Can you Defer Medical School Acceptance for a Year?

[hugh2012]

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Hello guys, I am a rising junior and planning on applying to medical school next summer when I will be going into senior year. I was wondering if I can get into medical school and defer my acceptance for a year to work and get real life experience and to take a break before jumping into medical school? I heard medical schools are becoming less receptive to this unless you are working for Teach for America, Americorps,etc. and you already committed before being accepted into medical school so I was wondering what you guys thought. I do not want to be applying my gap year; rather, I want to get the stress out of the way senior year and then during this "deferred" gap year focus on getting real life experience working a job or something without the hassle of applying.

 

[Lawpy]

Yes you can but it depends on the school. @jeghaber deferred a year from a top school to do epic stuff so she can provide further info about it

 

[Goro]

Very much school specific. For some, you'd better have a damned good reason. Growing for a year may be OK, but I can hear some of my own colleagues saying "I guess that you don't want to be a doctor that badly".

Yes you can but it depends on the school. @jeghaber deferred a year from a top school to do epic stuff so she can provide further info about it

 

[jeghaber]

I did defer a year to finish up some research projects and was also able to take some time to teach and travel a bit. Dunno if I'd call it "epic" as @Lawper did, but it was certainly a great experience and the right decision for me.

That being said, here's my advice: don't apply planning to defer. As @Goro mentioned, schools vary greatly in how lenient they are with deferrals. Some, like UCSF, say they won't grant them unless it's a Rhodes or equivalent (not even Fulbright would qualify). Others are much more open to less "structured" years.

If you just want life-experience, take a gap year (or two). I took a gap year before my deferral year and thought that also was time well spent. Fill weaknesses in your application if you need to. Otherwise, just do *something* productive; you don't have to be doing research or volunteering at a hospital. Plus, if you're doing something neat, you'll have more to talk about in your interviews anyways.

 

[lilmiffy]

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[Chasing Never Land]

I applied this cycle and just received a deferral until the Fall of 2016. Like everyone says, really depends on the school. For me, I'm not doing anything particularly life changing and they were okay with that. Others would frown upon it.

Did you have to give your school a reason for deferring? How did they take it?

 

[lilmiffy]

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[samac]

If you know you want the time off just take a gap year. It's no problem to do that.

 

[Chasing Never Land]

If you know you want the time off just take a gap year. It's no problem to do that.

(old) MCAT scores expiring 🙁