living costs and health insurance! Taking a gap year to work and save money is, sometimes, the smartest option for certain students. 

What are medical school costs like? Here's a breakdown:

4. Take a Mental Break

Prioritizing your mental health is imperative to your success as a medical doctor. In order to help other people, you'll have to first help yourself. If you're feeling exhausted and burnt out, or perhaps dealing with personal issues such as a loss or illness, you may not be able to handle the extensive workload, time and stress of medical school. In this case, it's better to take a break now, before you apply to medical school, rather than having to drop out halfway through because your stress levels are out of control.

Medical school will involve many challenges, both mentally and physically, so you want to ensure you're in the right mental space to get through it and come out successful on the other end. 

How long does it take to become a doctor? Here's an overview:

5. Combat Rejection from Medical School

Facing medical school rejection is difficult for all students and it's totally acceptable to take some time off before reapplying. What's important is that you dissect your application to try and determine why you were rejected. If you're going to take a gap year before re-applying, you need to formulate a plan so you know what you're going to do during this break.

With an honest critical look at your application, you may determine that your GPA and MCAT score wasn't competitive, you didn't have enough experience in the medical field, or even that you rushed your application and didn't consult a medical school advisor.

If you applied too late in the application cycle, you may have been placed on a medical school waitlist simply because all the interview spots were already taken, and in turn, most offers of acceptance were already handed out.

What's important is that you are proactive in your decision-making approach. Don't wait until the last minute to decide whether or not you're going to take a gap year because if you decide too late, you'll be completely panicked trying to find other opportunities. For example, many volunteer and employment opportunities will be secured months in advance, often early on in the year for summer start dates. If you left it too late to apply because you weren't sure what to do, not only will you be taking a gap year, but you may have missed out on these options. Take the time to re-group, strengthen your weaknesses, and re-apply with a stronger, better application.

FAQs

To your success,

Your friends at BeMo

BeMo Academic Consulting

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