To apply to medical school on time, Eliot Gunn had to reconfigure his schedule for an earlier graduation.
Many medical schools begin earlier in the summer than when Innovation Academy’s last semester ends, forcing some, like biology sophomore Gunn, to graduate early.
“I think that it’s definitely a disadvantage,” Gunn, 19, said. “You have to graduate early in order to not have to take a year off after school.”
Gunn said he won’t have the Fall semester off until 2017, and having to take organic chemistry II and physics II during the summer as part of a 17-credit course load is discouraging.
“Pre-health students have to do just as much work in a difficult course load in less time,” he said. “That’s not a problem because we have to study more and time manage better — that’s the easy part. But we can’t be as involved outside the classroom. We don’t have equal time, so there’s no way you can be as competitive as someone who is taking these classes in the Spring and Fall and have those extra two or three weeks where they can be involved in clubs and honors fraternities.”
Jeff Citty, Innovation Academy director, said the schedule could actually give pre-health students an advantage.
“Because many (students) take the exams in the fall semester, if they’re not taking any classes, they can focus on taking the MCAT or the PCAT,” Citty said. “They can take advantage of focusing their attention on the test.”
IA also refers students to UF’s pre-health advisers who know what medical schools are looking for and can determine an expected graduation date and the best time to take entrance exams, Citty said.
“We want to see if they can be done the Spring of their senior year so they can matriculate into medical school after their senior year,” said Bobby Knickerbocker, one of the advisers.
She said the advisers have worked significantly with pre-health IA students since the program started to make sure they don’t feel like they’re at a disadvantage.
“We try very hard to help them meet their goals,” Knickerbocker said. “Is that 100 percent successful? Not all the time. A lot of that depends on their academic performance at the university level. It just depends. It’s very individualized.”
Gunn said he voiced his concern and proposed different scenarios, but there has been no direct action.
“It’s just putting us one step back when we’re just trying to get ahead,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 1/7/2015 under the headline "Innovation Academy may delay pre-health, pre-med students"]
