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My tour guide at northwestern told us about his gap year. He drove across the country, stopping at friend's houses, bars, indian casino's, and who knows where else. He wrote his applications and secondaries on the road, too. seemed to work out for him.
 
Mizoodles said:
My tour guide at northwestern told us about his gap year. He drove across the country, stopping at friend's houses, bars, indian casino's, and who knows where else. He wrote his applications and secondaries on the road, too. seemed to work out for him.
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I did this with a year off - interviewers ate it up. Do something you love... go see the world or something. Pursue a passion; don't pad your app just for the sake of padding your app.
 
I'm in the middle of an unintentional gap year right now. I ended up taking a class to get certified as an EMT-Basic and it was pretty interesting. On the other hand, it is also expensive and it can be difficult to find work depending on your area. CNA is a little shorter and less expensive, but the job is less interesting in my opinion. But either of those would be decent ideas if you are planning on sticking around home.
 
Pack a bag, take all your moolah, and go someplace.

You will miss the ability to travel, and the freedom of having so little obligations. You'll never have that again, and you will desperately miss it. Trust me.
 
VaporTrail010 said:
I'd love to travel, but don't exactly have a source of income at the moment aside from my student loans (which are all pretty much going toward the AAMC FL's 🙁 )

I'll look into Americorps
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The AmeriCorps pay isn't something that will allow you to build savings or pay off debt, but it will pay the bills.
 
I'm thinking about doing an SMP during my gap year. The school that I'm looking at has a 60% linkage rate with the university that I really want to got to school at. I would be able to get some of the 1st year med school courses out of the way.

If I didn't have a family and financial responsibilities, I would travel or study abroad.
 
DCBFan said:
Does nobody work anymore?
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+1. All these rich pre-meds who have no responsibility and live off their parents' plastic baffle me. I would love to travel all of the time too, but somebody's got to bring home the bacon.
 
Ursa said:
+1. All these rich pre-meds who have no responsibility and live off their parents' plastic baffle me. I would love to travel all of the time too, but somebody's got to bring home the bacon.
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+2 Yeah, seriously. Am I diverse if I'm 100% self-supporting? Or am I too boring because I don't travel the world? 😕
 
VaporTrail010 said:
Hey, troll, don't be so quick to jump to conclusions. I'm from a poor family, thank you very much, and the ONLY support I get from them is co-signing for loans. Wish any of us would've been more educated about the college payment process, but when you go to a school where everyone else is rich, the counselors just assume that your parents will foot the bill. I need to make sure I succeed so that I don't screw my family over with MY debt.

I've supported myself with various jobs and research opportunities that I went out of my way to find, with no help from my parents, so if you would please gripe about rich, carefree premeds in another topic (I'm jealous of em too), I'd appreciate it.

Also, to "your mom," thanks for posting that postbacc program, gonna look into it.
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1) I made a few helpful comments about your gap year. I am definitely not a troll.
2) My comments were referencing the vast number of posts on SDN that tell others to travel during their gap year, something that's not really possible for someone who is financially responsible for themselves right out of undergrad.
3) I come from a low income family and have been supporting myself for almost 5 years now. My parents didn't pay a cent for my undergrad at Baylor University. If you want to see our cost of attendance, here you go:
http://www.baylor.edu/admissions/index.php?id=59836

In summary, my post was not a personal shot at you, even though you took it as such.
 
startswithb said:
+2 Yeah, seriously. Am I diverse if I'm 100% self-supporting? Or am I too boring because I don't travel the world? 😕
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-1

Traveling the country wasn't nearly as expensive as I thought it would be. Granted, I stayed with family or friends in most of the cities I went to, but when there were none I found a local state park and slept in my tent for about $5 a night. Gas and food, obviously, were the big expenses but I used about $500 of my savings to cover those costs for a 4 month road trip. When you're just eating Clif bars and home-cooked meals you don't need to burn a lot of cash. Also, I found odd jobs during my trip. I stayed in Missoula for several weeks and helped out with a paper route, I did freelance computer work for people I met at summer camps I counseled at, and whatever else I could find. I have never owned a credit card (unless you count my own bank card).
 
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Traveling the country wasn't nearly as expensive as I thought it would be. Granted, I stayed with family or friends in most of the cities I went to, but when there was none I found a local state park and slept in my tent for about $5 a night. Gas and food, obviously, were the big expenses but I used about $500 of my savings to cover those costs for a 4 month road trip. When you're just eating cliff bars and home-cooked meals you don't need to burn a lot of cash. Also, I found odd jobs during my trip. I stayed in Missoula for several weeks and helped out with a paper route, I did freelance computer work for people I met at summer camps I counseled at, and whatever else I could find. I have never owned a credit card (unless you count my own bank card).
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Sounds like a pretty sweet trip. And what people say is true, you will never have that kind of freedom again. Forgive my crotchety old man nature, I'm just jealous of those in a better financial situation than myself.
 
I'm currently on a gap year and got a job as a research tech. A few of my other friends got jobs unrelated to medicine. I think it is important to work a 9-5 and do something not directly related to medicine, sometime before matriculation, so you see whats its like in the non physician world. I've also been working out a lot and catching up on reading. Developing good workout habits seems like a good idea as it can take a lot of time that one might not have in med school. Also, learn to cook if you can.
 
DCBFan said:
Does nobody work anymore?
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+3. Find a job. Briefly enjoy not being a broke student. Travel on weekends, vaca's, et al.

If I were you I wouldn't spend hundreds of $ on a CNA or whatever certification. Find a job at a hospital (look on their websites) as an ER tech, nurse assistant, or whatever. I picked up a nursing assistant gig recently. I think it's pretty similar to a CNA position but I didn't have to pay for the cert (I think the hospital picked it up) - saved me $700. PRN positions are nice because 1. they pay more (if you don't need benefits) and 2. you can work when you want, as long as you get 3 shifts every 6 weeks.
 
A lot of people on SDN seem to recommend AmeriCorps (Lots of different options!) and also Teach of America. I haven't personally gotten to the stage of a gap year but they both seem like great opportunities to get you exposed more to the "real world" and such.

Other people just get a full time job at like a research lab. I don't think what you do has to be medically-related but still productive and something for you to share in your interviews as to what you did during your off time 🙂
 
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