Why do you guys push gap years so hard?

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Ah, just drop it already! Whyyyyyyyy do you persist? It's the best metaphor I could come up with considering how impossible it was for you guys to understand what I was saying.
Because it makes absolutely no sense anywhere except your own head

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Because it makes absolutely no sense anywhere except your own head

:shrug: It makes sense to me. All Cotterpin is saying is that the experiences of people who spent the majority of their adult lives in education are different from the experiences of people who needed to work to support themselves. As a result, each group is going to have different perspectives and will likely see the world in different ways. It is Cotterpin's opinion that the life experiences that one can gain from working when they are beginning their adult lives are important and should not be missed out on. In reality, neither group is necessarily superior to the other, so there's no need to be defensive if you fall into the former group.
 
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right, trad or nontrad, we all have lived different lives before med school and will come with different perspectives. Whether one path is more beneficial than the other depends entirely on the individual.
 
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right, trad or nontrad, we all have lived different lives before med school and will come with different perspectives. Whether one path is more beneficial than the other depends entirely on the individual.
this
 
It seems like SDN can be a bit polarized on this subject.

The idea of taking a gap year makes my soul hurt(I'm a late bloomer as is, so I feel like the clock is ticking). I think I can be a competitive applicant for the schools I plan to apply to prior to graduation. But I'm still probably going to have to take one for financial reasons.
 
FWIW, everyone I've spoken to that took a gap year says they were glad they did!
 
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Not to get this all fired up again lol but I wanted to clarify. I'm skeptical of anyone who states they're okay with working 70-80 hrs unless they've actually done that for a few years already. I worked 50-60 hour weeks for a year and that was enough for me to realize I need a work/life balance to not be miserable. That said, I'm even more skeptical (and actually entertained) when I hear that comment from someone who hasn't even worked 40 hour weeks for more than a summer, much less the full 70-80 they're saying will be fine. This is even more true when it's coming from a college student who hasn't maintained a serious relationship yet or had to consider how their work schedule may affect their future spouse or family.

I feel pretty strongly about serving the poor so I guess the only people I feel ''differently'' about are those who were born into privilege, stayed privileged all through school and entered their first jobs as an intern, so still privileged. That's all fine except when this set-up results in having a doctor who really cannot understand his/her poorer patients and/or lacks interest in gaining that understanding. I'm all for pre-meds working some ****ty job for a little while and having to support themselves if it minimizes this issue at all.

I agree strongly with Affiche here. Just take a look at the thread by the student who is terrified of taking a gap year. The very thought of facing the public or having to work alongside the lower and working class for even a short period of time constitutes some kind of siege on people's ego. That poster is not an isolated condition, I would say it is very common for wealthy students to feel threatened by deviating from the trajectory of prestige and wealth even for a short period of time and successful medical applicants tend to be wealthy. If one is unable to intellectually develop the ability to empathize with the vast majority of people in this world then it is worthwhile to do so experiantially while one does not have the defense of being a student.
 
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I agree strongly with Affiche here. Just take a look at the thread by the student who is terrified of taking a gap year. The very thought of facing the public or having to work alongside the lower and working class for even a short period of time constitutes some kind of siege on people's ego. That poster is not an isolated condition, I would say it is very common for wealthy students to feel threatened by deviating from the trajectory of prestige and wealth even for a short period of time and successful medical applicants tend to be wealthy. If one is unable to intellectually develop the ability to empathize with the vast majority of people in this world then it is worthwhile to do so experiantially while one does not have the defense of being a student.
I think it's more about working in a field that you would have been able to even before spending 4 years of time and money getting a bachelors degree
 
I think it's more about working in a field that you would have been able to even before spending 4 years of time and money getting a bachelors degree

But that is a totally temporary arrangement for medical school applicants with real chances of getting in. It's not the job that sucks because you will not be a career barista or whatever, it's the disillusionment of having to work a "regular" job where "regular" really just means non-prestigious, average, lowly, or servile and has nothing to do with the qualifications of the work. If nothing else it should be a welcome reprieve with much more free time and less responsibilities which you can use to actually spend more time on your hobbies and interests.
 
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But that is a totally temporary arrangement for medical school applicants with real chances of getting in. It's not the job that sucks because you will not be a career barista or whatever, it's the disillusionment of having to work a "regular" job where "regular" really just means non-prestigious, average, lowly, or servile and has nothing to do with the qualifications of the work.
I just skimmed their post. yeah it's whiny, but even if it's for a year, for anyone graduating it would be a bit disheartening to move back home and work somewhere where your qualifications are meaningless. You could be right of course, but I just think it comes more from comparing themselves to graduating peers rather than being too spoiled and rich to work a "regular" job
 
I just skimmed their post. yeah it's whiny, but even if it's for a year, for anyone graduating it would be a bit disheartening to move back home and work somewhere where your qualifications are meaningless. You could be right of course, but I just think it comes more from comparing themselves to graduating peers rather than being too spoiled and rich to work a "regular" job

I don't think they are too spoiled to work a regular job, I think they don't like the idea of being a "regular" person. If you are only taking a year off then there is no reason to worry about what kind of job you have as long as you have something that helps pay the bills, apps, and gives you time to keep improving your app, what you are really concerned about is your friends looking down on you because if you were in their shoes you would look down on you. People of this sort have very little concern for the actual plights or lives of most people outside of their social class without really thinking about it.
 
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I don't think they are too spoiled to work a regular job, I think they don't like the idea of being a "regular" person. If you are only taking a year off then there is no reason to worry about what kind of job you have as long as you have something that helps pay the bills, apps, and gives you time to keep improving your app, what you are really concerned about is your friends looking down on you because if you were in their shoes you would look down on you. People of this sort have very little concern for the actual plights or lives of most people outside of their social class without really thinking about it.
definitely agree with the last part, but I think you are forgetting to factor in culture difference
 
I love the generalizations being thrown around by people on one side about people on the other. There are some people atop some awfully high horses around here.
 
I think the idea is that seeing how ****ty alternative jobs are firsthand for several years changes your perspective on seeking a job as a physician

If working as a poop-smith won't convince you to improve your station in life, nothing else will
 
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Great, then it fits well with the rest of the garbage people are spewing in this thread.
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The people who should take gap years cannot be convinced otherwise. I really wanted to teach English abroad in Asia so I did it because there is no way I'd do that as an attending in the future.
 
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