Gap Year Secondary Essay: What Are You Doing Now?
How to answer the medical school secondary that asks what you are doing in your gap year, with the Case Western, Vanderbilt and TMDSAS prompts and limits.
Gap Year Secondary Essay: What Are You Doing Now?
The gap-year secondary is a schedule with a reason, not a reflection essay. Say what you are doing, on what dates and for how many hours, why you chose it, and what you will be doing until you start medical school. Case Western gives you 1,000 characters, Vanderbilt 200 words and TMDSAS 600 characters. If you are a reapplicant, keep last year's diagnosis out of this answer: that belongs in the reapplicant essay.
Advice to show growth and reflection misses what these prompts ask for, which is plainer. Case Western does say "please reflect on the time you are taking", but what it asks about is "why you chose to take a gap/growth year(s) and what you will be doing or have done during this time." Vanderbilt asks you to "briefly summarize your activities." Neither asks how the year changed you. A reader who finds 1,000 characters of reflection and no dates still doesn't know what you are doing on a Tuesday. For what the national data says about gap years, see our gap year statistics guide; this page is about the one answer.
Every school and TMDSAS page quoted below was checked on November 7, 2026. The Case Western and Vanderbilt prompts are for the 2026-2027 cycle; check each school's page again when the 2027-2028 secondaries are posted.
The prompts, verbatim
| School | Prompt | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Case Western Reserve (2026-2027 cycle) | "Gap Year(s) if applicable: If applicable, please reflect on the time you are taking between college graduation and medical school matriculation, including why you chose to take a gap/growth year(s) and what you will be doing or have done during this time." | 1,000 characters; "spaces are counted as characters" |
| Vanderbilt (2026-2027 cycle) | "Optional: Please briefly summarize your activities since graduating from college. If you are still enrolled in undergraduate studies, please comment on any new projects, roles or initiatives undertaken since submitting your AMCAS application" | 200 words |
| TMDSAS Current Involvements (no year stated) | "Briefly describe activities (work, research, etc.) or experiences you are currently involved in." | 600 characters; "Required of All Applicants" |
Case lists the prompt for its University Program, Lerner College and MSTP applicants, each marked "if applicable". Vanderbilt's is optional. TMDSAS's sits in the main application, not a secondary, and every applicant answers it. Our MD secondary prompts by school page has the other prompts at these schools.
Note the tenses. Case asks what you "will be doing or have done". Vanderbilt asks for activities "since graduating". TMDSAS asks what you are "currently involved in". The answer has to cover the time after you submit, because that is when the school reads it.
What to put in the answer
Five things, in this order:
- The role. Job title, employer type and what you do there, in one sentence.
- Dates and hours. When you started, hours a week, and when it ends.
- Why you chose it. One reason tied to your file: the experience you didn't have enough of, or the question you wanted answered.
- What it adds. The thing your application lacked that this year supplies. Be concrete: patient contact, a full research project, a semester of science grades.
- Through matriculation. What you will be doing from now until medical school starts. If the job continues, say so. If something changes in spring, say what.
Our view: spend at least half the characters on items 1, 2 and 5. Those are the facts the reader can't get from your activities list, because the list stops at the day you submitted.
The countercase: if your gap year is mainly something the activities list can't show at all (caring for a family member, military service, a job unrelated to medicine), the "why you chose it" part needs more room. Give the facts plainly and keep it short. That kind of context fits the optional "anything else" essay better when it needs more than a sentence.
Leave out: the activities from college that are already in your application, a list of every hobby, and a closing paragraph about your passion for medicine.
Reapplicants: the gap-year answer vs the reapplicant answer
Some schools also ask reapplicants a separate question. For the 2027 cycle, MCW required reapplicants to explain "how your application has changed since your last application" in 2,000 characters. TMDSAS gives reapplicants a short-answer essay on "what you've done to improve your application since a previous application cycle", in the same section as Current Involvements.
If you write the same paragraph twice, you waste one of the two answers. Split them:
| Content | Gap-year answer | Reapplicant answer |
|---|---|---|
| What was wrong with last year's file | No | Yes, first |
| What you are doing now: role, dates, hours | Yes | One line, as the action |
| The result so far (a score, a promotion, a letter) | Briefly | Yes, as proof |
| What you will do until matriculation | Yes, last | No |
| Why you are ready now | No | Yes, last |
The gap-year answer looks forward; the reapplicant answer diagnoses. The same scribe job appears in both, but as a schedule in one and as evidence in the other. The structure for the reapplicant side is in our reapplicant essay guide.
