The Student Room Group

Anyone taking a gap year and applying for 2021 medicine entry?

I am conflicted on whether or not to take a gap year and apply to medicine next year instead of this year? Is anyone doing that?
Well I'm a year older than you and actually applied to Uni for 2019 entry but didn't get the offer I wanted so I rejected my place after I got the A-Levels I needed and am on a gap year and am reapplying. I would suggest doing deferred entry this year and then if you wanted to applying next academic year if you wanted to. This is because 1) if you are successful this year then you don't have to sit admissions tests and do interviews on your gap year, giving you much more time to do non-academic stuff (travelling, volunteering, etc.) 2) it will give you experience of applying so that if you do also apply next year you'll have a stronger application.

In terms of whether you should do a gap year that's really up to you; they are a phenomenal way of "discovering yourself" and would make you more mature when you go to uni. However, some people do struggle to get back into the student life after a year off so you might find it useful to do some academic stuff on a gap year to ensure you wouldn't feel lost when you started uni. I think gap years are fantastic, though it is (very rarely I admit) quite lonely, since most your mates are off at uni but don't let that deter you; as long as you plan it, many people who take gap years say that it was the right choice. Just go with what you feel, talk to people who have completed a gap year and see what you can get up to if you take one; also remember that the summer after A-Levels is actually quite long (most unis start in late September and A-Levels finish late June, which gives almost three months = almost a quarter of a year) so there is lots of time for travelling and stuff then, but I can completely see the appeal of the gap year since there is more to it then just travelling and having fun (which is what it is rather unfairly made out to be by some people).

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