How to Write the Gap Year Essay | Medical School Secondary Essay Prompts

If you’ve taken time off after graduating college, you may be concerned that it will hurt your chances of being accepted to medical school.

But did you know that only about 27 percent of applicants start medical school immediately after college?

The Gap Year Secondary Essay is nothing to shy away from. It’s a great opportunity to show adcoms how you’ve used your time away from academics to build skills that you can’t develop inside the classroom.

But what if your gap year wasn’t filled with impressive accomplishments? What if you took time off to save money, to reevaluate your options, or even to work in another career field? What if you’ve spent multiple years away from school?

In this video, we’ll discuss various approaches to writing the Gap Year essay, depending on your individual circumstances.

Then, we’ll go over key prewriting strategies for the Gap Year Essay so you can set yourself up for a smoother and more efficient drafting process before you even receive your secondary prompts.

And finally, we’ll show you how to turn an underwhelming, forgettable first-draft Gap Year Essay into one that will help convince adcoms that your time away from school has only made you a stronger applicant.

This video is part of our six-video series designed to prepare you for six of the most common med school secondary essay prompts —The Diversity Essay, The Adversity Essay, The Why Us Essay, The Gap Year Essay, The Leadership Essay, and the Additional Information Essay.

📚 Access sample secondary essays responding to every prompt required by every MD and DO program in the US and Canada (1,000+. essays in total): https://www.shemmassianconsulting.com...

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - What is the Gap Year Essay?
01:34 - Gap Year Essay Prompt Examples
03:16 - How to approach the Gap Year Essay
06:09 - Prewriting prompts
08:00 - Gap Year Essay - First Draft
11:27 - Gap Year Essay - Final Draft
17:49 - Final thoughts

Who we are:
Shemmassian Academic Consulting (SAC)
For nearly two decades, our team of admissions experts has helped thousands of students get into top medical programs including Harvard, Mayo, and UCSF. SAC has been featured on The Washington Post, US News and World Report, and NBC.

We'd love to hear from you! Drop a question down below in the comment section; we respond daily!

#medicalschool #medschool #medschoolessays #medschoolsecondaries #secondaries #secondaryessays #medschooladmissions #medschoolapps #medschoolapplications