Those of you who graduated in three years, did you get in without a gap year?

I could have graduated early but chose not to, for a few reasons.

1) Between a major school scholarship and outside awards, I had more than a full ride to undergrad. As in, I got a check to cash every semester. Cost savings were a nonissue.

2) I started kindergarten at 4 and had already spent my whole life as the youngest person in my class. I didn't feel the need to compound that at the time. (I will say, however, that this matters less the older you get. Once you hit residency PGY year and knowledge tend to trump age. When I was the senior resident and youngest resident on my L&D team, it's not as if my juniors didn't listen to me because they were older.)

3) I entered college planning to major in "Chemistry or History or Art History or French or Comparative Literature or Political Science or Music." While I ended up doing Chem, the extra time I had gave me the chance to take classes in all of the above areas and do enough higher level Chem to get a Masters. None of that made a difference for my med school app, but I've lost count of the number of real-life interactions where my varied interests/knowledge have come in handy.

4) I was having a lot of fun in college and pictured med school as a nonstop horror story. I didn't want to rush to get to that.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

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Those of you who graduated in three years, did you get in without a gap year?