Any advice for Gap Year?

[muskies2014X]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi all,

I graduated in May 2014 with my bachelors, and after being wait listed at two schools and not receiving a spot, I decided to take this academic year to study retake the mcat in Jan 2015, and reapply for MD Schools in June 2015. Does anyone have any experience with what admissions committees like to see during your gap year? Full-time jobs, shadowing, volunteering? HELP! Thank you 🙂

 

[PlaqueBuster]

If you want to make money then a job would be the way to go. Committee's like to see that you are doing something clinically related if possible and showing interest in the medical field. Shadowing and volunteering can be done also especially if you require new LOR. Research positions in academia and industry are good positions.

 

[AlteredScale]

Hi all,

I graduated in May 2014 with my bachelors, and after being wait listed at two schools and not receiving a spot, I decided to take this academic year to study retake the mcat in Jan 2015, and reapply for MD Schools in June 2015. Does anyone have any experience with what admissions committees like to see during your gap year? Full-time jobs, shadowing, volunteering? HELP! Thank you 🙂

I can't stress how important it is to build the theme of your application! You came into the last cycle (hopefully) with a story in mind that tied together your EC's and PS together and it obviously attracted some schools.

You want to expound on it and show how you have grown and developed yourself to become ready for a career in medicine.

Add EC's that fit the theme while pushing your dedication and commitment in medicine. If your theme fit the mold of serving community then do community service, get an LOR from the supervisor if you can!

If you haven't shadowed in different areas of medicine (surgery, ambulatory, non-ambulatory) then try to get some exposure there too.

Best of luck!

 

[fingers-crossed]

I applied last year too, and was also waitlisted at two schools. I actually was just recently accepted at one of those two schools this cycle for the c/o 2015. Here are some things I did that might (or might not! I don't know!) be helpful.

1. Call the schools and ask for a file review. You can't fix a problem if you don't know what the problem is. Some schools are better at this than others. Some give vague advice like "Get life experience." Unless you were intending on crawling into a hole under a bridge somewhere you would do that regardless of whether or not you wanted to. Even if you did crawl into a hole, actually, that would be an interesting (and probably bad) life experience. The point is to call them because some schools are super specific. For example, one of my schools told me I wasn't accepted because my research had never been published. Another told me I needed to volunteer clinically because though I had a lot of community service stuff, it wasn't clinical. I never would have thought of those things.
2. Do what they told you to do, but do it with the mindset that you're learning from it and improving yourself. I learned so much this year that I never would have learned in the classroom. Maybe I just got lucky, but I completely agree that the committee was right to deny me admission last year and that the things they told me to do improved me as a person.
3. I know there's a theory about stigma against reapplicants, but I don't really buy it. I wrote a ton of essays about how it was difficult to be rejected but I grew from it. I talked about it in my interview. I think it shows insight and maturity. You don't have a choice about being a reapplicant. Might as well own it, right? You're a determined lifelong learner who is stable enough to take a little constructive criticism!
4. Stay involved with everything that you started previously for continuity purposes. Also so you don't get bored. Most schools judge applicants on a set number of criteria (something along the lines of, but not necessarily leadership, clinical and nonclinical volunteering, research...etc. look at the categories from the AMCAS ECs) I personally (and again I don't know if this is the right move) picked one of each to stick with and then did those things. It made my life really complicated because (of course) none of those things paid and I needed a job too, but it also made the time between applying and being accepted more fulfilling.
5. Stay positive! It's a learning experience and a journey! It wasn't what you planned, but you'll get to where you're going.

This is an n=1 kind of thing, but that's what I would recommend because I don't think anyone has the knowledge of the way committees view your file or the knowledge of what exactly committees want like the committees themselves.

 

[user12]

community service. trust me, it's a big deal. a significant lack of it can single handedly lead to a waitlist spot over an acceptance at some schools. you can never go wrong with non-medical volunteering