Many students do not attend medical school immediate following undergrad for a variety of reasons.Students who need the time to improve their credentials should take this year and enroll in several extra science courses in order to boost your BCPM. This can be accomplished by enrolling in a formal post bac program or just by taking pre-medical courses. Additionally, the year is often spent preparing and taking (or retaking) the MCATS. These “classic” choices are very common for many medical school applicants during a “Gap Year”.
If your feel that your academic credentials are competitive then take some time to assess your non-academic credentials. Are you a well rounded applicant with research experience, clinical exposure, service involvement, mentoring experience and leadership strengths? If you are lacking in any of these areas, then seek out a “new” experience that will help to round out your extracurriculars. For instance, many students have considerable clinical exposure but lack research experience. Alternatively you may have done many years of research which resulted in co-authorship on publications but have never had much patient contact.Take this year to pursue opportunities that will supplement your current list of medically relevant experiences while allowing time for both personal and professional growth.
By guest blogger Theresa Davies-Heerema, Ph.D., who has advised many medical and dental school applicants during her career in post-graduate education
Read the full article: Medical School Admissions: The “Gap Year” (Part 1).