It’s your Fourth year of pre-med and as a soon-to-be pre-med graduate there are a few things to take into consideration. Even though medical school is a year away there is still a lot you should be doing and have already completed: Have you taken your MCAT? Is Your GPA up to snuff? What classes should you take? Should you go to medical school right away? You should probably know the answers to these questions, but if you don’t here are some useful tips to help you solve these problems.
The Fourth Year before Medical School
The fourth year of pre-med school acts as kind of a “sweep up” year to go through any requirements that may remain unfulfilled and simply add them to your schedule. A fourth-year pre-med student will take upper-level Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Psychology, and Kinesiology. This is your last year so you definitely want to strive for the best grades possible to increase your GPA. The number one thing to do this year is meet with your academic advisor and make sure that you have, or will receive, all of the requirements to enter medical school. You don’t want to find out at the last minute that you forgot something and end up wasting your summer or gap year to catch up.
If you are someone that hasn’t taken the MCAT exam by the beginning of your fourth year of pre-med and you don’t feel prepared to take it, consider taking a gap year to explore internship options instead. This way you can study to score better on the exam and have more experience to add to your medical school application.
Another consideration for your fourth year of pre-med is seeking out mentors and getting involved in more extracurricular activities. Your third year was when you had to do most of the legwork for prerequisites. You’ll still have quite a bit of work to do your first semester but if you haven’t neglected your courses you should still have some space to fill in your last.
This is your fourth year of pre-med school so you need to truly weigh your options and decide if you even want to be a doctor. At this time, you’ll have had a few experiences and opportunities to shadow and examine a doctor’s responsibilities. From this point, you should decide if this is the type of life you want as your career.
Take this time to assess your situation and optimize your courses to get the best GPA and related experiences as possible.