What do medical, dental or other health profession schools think of bridge time/gap year(s)?

In general, it is becoming more and more common to take time between graduation and medical school. Additional time for experience and maturity is viewed positively by medical/dental school admissions.  The average age of entering medical students is 24.5, meaning that on average, students take 2 bridge years before beginning medical school.  In recent years, ~90% of Cornell applicants to medical (U.S. MD Programs) school took at least one bridge year and roughly two thirds of Cornell applicants took two or more bridge years.  The AAMC has helpful resources for planning a bridge year.  You may decide there is an opportunity for personal or professional development that you would like to pursue that you would not otherwise have the opportunity for once you enter medical school.

Talk to a Pre-Health Advisor about whether taking a bridge year (or more) may help your candidacy.

What would I do during that time, if I take a bridge year or more?

There are lots of options! This is a time for continued professional and personal development.

• Are there activities or experiences you think would help prepare you to be a physician, dentist or other healthcare professional that you have not yet had the chance to engage in or want to expand upon further?
• Some “common” bridge year experiences are: working in a research lab, working as a patient care coordinator in a medical center, pursuing a competitive fellowship, participating in a service program such as AmeriCorps or City Year, and many more!  You can explore opportunities for full-time positions and/or opportunities for internships in healthcare as well.

Remember that one bridge (aka gap) year doesn’t fill gaps in your application, since experiences past June of the year you apply are not heavily considered because you haven’t done them yet. If you feel that something is missing from your candidacy that you need to take a bridge year to improve upon (e.g. gaining experiences or improving your GPA post-grad), you may need to consider taking more than one bridge year.

Ultimately, admissions committees want to see mature candidates who are ready for the rigors of medical/dental school.  Taking bridge time can enable you to gather more experiences and “data points” to present a richer, fuller picture of your candidacy.  Admissions does not have a preference for applicants who go straight through, so we encourage you to think about all the factors to balance such as successful completion of prerequisite coursework, degree progress, extracurricular activities, work, volunteering, research, self-care/exercise, community building and family responsibilities.

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