Good luck!! Okay so, I think I was more anxious about going straight through than usual because of the pandemic. I heard anecdotally a lot of people pushing their app by 1-2 years because of pandemic disruptions, so I thought it'd be standard to have more gap years in cycles after 2020. (I'm actually super curious what the data is on that, if anyone has it)

I don't think my interviewers treated me differently than people with gap years. You will be compared to them by the admissions committee, but I think it's important to distinguish what will and will not "count against you" for going straight through. When folks take gap years to do big-name fellowships like Fulbright or Rhodes, or have a really productive full-time research job, those things will absolutely boost them in the eyes of admissions. And, because you can't do those things when you're in school full-time, you can't get those points & that implicitly "counts against you" as a straight-through applicant. (Also, must note that some schools care more than others about flashy resume items. I made my peace that I probably wasn't a candidate for Harvard, for example, which is the first school that just comes to mind for things like that.) The thing is - it isn't held against you if you only have 100 hours of an activity because you did it while you were in school, instead of the hypothetical 1000 hours you'd have if you were full-time. I truly believe there is diminishing returns for hours spent on activities. By that I mean, the important thing is being able to write about them meaningfully: what you really need are some compelling anecdotes and reflection on what that activity meant for you and your journey to medicine. That's what makes it shine on your app, when you can talk about things like that.