I agree that every pre-med has to have back-up plans.
Adding…students have to ALSO research the requirements for the back-up plans, for example, if they are thinking Phys Asst school might be of interest should med school not work out, they need to look at those requirements. The arithmetic mean trimmed for hi/low outliers (M (T)) clinical hours of first-year enrolled PA students in 2020 (most recent data) was 2,854, here’s the data on the rest of the health care experience hours:
Average age of a PA matriculant is 25, as compared to med school’s age 24, so again, on average, a PA applicant had an additional year to add to their experiences.
Here’s the full report: https://paeaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/program-report35-20201014.pdf