Choosing a gap-year job that fills the gap
If you haven't started yet, choose the year from your file, not from a list of popular gap-year jobs. This table is our recommendation, not a school rule:
| What your file lacks | A role that answers it | The letter it should produce |
|---|---|---|
| Patient contact | Scribe, medical assistant, EMT, patient care technician | A physician or nurse who supervised you |
| Research depth | Full-time research technician or clinical research coordinator | Your PI |
| Recent science grades | Post-bacc or graduate coursework | A science instructor |
| Service | A long-term role at one organization, such as a free clinic | The program director |
Pick one primary role. The last column is the test: if no one in that job will see your work closely enough to write about it, the job does less for your application than it seems. Plan the letter when you start, not in March.
Constructed examples
Two constructed examples, written by us, not real applicant statements. The names, employers and numbers are invented.
Constructed example: a Case-style answer under 1,000 characters
Context (invented): Leah graduated in May 2026 and applied in the 2027 cycle as a first-time applicant.
Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant statement.
"Since July 2026 I have worked full time as a clinical research coordinator in the cardiology department at Lakeside Medical Center. I screen and consent patients for a heart-failure medication trial, schedule their study visits and enter their data. I chose this job because my college research was at the bench, and I wanted to see how a study works when its subjects are patients. So far I have consented 41 patients, including several who declined, and I learned to explain risks without pushing. I also volunteer four hours a week at a free clinic in my town. I will stay in this role through June 2027, when the trial closes enrollment, and I will help draft the enrollment summary for the study team. The year gives my application what it lacked: patient contact that lasts months, not a shadowing day."
Constructed example: a Vanderbilt-style summary under 200 words
Context (invented): Omar, a reapplicant, graduated in 2025 and was rejected in the 2026 cycle.
Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant statement.
"Since graduating in May 2025, I have done two things. From June 2025 to now I have worked as an emergency department scribe at Northgate Hospital, 36 hours a week, about 2,500 hours in total. I document visits in real time for six attending physicians, and since March 2026 I have trained new scribes. From January to May 2026 I took biochemistry and cell biology at Northgate Community College in the evenings and earned A grades in both. From now until July 2027 I will keep my scribe position and add a Sunday shift at the Harbor Street free clinic, where I have volunteered at intake since September. I chose scribing because I wanted to see emergency medicine at the pace physicians actually work it, not in a shadowing visit. I chose the courses because my science grades were the weakest part of my record. My reapplicant essay explains how these changes answer last year's application."
The Leah answer is 808 characters including spaces and the Omar answer is 156 words, both inside their limits. Omar's points to the reapplicant essay instead of repeating it.
Your gap-year answer checklist
- Start and end dates for every role you name.
- Hours a week for the main role.
- One sentence on why you chose it, tied to your file.
- A line covering the months from now to matriculation.
- Nothing already in your activities list unless it has changed.
- For reapplicants: no diagnosis of last year's file; that goes in the reapplicant essay.
- Characters counted with spaces, words counted in your final text.
Questions about the gap-year secondary
Do I have to answer an optional gap-year prompt?
Vanderbilt's is optional and Case's says "if applicable". If you are in a gap year, answer it: it is the only place the school sees what you are doing now.
What if my gap year is not medical?
Say what it is, plainly, and why you chose it. A job that pays your rent is a reason. Then name any clinical or service work you keep up alongside it.
Can I reuse my TMDSAS Current Involvements answer?
As a base, yes. TMDSAS gives you 600 characters. Expand it with your reason and your plan through matriculation for a 1,000-character prompt.
How do I write about two gap years?
Give each year its own sentence with dates, then say what the second year added that the first didn't.
Get a free review of your secondary essay
Get a free Quick Review of your secondary essay against GradPilot's optional and "anything else" secondary rubric, the closest one for a gap-year answer. It reads whether your answer adds new information the file lacks, backs it with dates and roles, and makes clear what it changes for the reader. Reapplicants can run their separate reapplicant answer through the reapplicant growth rubric, from the medical school essay review.
More secondary essay guides:
- Medical school secondary essay examples by prompt type: six prompt families with examples.
- Reapplicant timeline for the 2028 cycle: when a gap-year role has to start to count.
- Medical school essays hub: every medical school writing guide.
Sources
Retrieved November 7, 2026, except where noted.
- Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Secondary application questions (2026-2027 cycle, updated June 3, 2026): gap-year prompt and limit.
- Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Admissions process (2026-2027 cycle): optional activities prompt and limit.
- TMDSAS, Applicant History (no year stated): Current Involvements prompt and limit; reapplicant essay.
- Medical College of Wisconsin, Admissions (2027 application cycle): reapplicant prompt and limit.
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