Deferring for a year/take a year off

[sleepless22]

Is anyone thinking about deferring for a year or taking a year off to do a year long transitional program or something? If you are, can we start a thread of available year long positions to apply for? Or how you go about finding year long positions?

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[Law2Doc]

Is anyone thinking about deferring for a year or taking a year off to do a year long transitional program or something? If you are, can we start a thread of available year long positions to apply for? Or how you go about finding year long positions?

Careful with the deferring option -- not all med schools will allow you to defer as a matter or right. If you know you are going to take a year off, best to do it and then apply. You will have more to put on your app that way anyhow. Just my two cents.

 

[sirus_virus]

Is anyone thinking about deferring for a year or taking a year off to do a year long transitional program or something? If you are, can we start a thread of available year long positions to apply for? Or how you go about finding year long positions?

what is a transitional program going to do for you? If you are going to spend your time-off studying then you might as well go straight to medschool.

 

[BigRedPremed]

I'm hoping to get a research position either on the east coast or west coast and live on my own during my year off. Should be a good experience.

 

[Dr.Watson]

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[Sol Rosenberg]

Law2Doc is right. Usually, you can't defer unless you win the Rhodes or something. Just taking time off to do research and live on your own? Not a good enough reason. You need to take the year off and apply during that year.

I think it depends upon the school. I have looked into deferring admission to the medical school to which I have been accepted, and they state that deferrals for one year are "readily granted" if the request is submitted early enough, etc.

I don't think it hurts to try to defer, but definitely have a Plan B (or is it really just Plan A?) in case your request for a deferral is not granted.

 

[Law2Doc]

I think it depends upon the school. I have looked into deferring admission to the medical school to which I have been accepted, and they state that deferrals for one year are "readily granted" if the request is submitted early enough, etc.

I don't think it hurts to try to defer, but definitely have a Plan B (or is it really just Plan A?) in case your request for a deferral is not granted.

You can learn a lot of schools deferral policies from their websites, which frequently mention the policy. FWIW a fairly substantial number of schools require fairly compelling reasons for allowing a deferral (usually family, health or once in a lifetime type opportunity reasons). But as long as your MCAT will still be current, I really don't see the downside to applying a year later, with more experiences to talk about in the app, rather than attempt to be accepted and hope they (whoever they ends up being) let you take a year off.

 

[i'm the map]

doesn't help much if you've already applied. i'm totally in this situation - after getting two waitlists last year out of two march interviews on 13 apps, i decided to apply again this year while working at a lab. given my not-so-great app history, i decided to apply immediately with a supercharged mcat over the summer - the logic was that if i took another year off and didn't get in after that, i'd be the male medical equivalent of an old maid.

so i made a two-year commitment to a job - nobody would hire a lab assistant for eight months. fortunately/unfortunately, i'm at ten interviews now.

what the hell do i tell my interviewers? "look buddy, i love you guys, but i'm gonna defer?"

 

[BigRedPremed]

You can learn a lot of schools deferral policies from their websites, which frequently mention the policy. FWIW a fairly substantial number of schools require fairly compelling reasons for allowing a deferral (usually family, health or once in a lifetime type opportunity reasons). But as long as your MCAT will still be current, I really don't see the downside to applying a year later, with more experiences to talk about in the app, rather than attempt to be accepted and hope they (whoever they ends up being) let you take a year off.

I agree. Obviously, a deferral is optimal since you can take the year off knowing you have an acceptance in the bank but your application should be much stronger if you apply during your year off.