deferring MD/PhD to work

[aquamonkey]

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So normally people who defer do it because they won a Marshall or a Rhodes or something...but will programs let you defer to work, especially if its not something medical related? I'm thinking about working at a software company for a year, simply to make some decent money (I'd rather not work as a tech or something cause they don't get paid jack) before being a student again. What I do at work would not help me in my medical career in any way..I just want to relax for a year. Would this be reasonable or would most programs shoot down this idea?

 

[chutzpah]

They probably would shoot down the idea but it couldn't hurt to ask. Budget is usually pretty set and the number of students per class is fairly rigid. If they give you an automatic acceptance for next year's cycle and accept the guy next on the waitlist it might not be fair when you consider most programs only accept 4-6 ppl per year.

 

[achamess]

Rather than writing off your work experience as irrelevant to your medical career, might you spin it in a different light? I don't know if you have any interest in Med IT or anything like that, but might you not make a case to the MD/PhD program that your experience at the company would help you achieve goal X in your future medical career? it's worth a shot if you think you can sell this convincingly.