When should I take my MCATs?

i_wanna_be_Brown
Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:06:11 +0000

are you asking me?

I know the average age of med school matriculants is like 24 so there are lots of people taking time off but my guess is my school is representative and roughly half of med students still don’t take any time off.

Keep in mind that unlike applying to college, applying to medical school takes a full year so if you want to go straight out, you have to apply during the summer between junior and senior year. Since so many schools are rolling, it is best to apply early so that means having an MCAT score in hand by the end of June and thus you need to take the MCAT by the end of May of your junior year and then getting your apps out.

If you are going to take a gap year, you could take the MCAT at the end of the summer after your Junior year and then submit your apps right after graduation.

If you want to spend a year after school getting ready to apply, you’ll end up spending 2 years off.

The decision depends on what your goals are/how strong your app is/are you ready for another 4 years of school after college (and 4 years that are exponentially harder than the 4 years you just spent).