Once upon a time, the traditional path to medical school was clear: finish undergrad, take the MCAT, apply, and (hopefully) head straight into medical school. But today, that straight line has become more of a winding road.
According to the AAMC, most medical school matriculants in recent years did not go straight from college to med school. In 2023–24, for example, the AAMC’s Matriculating Student Questionnaire (MSQ) reported that 74.3 per cent of new medical students reported that they had taken at least one gap year between graduating from college and medical school.
So, what’s behind this shift? Is taking a gap year becoming the new norm — and if so, why?
Medical School Admission Is More Competitive Than Ever
Traditionally, pre-med students have applied to medical school at the end of their junior year of undergrad. That was fine a decade or more ago, when a strong GPA and a decent MCAT score were the main criteria for admission. Today, medical schools are looking for a lot more from students.
Gap years are becoming more common because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to assemble a competitive application during the first three years of undergrad. Many students find it difficult to complete the right prerequisites to a competitive standard, gain clinical and research experience, shadow physicians, then study for and take the MCAT before spring of junior year – especially if they need to work outside of class.
Medical School Is More Expensive Than Ever
The Education Data Initiative reports that the average annual cost of medical school in the U.S. was $59,605 in 2024. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median salary for a full-time worker in the U.S. was $1,196 per week – or $62,192 per year – as of June 30, 2025. Given the high cost of tuition and fees, it’s probably not surprising to hear that one reason many students wait to start medical school is financial.
50.2 per cent of new medical students in 2024 told the AAMC that they worked at another career during their gap years, while 41.3 per cent said that they worked to improve their finances. This may become an even more common response in years to come, as legislative changes to graduate financial aid limits and student loan repayment options come into effect.
Pre-Med Students Are More Aware of Burnout Than Ever
Medicine is a long and demanding road. With the high academic and extracurricular demands of preparing for medical school application, many pre-medical students are simply exhausted by the time they get to graduation. Taking a gap year, even one spent working or earning a special master’s degree, can offer much-needed rest, reflection, and rejuvenation before diving into med school.
Researchers from Brown University studied how taking a gap year affected burnout symptoms among medical students. Students who took a gap year before beginning their MD program reported lower levels of burnout than students who hadn’t. Furthermore, the reduction in burnout severity increased in line with the number of gap years students took.
It’s not clear why this is so – maybe the students who took gap years had more time to mature, or maybe the somewhat more relaxed pace of life outside the pre-med pressure cooker helped them recover. Whatever the cause, it seems that a gap year provides many students with the space they need to regroup and prepare for medical school.
Medical Students Are Thinking Ahead
Some students take gap years as a strategy to improve their candidate profiles – but for residency applications, not medical school. While medical school enrollments have risen, residency places have not. Every year, a few thousand students come to the end of four years of medical school only to find they haven’t matched into a residency.
James Barrett, Senior Executive Director of Strategic Enrollment at Northeastern Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), wrote in a 2022 article that when it comes to both medical school and residency applications, “Undergraduates [who go straight into medical school] simply do not have enough time to put together the resumes that gap year students have . . . . What was effective in the 20th century is simply no longer competitive.”
Gap year students, he explains, can show medical schools and residency match boards more hours of research, a broader range of extracurricular experience, and sometimes even an extra graduate degree, such as a Master of Science in Medical Science, too.
Non-Traditional Medical Students Are More Valued Than Ever
The landscape of medical education is evolving, and the definition of a “traditional” applicant is too. More and more, taking time off before med school is a strategic and even expected move. If you’re feeling pressure to go straight through, pause and consider whether a gap year might move you forward in the long run.
In a field where longevity and resilience matter, taking a gap year may not just be smart — it might be exactly what you need.
