How do I get accepted to medical school? This is the question at the forefront of every premedical student’s mind. As the competitiveness of each medical school application cycle increases and it feels like all those applying have cured cancer, dedicated their entire lives to some amazing community service effort, achieved a perfect MCAT score, and found time to invent a time machine, the importance of good writing and …

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As a child, I was always reading. As is the case for many people, I lost my literary passion in high school and college as my time was taken up by extracurriculars and doomscrolling on my phone. One thing I have thoroughly enjoyed about my gap years between graduation from college and matriculation into medical school is reconnecting with reading. I have read a wide variety of books, but below …

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“You know how to scrub, right?” The short story is no, I did not yet know how to scrub.

As a premedical student, the operating room is different from anywhere else I have been. Just as with any new environment—whether it’s a friend’s home, a workplace, or a place of worship—there are customs to learn. These unspoken rules become second nature to those accustomed to the surroundings. As a newcomer, it’s …

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Last summer, I had the incredible opportunity to present a case report as a poster at the Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium. As a premed student, this was exciting but also quite intimidating.

This meeting is a large national medical conference with about 1,500 attendees, including ophthalmologists of all career stages, many ophthalmology residents, and medical students interested in ophthalmology. I presented the case of a child who had experienced retinopathy …

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What drew me to spending my gap year as a medical assistant was the advertised “direct patient care experience.” While patient care is my favorite part of the job, it comes with its own unique challenges for a first-time health care worker.

An unexpected challenge that I had to overcome with patient care was learning how to touch patients. I am tasked daily with removing sutures, staples, assisting with wound care, …

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The words “gap year” are enough to panic any high-achieving premedical student with their heart set on matriculating straight into medical school. Many students feel like a gap year will set them back in their journey to become a doctor, adding more years to the ever-long path to an MD behind their name. What these students do not realize is the value that a meaningful gap year, or more, can …

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