gluon999 said:
from their website... "if you are not a matriculated student anywhere this year, please check the box and describe your activities on a separate sheet of paper. Also, if you are or were a graduate student and took time off
in between undergrad and grad school, please describe your activities during that period."
If he has graduated, not been to graduate school, and is currently working/doing research, then I don't think he needs to check the box.
If he is done with undergrad, he is not taking the year off, he is doing research.
Ack...I must be dense or something. Because as I understand it, if he has graduated then he is not a matriculated student. Therefore he should check the box. He is doing research, but as I understand it he is not a matriculated student. I would set it up as follows:
IF you are not enrolled in school this year
THEN you must check the box
IF you are enrolled in a graduate program this year, but there is a time lapse between your undergraduate enrollment and your graduate enrollment
THEN you must check the box
IF you are still an undergraduate
THEN you must NOT check the box
IF you are a graduate student and have been enrolled continuously since your undergraduate studies
THEN you must NOT check the box.
As I found during my interviews, "taking a year off" has various meanings. To me, it meant "Working my ass off in clinical research while filling out applications." To some people it meant "Monday - tanning, Tuesday - manicures, Wednesday (busy day) - pedicure and swimming, Thursday - coffee date." You get my meaning.
To sum it up - if you are not enrolled in classes, check the box and explain. At worst, you overexplain. At best, you save yourself from looking like a lazy bum. Just my $0.02.
