Need Some Gap Year Advice

[BirdPerson11]

Hey everyone I have been checking these forums for advice for years now but have never actually posted. I recently came across a few gap year options, and have gotten different answers from everyone I ask in person, so I figured I should make my first post ever on SDN to get some online brutal honesty.
My situation is as follows:
Denied from last years medical school cycle (for entry fall 2017) with MCAT:507 GPA: 3.53 (about to increase) and volunteering, shadowing, research etc. I now am approaching my forced gap year with two options. Option 1: I just accepted a full time job as an optometric technician in an optometry office. The job is basically all patient interaction, I do everything with the patient from xrays and prep all the way up until the doctor comes in to see them. Option 2: I also recently got accepted to USF's Master of science in medical science pre-professional program. This program accepts 200-250 kids, and is accelerated so that we can earn our masters in one year. My dillema is if I should stay and work full time and get paid for a full year, before medical school, or if I should lose the job after summer and attend the Master's Program. I am worried because the masters program affects undergrad gpa. Also am worried if MD schools might frown upon the fact that my patient interaction experience comes from an optometry office and not a "real" hospital or clinic setting.
Thanks for any advice you guys have!

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[efle]

State of residence? URM? Get any interviews last cycle? What was your school list?

There is a good chance the 3.5/29 will hold you back in round two, getting a bunch of optometry tech experience doesn't do much to fix that. Unless I'm mistaken, this USF program no longer has conditional acceptance to their med school, making it a much less attractive SMP option than others that do have conditional admit.

The right path might be 2 years as an optometry tech, the first year used to take some courses for grade repair and retake the MCAT, and then the second year during your second cycle.

If you really want to take only one gap year, only quick boost I can see would be an MCAT retake in the next few months.

 

[BirdPerson11]

State of residence? URM? Get any interviews last cycle? What was your school list?

There is a good chance the 3.5/29 will hold you back in round two, getting a bunch of optometry tech experience doesn't do much to fix that. Unless I'm mistaken, this USF program no longer has conditional acceptance to their med school, making it a much less attractive SMP option than others that do have conditional admit.

The right path might be 2 years as an optometry tech, the first year used to take some courses for grade repair and retake the MCAT, and then the second year during your second cycle.

If you really want to take only one gap year, only quick boost I can see would be an MCAT retake in the next few months.

Thanks for the prompt response...I am a Florida resident, and am not a URM. Graduated UF B.S in Psychology-Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience. No interviews last cycle, but didnt really cast too wide of a net outside of florida schools. Applied to all florida MD schools, and a couple in california. Not much else. My worry with retaking the MCAT is that if i dont do that much better, then it wouldnt help much since scores are averaged. And 507 was a 30 on the old mcat so I hoped that would suffice. The USF program does kind of suck, but going out of state for other masters programs is so expensive...working full time and saving money before md school sounded like a much better plan financially.

 

[efle]

Your Florida schools were the most likely to interview you for sure, so getting no IIs there makes it unlikely a wider net would help. Working full time with some grade repair and a retake seems like the right move. A 507 is only a couple points shy of the average admitted MCAT but paired with a 3.5 I can see it causing issues even with everything else in order

 

[tarheelpenner]

lol @ referring to it as a "forced gap year". As a side note, making money vs. going into debt should also be a factor here. I would doubt the masters program would have that much of an edge over the optometry position to be worth the price difference. Also, do you want to go into optometry?

 

[BirdPerson11]

lol @ referring to it as a "forced gap year". As a side note, making money vs. going into debt should also be a factor here. I would doubt the masters program would have that much of an edge over the optometry position to be worth the price difference. Also, do you want to go into optometry?

Not looking to go into optometry, just applied to many different doctors offices and hospitals and they offered me a job with some good patient interaction. Granted, they are optometry patients, and most are not technically "sick" but I thought it sounded like a fine offer for the time being, seeing as getting a job for less than a year anywhere else would be tough. Also figured it is something quite unique that many other applicants might not have. I have considered the price difference between the masters and optometry position too, I thought making money would be smarter than going into debt, but many people seem to say a masters will be worth it...