Deferring for a 1-year Master's

[White_Mamba]

Here's the deal: I don't have any II's yet, and I want to make a backup plan in case I don't get in this round (I'll save @Goro the trouble: "Patience is a virtue, something something something"). If I apply to 1-year Master's programs and get accepted to one, will I be able to defer a med school acceptance for a year to go do it? I want to start contacting potential research advisors early, but not if I'm going to back out half way through the application process.

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[Pagan FutureDoc]

Unless it's a "once-in-a-lifetime" oppertunity or something very relevant to your career goals I don't think schools would view it as a very good reason to defer.

 

[piii]

My friend deferred from a top 15 just to travel. Many med schools are much more flexible than SDN premeds think.

 

[DocJuan]

Here's the deal: I don't have any II's yet, and I want to make a backup plan in case I don't get in this round (I'll save @Goro the trouble: "Patience is a virtue, something something something"). If I apply to 1-year Master's programs and get accepted to one, will I be able to defer a med school acceptance for a year to go do it? I want to start contacting potential research advisors early, but not if I'm going to back out half way through the application process.

Out of curiosity why would you want to defer medical school to do a 1-year masters? Everyone in my program is here to gain admittance to med or dental school.

 

[White_Mamba]

Out of curiosity why would you want to defer medical school to do a 1-year masters? Everyone in my program is here to gain admittance to med or dental school.

I am hopeful of working at a physician-scientist, and I think that getting an extra year of coursework/research could be useful to do before going into medical school (I don't necessarily want to do a full md-phd). Mainly, I would defer because I don't want to come to an unofficial agreement with a research professor then get accepted to an MD and renege on the commitment, and I can't wait until I know I'm rejected at MD programs to apply to Master's programs.

 

[JustAPhD]

I am hopeful of working at a physician-scientist, and I think that getting an extra year of coursework/research could be useful to do before going into medical school (I don't necessarily want to do a full md-phd). Mainly, I would defer because I don't want to come to an unofficial agreement with a research professor then get accepted to an MD and renege on the commitment, and I can't wait until I know I'm rejected at MD programs to apply to Master's programs.

A one year non-thesis masters really won't help you much in that regard.

 

[White_Mamba]

A one year non-thesis masters really won't help you much in that regard.

It probably won't help me in any big way, but for the type of research I want to do a year of quantitative courses could be somewhat helpful. Plus, it's really more of a general interest type of thing.

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

Is it worth one year of peak earnings as a physician to you?

 

[White_Mamba]

Is it worth one year of peak earnings as a physician to you?

Yes. If I wanted to make a lot of money I would go work on an oil rig.