What are traditional and non-traditional med school applicants?
The only difference between the two applicants (as far as I can see) is that "traditional" med school applicants are applicants who enter medical school right after graduating from college. On the other hand, "non-traditional" applicants are applicants that wait for a year or more before starting medical school. In order to go to med school right after college, one would have to apply at the end of their 3rd year of college since the application process takes a year to complete (with secondaries, interviews, admissions, etc). The non-traditional students usually apply during their last year of college, so the year after graduating is spent doing secondaries and interviews.
The reason I bring this up is because I've always wanted to go to medical school right after college. But now that I look at it, I'm not sure that I'll be able to... I don't feel like I'll have enough on my application to qualify as a competitive applicant in my third year. But I also don't want to wait a whole year before starting- the process is long enough as it is without adding another year to it haha.
So which is better? Traditional or non-traditional?
-K
how did you do on the chem 3b midterm? how did you study for physics? midsemester update?
ReplyDeleteUmm... I don't know if you got an answer to this already but here goes.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've been reading in articles/books, non-traditional med school applicants are becoming more common. I heard that some students can't handle 4 years of med school right after college; many end up regretting not taking a gap year. Also I read that med schools actually prefer applicants who spend the gap year volunteering and gaining a better view of the real world outside college as opposed to an applicant fresh out of college.
Though I'm a bit confused about this subject from your post. I heard that when students take a year off they usually go volunteer (to organizations related to medicine/health) to get some experience and a better idea of how world and the people that inhabits it work. Some students even go abroad and volunteer for the Peace Corps or Doctors Without Borders or a similar organization.
What I'm confused about is that you said that if they wait til their senior year to apply then during their gap year is when they go on interviews, but then interviews wouldn't be possible for the applicants who decide to volunteer abroad. (What are secondaries?) So if the applicant wants to go volunteer abroad during the gap year would he/she still have to apply to med school during the junior year?
Thanks K! =]