Benefiting from year off

[gnomeski]

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[Mattabet]

It can give you interesting things to talk about in an interview or update letter, but your impression is largely correct - for the most part only the year before the year off is going to be reflected in the application itself.

 

[UnfeatyOblation]

A lot of secondaries ask what you're up to during a year off.

 

[Podalarius]

Academic honors, publications, etc. tend to be during your senior year. While admissions committees probably account for when you're applying, it is probably more impressive to see 2 years of lab experience, 1 publication/poster/etc. vs. 1 year of lab experience; similarly a 3.9 is great, but 3.9, summa cum laude probably looks better. In addition, while you can only describe what you have yet to do during your year off on the AMCAS, by the time interviews come around you'll have more things to talk about, and update letters through the rest of the process/into waitlist season will give you a chance to add even more to your application.

 

[plsletmein]

similarly a 3.9 is great, but 3.9, summa cum laude probably looks better.

summa cum laude says nothing new/special that a 3.9 gpa doesn't say itself. I don't think it even warrants its own slot on an application unless you're grouping it with a bunch of other gpa based awards

 

[WildKitty]

Taking a year off?

Stop wasting your time and your parent's money. Apply ASAP.

When I thought about taking a year off my dad cut off all my funding and stopped paying my tuition. I lived at a friend's apartment for 4 months until his girlfriend kicked me out. Just mann up and realize there are worse thing in the world.

Spoiled Kids!

 

[Poliscidoc]

Taking a year off?

Stop wasting your time and your parent's money. Apply ASAP.

When I thought about taking a year off my dad cut off all my funding and stopped paying my tuition. I lived at a friend's apartment for 4 months until his girlfriend kicked me out. Just mann up and realize there are worse thing in the world.

Spoiled Kids!

You need a beer; some find it beneficial to take a year off. I mean 8 straight years could be hard if the person has maintained a high GPA while doing all the EC's and still scoring high on the MCAT. So maybe it’s not for you, but it might be for someone else...

 

[TopSecret]

By "one year off" I mean filling amcas around june of senior year. At what stage do you let med schools know about what you're doing during a year off? I hear ppl say this time can be used to benefit the applicant, but to me it seems that the greatest amount of open time exists post-interview? Ie time to go out of the country, do volunteer work

I know someone who went to an Ivy League school and lived in Israel for a year before going to medical school. It depends on how you use your time and how strong of an applicant you are to be away from school for that length of time.

 

[WildKitty]

YEAR OFF!

You took some stupid organic chemistry class during four years of partying in undergrad and now you need a year off!

Be serious, I had to work 30 hours/week in college while studying all those classes, doing stupid ECs to satisfy admins, all while supporting my mom.

And time off never once crossed into my mind during all this. Grow up! There's a recession happening right now and millions unemployed. Live in reality and go see how life is really like before you start patients in the real world!

 

[WildKitty]

I know someone who went to an Ivy League school and lived in Israel for a year before going to medical school. It depends on how you use your time and how strong of an applicant you are to be away from school for that length of time.

He went on vacation for a year? How is that good?

 

[TopSecret]

He went on vacation for a year? How is that good?

I don't know but she was Jewish and had already skipped a grade in high school. So I guess she deserved some time to get away from academics and just relax.

 

[LostInStudy]

He went on vacation for a year? How is that good?

This guy (referring to WildKitty) obviously knows absolutely NOTHING about American schools or anything about the admissions process for that matter. If you don't know anything about how something is like, then please don't give any input until you have experienced it.

-LIS

 

[TopSecret]

This guy obviously knows absolutely NOTHING about American schools or anything about the admissions process for that matter. If you don't know anything about how something is like, then please don't give any input until you have experienced it.

-LIS

And who are you? I know a lot about the admissions process because I've been behind the closed doors and know what the adcoms look for.

 

[Podalarius]

summa cum laude says nothing new/special that a 3.9 gpa doesn't say itself. I don't think it even warrants its own slot on an application unless you're grouping it with a bunch of other gpa based awards

True, it doesn't say anything in particular, and I didn't include Latin honors on my AMCAS - but it probably doesn't look worse. The point I was trying to make, poorly, is that, in the aggregate, awards, pubs, etc. accumulated over senior year are more likely than not going to have a positive influence on an committee's evaluation of your application, whether or not that is rational, since the potential for an award/pub/etc., IMHO, is not as good as actually having it.

As for what you do on a year off, who says you live off your parents' money or that it's for taking a break? I took 6 years to get from HS to med school because of two years off along the way, and my parents didn't pay for either of them. You can find a job, get an exchange scholarship to study abroad, or find many other ways to provide for yourself. The median age for a matriculant (at least in my class) is 24, which suggests that many people take a similar route.

 

[Googleman]

I agree with Kitty, though. Just because admins view something a certain way doesn't mean it's right.

To each his own....

 

[Luun]

It can give you interesting things to talk about in an interview or update letter, but your impression is largely correct - for the most part only the year before the year off is going to be reflected in the application itself.

I've come across quite a few applications that ask what will you be doing during the upcoming year if you're not enrolled full time in school.

And I'm sure any schools that didn't ask specifically on the secondary, will ask during the interview. So, they do want to know how you're using your spare time. Make sure it's something that adds to your app, whether that is living abroad, research, volunteering, working, or high involvement in some other hobby. 👍

 

[LostInStudy]

And who are you? I know a lot about the admissions process because I've been behind the closed doors and know what the adcoms look for.

I'm just your regular pre-med but I'm not claiming to know it all or judge people who want to take a year off (such as kitty did). A year off can definitely be a good thing if you spend it productively and not just as a year off doing absolutely nothing.

-LIS

EDIT: Reading my post from earlier, I think you got the wrong idea TopSecret and misunderstood. I was definitely not referring to you or your friend but to WildKitty and his comments. Sorry for the mix up.

 

[sike08]

why does every thread turn into an argument?

 

[Narmerguy]

why does every thread turn into an argument?

Cause it's an internet forum and it's full of the type of people that SDN attracts.

 

[LostInStudy]

Well I wouldn't have participated at all if I hadn't seen WildKitty's comment on the MCAT forum. I usually hate when threads get off topic but seeing his other comments and the one's he made here really made me want to inform you guys that he really doesn't know what he is talking about and is actually quite a hypocrite.

Sorry for that rant,

-LIS

EDIT: I think TopSecret and some other guys got the wrong idea because I totally quoted and responded in a way that caused my post to be misunderstood. I fixed it now though.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

It all depends on what you plan to do. My year off was a necessity so that I could apply with my last year's grades on the AMCAS, giving me as high a GPA as possible, but it was essentially a wasted year. Since I supported myself I was basically working a mediocre job with mediocre pay while making non-deferrable payments on substantial loans and hating every moment of it. If I had some support and could have gone to Africa to save AIDS babies, or teach English in Tibet to blind people, or something like that, it would have made for better stories and a more enjoyable time. I enjoyed my years in undergrad as a student with little responsibility exponentially more.

The only real upside is that I don't feel burnt out, at all. I spent 5 yrs in undergrad and I'm not sure how people come straight to med school without feeling really tired of school. I'm feeling quite fresh at the moment.

 

[zerial]

i think if people are taking an extra year for the sole purpose of preventing burn out, they should examine hard whether an entire May to August of complete relaxation isn't already enough. that's 4 months of doing whatever you want, which is a really long time.

and applying straight in means you don't have to go through the trouble of finding a job or something to do. and then during secondaries and interviews, answering whether what you've been doing is worthwhile without sounding like you did it just to have another EC on your activities list

i say go all out your first 3 years and go straight in.