My daughter is thinking about graduating one semester earlier. Originally, she planned to graduate in May 2025, but with only 4 classes left, she wants to complete them next semester and graduate in December of this year. She also plan to apply to med schools in June for this coming cycle, and continue to volunteer and work on improving her application.
Is this a good plan ? will med schools frown upon this decision? She is only 20 years old when she apply. I’m on the fence on letting her finish school early, but her logic somewhat makes sense, since we will save money for a semester, give her more time to work on ECs and most importantly, avoid the risk of lower GPA.
I did this 30 years ago and had excellent results, but I am afraid the situation has changed dramatically and work experience, volunteering and so many other factors are now in play that applying to med school as a young applicant is frowned upon. Others who are more into the med school application game will certainly give you more UTD advice.
She will apply this June with her current stats and ECs. She was thinking about the back up plan just in case she has to re-apply. The thing we worry most is her age, where median age to start medical school in 24 years old.
As far as taking gap year, we want her to apply straight to allow her to learn the process. She has decent stats and average ECs, so we are hoping for a chance. If that doesn’t work out , then she will re-apply next year with more hours (clinical & non-clinical) since she will have more time after graduate.
Seem like many med school’s applicants are non-traditional with thousands and thousands of hours clinical and volunteering. I don’t know if med schools take into consideration for traditional applicant, who don’t have much time for ECs, since their primary focus was to maintain good GPA. This whole application is a black hole, where nobody knows for sure how adcom make decision with thousand of applications.
Medical schools expect applicants to have med school worthy gpas and test scores. They also expect applicants to have everything else: shadowing, volunteering, etc.
Your daughter does not appear to be ready to apply now (not much time for ECs, etc). Many applicants take time after college to strengthen their application- this is very common.
Since med school application is GPA and test score driven, does she have the grades?
I took an extra year and took a bunch of GPA boosting classes, because there was no point graduating on time if I didn’t have the grades to move on. Some of my friends did the same and we all did fine.
If she has the grades, finishing early makes sense to me. She can use the time to get an actual paying job. Age will not hold her back, in fact present people on AO at most med schools are may be between 45-55 years old who has done well in their day and many likely have finished school early (or wish they had).
She has great stats but “check all the boxes” for ECs. The plan originally was still apply this June and continue to improve on the non-clinical hours. If she finish a semester early, she can start working full time as paid MA (she is currently working part time there) and do more volunteer work.
I’m not sure about the “ready” part from your question. It’s not a trial run since she has great stats & decent ECs. Her ECs may not be comparable to non-trad applicants, since they took GAP year(s), but enough to show that she put in the efforts to learn “why medicine” and work hard toward her goal.
From what I understand, there are not a concrete number of hours for ECs, research or shadowing as requirements . Those activities to help adcoms see how fits the applicants to the schools. Some schools want more services and some may look for research or academic ready.
A little birdy told me 500 hours. That’s generally what people are bring to the table. It CAN be a paid position like your daughter working as a MA in a clinic. It doesn’t have to be free labor.
Another way to think about it is that the final semester is her last chance to explore non-medical interests that she has (or tangentially related- like foreign language fluency) which will make her a better doctor down the road…
There aren’t any electives in health policy, communications, cultural studies, etc. that she’d love to take in her final semester before the grind begins?
It’s not the same but my daughter graduated a year early to start her DPT program. She had a 3.9, a solid GRE and enough hours (at the PT center on campus plus working as an assistant in PT centers over summers). I never looked into it with my daughter, but for med school, if you aren’t accepted is it even harder to get accepted if you apply again?
You stated that you wanted her to learn the process.
I think you are getting caught up in gap years vs no gap years and if you would be at an advantage if you apply in college. Most/many applicants take gap years. Apply when you are ready.
She met the requirements to apply with a potential for acceptance (I hope) based on her app.
Currently, she can work with pre-health advisor and get their help with the application. I’m not sure it will be easy after she graduate.
The process of applying is daunting. If she has to apply gain, she can re-use some of materials for next applications that will be helpful to her.
She is going to apply this cycle anyway, but our concern is if she decides to graduate early, will med schools adcoms question it ? I believe there are questions and/or essays in some school secondaries asking about the GAP year, what activities after graduation.
This is pretty close to what I have heard also. However, I thought that this was a minimum.
I do not see how graduating early would be a problem. If someone graduates early, then they will just have more time to get more medical experience. This might be an argument for waiting an extra year before applying to medical schools.
Graduating early would take away opportunities to take a range of extra classes. However, this is only relevant if there are enough other extra classes that the student wants to take.
I have heard a similar number of hours of relevant experience for DVM applicants. However, our daughter who is getting a DVM was way, way past this number before she applied to DVM programs. By the time that she actually started her DVM, she was probably past 5,000 hours of relevant experience. Nearly all of it was paid (although not paid all that well). In retrospect I think that all of this experience has helped her to do well in the program.
I don’t know if graduating early will matter- somebody else may have the answer.
I do not think med schools will give your daughter an “easier” time with the process because she is not taking gap years… if that is what you are asking.
I heard different numbers: some say 200 and others are higher …
My daughter currently working as paid MA and the outlook is nowhere near the 500 hours when she applies. However, she has amazing stats and decent research and dr. shadowing and that what she is hoping for a secondary and IIs with her app.
This came up with another poster whose daughter works FT as a med scribe. That’s when I reached out and asked that question and got the answer. If your daughter works 40 hour weeks, that’s only 12.5 weeks.
