Many students go right from undergrad into a medical school program. Increasingly, however, students are taking a gap year in between, taking time away from school to gain real world experience, pursue a passion, or improve their candidacy. Medical schools have taken notice, and an increasing share of incoming students are coming in off of gap years. Indeed, the majority of students now entering medical school have taken a gap year.
Of course, this raises questions for current undergraduates. Is a gap year right for you? How should you spend a gap year if you take one? Does taking a gap year improve your chances of admission to medical school? We’ll investigate all of these questions in this article; let’s get started!
Is a Gap Year Right for You?
This varies from student to student, and depends largely on your own circumstances. This is of course an unsatisfying answer, so we’ll lay out the most common concerns, and how they impact this decision.
Many students go right from undergrad to medical school because they want to minimize the time they spend before they become a doctor. Undergrad is four years, medical school another four, then residency; it’s a long process. This makes sense; and if you want the fast approach, then taking a gap year is not for you.
Some students are burnt out from school after undergrad, and want a brief chance to do something else before beginning the even more intense process that is medical school. This is an understandable desire, but we do warn that any gap year must be spent doing something; we’ll cover options for what later, but you can’t simply fill your days with nothing, as lovely as that may sound.
Some students decide they want to pursue medicine partway through their undergraduate career, and realize they do not have the needed extracurricular preparation to apply to medical school. For these students, gap years are a great way to improve their candidacy, and are something they should strongly consider when deciding when and how to apply to medical school.
Finally, some students have a personal matter arise that prevents them from continuing into medical school immediately. This happens; life can and does get in the way. In these cases, you should focus on resolving the issue, but continue your preparations for medical school when and as you can. Admissions officers understand extenuating circumstances, but do like to see how you persevere in spite of them.
In all of these cases, a gap year can help your chances of admission if you spend it doing something worthwhile, or which boosts deficiencies in your candidacy.
How to Spend a Gap Year
There are many possible ways to spend a gap year, and some are better for students in certain situations. Which is right for you depends on your own needs; we’ll go through a number of possible options so that you can see what’s available to you.
Post-Baccalaureate Programs
These are specially designed academic programs which are supplemental to your undergraduate education, and which are meant to give you the academic preparation necessary for medical school. They are aimed at students who did not complete the necessary prerequisites during undergrad, or whose GPA was not what they wanted it to be.
These programs exist formally and informally, and are generally quite easy to get into. We do not recommend these unless your GPA is well below what you need to get into medical school, or if you have not completed the necessary academic prerequisites. If your GPA is at an adequate level, there are better ways to spend your time.
Working in a Medicine-Adjacent Field
Gaining real-world experience is one of the most popular ways to spend a gap year, especially as it allows you to gain experience working in a clinical setting. This improves your candidacy a great deal, and can give you further insight into what you might want to specialize in. Note that you need to work in a field related to medicine to gain this benefit, such as being a medical scribe or an EMT. If your GPA and MCAT are in the place where you want them, this is one of the best ways you can spend a gap year, especially if you need more patient experience.
Studying for the MCAT
This is generally not something you should spend all of your time doing, but something to add onto another activity. You should do this if you did not take the MCAT in undergrad, or if your scores on the MCAT were not at the needed level to get into medical school. If your scores are already sufficient, then you do not need to spend any additional time on this.
You should not do this as your sole activity during a gap year, but in addition to something else from this list.
Master’s in Public Health (or other Master’s Programs)
These and other medicine adjacent Master’s programs are a great way to indicate interest in a health related field, especially if you want to pursue that in the future, such as through a MD/PhD program. Note that these programs will not give you the needed coursework for medical school if you do not have it, and can be quite expensive.
These can be a good option if you have a related interest you want to pursue, but are not the best choice for all students.
Special Master’s Programs
These are specialized programs meant to mimic the first year of medical school, and provide additional academic preparation for students who need it. These programs are more competitive than post-baccalaureate programs, but more narrowly focused than public health Masters.
These are a good idea if you have a good but not great GPA. While these programs can boost your chances of acceptance into medical school, they are often quite costly, and are almost nontransferable in terms of skills; so if you do something besides medical school afterwards your time will have been wasted.
Conducting Research
This is generally done in a research assistant position, or as a lab technician. You can also pursue research as part of a master’s program; some require research as part of a thesis project. While medical schools do not technically require research experience from applicants, it is one of the key extracurriculars they like to see students participate in.
If you have strong scores otherwise, but lack in research experience, then this can be a good way to spend your time. This is especially true if you already have a lab position lined up, or if you can pursue research as part of another program you are completing.
Other Related Activities
This encompasses all other ways of spending your time, from volunteering, to growing a nonprofit you are part of, to joining a business, or taking a non-clinical job related to medicine. These can all be great experiences, especially if they are meaningful to you and bring you joy while doing them.
We recommend doing this only if your application is not lacking in some other way; else the time would best be spent addressing that. You should also have some idea how the activity relates back to your goal of medical school. It does not need to be directly adjacent, but should tie in somehow.
Final Thoughts
There are many potential paths to take to reach medical school, and taking a gap year is an increasingly popular one. While it is not the right choice for all students, many benefit from availing themselves of these options, and strengthening their profiles before applying to medical school.
We hope that this article has laid out the options you have for a gap year, and given you a sense of whether or not any of them are the right choice for you. Of course every situation is different, and you may have your own concerns going forward. If you want expert advice on whether to take a gap year, or how you should spend one, schedule a free consultation today. We have a long experience helping students, and are always happy to hear from you.
