I wanted to go to med school, got rejected, thought of pursuing a master's while reapplying, but a friend who was in a similar situation had chosen to go to EMT school instead. He kept encouraging me to give it a shot. After I found out my MSc supervisor was insane (before I signed the contract, thankfully), I was looking for something else to do that I'd enjoy that'd pay me a living wage (the MSc wouldn't). So I told him I'd try it out, spent a few days at his station riding along with his crew. I've never been an adrenaline-rush type of person, and I wanted a medical specialty where I'd build lasting relationships with my patients and avoid life-and-death emergencies, but I've found EMS to be different from my expectations. It's not what I wanna do for the rest of my life, but it keeps me pretty happy while I'm reapplying to med. I like all the things that I like about med when it comes to EMS - helping people, etc, like others mentioned - but I also like that there's a certain degree of independence, that the job is unpredictable. Unlike many others, I also happen to actually like shiftwork.
I found out recently that my 1st choice med school made a major mistake in my file that had led to my rejection, so I'm pretty confident that now I'll be able to get in, but I don't think the EMS thing will have been a waste of time. It's given me more patient exposure, helped me improve my leadership and communication skills, taught me some practical skills that I'd need as a med student/doctor, and it'll continue to provide me with an income throughout med school as long as I can find a station with a low call volume where'd I have time to do my homework. A buddy of mine was a critical care paramedic all throughout med school, graduated without a dime in loans.