Growth years set students up to take purposeful time between the end of their undergraduate career and the start of health professional school. This is becoming the pathway for the majority of medical and dental matriculants nationally. The amount of time one takes prior to matriculation to professional school is dependent on one's own circumstances. To learn more about the difference between a growth year timeline and the “traditional” timeline, as well as factors of consideration when deciding on taking a growth year or not, visit our website here.

If you have decided that a growth year is right for you or you are strongly considering a growth year as an option but are not certain what opportunities you want to pursue with your additional time, explore this page to learn about different ways to bolster your candidacy. Also, check out advice HERE from pre-health advisors and medical school admissions officers on preparing for the application process if you have taken one or more years off. 

Our office has collected data on growth years for the two most recent application cycles (2023 and 2024); 77% of applicants in the 2023 Cycle took at least one growth year and 76% of applicants in the 2024 cycle took at least one growth year, with the average number of years being slightly below two for each cycle. Of applicants that matriculated to medical school in the 2024 Cycle, about 85% of them had taken at least one growth year; 36% of dental matriculants had taken at least one growth year.

According to the 2023 Matriculating Student Questionnaire, conducted by the AAMC, the percentage of medical students who have taken at least one growth year before beginning their professional education is 73.2% (out of 14,500+ self-reporting respondents). In the 2021 and 2022 cycles, that percentage was about 69% and 71%, respectively. This reflects the current and growing popularity of growth years, and how they set up the majority of students and applicants for success.

To view a breakdown of what matriculants did during their time off between graduating from undergraduate education and pursuing professional education, please review the table at the right. Percentages may not sum to 100% as multiple responses are allowed. Note: not all rows included in the original table compiled by the AAMC are included here.

To review all information published by the AAMC in the 2023 MSQ, click here.