please help....question about deferring

[Dr Krazy]

hello, i am a med school applicant, and although i realize that this forum is for med students, i'm posting here b/c i thought you might have an answer for me. it's a complicated situation, but basically i am graduating from college a year early, and am already late into the application process (i have several interviews) but i realized much too late that i would really like to take a year off!! so my question is, how easy or hard is it to defer a year once i am accepted into a school (assuming that happens) before i even start attending class there? is it even possible? how realistic is it to expect to be able to do this? are there any better alternatives? thanks in advance for your input!

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[alina_s]

Hi Dr. Krazy,
I deferred my med school admission for a year but the school (CWRU) was willing to let me defer for two. Some schools specifically mention in the application materials that they don't allow deferrals for any reason but otherwise, give it a try. The advice that my friend got about deferring his undergraduate admission was not to mention it until you have the acceptance letter in hand. This seems particularly important with medical school, where they probably have a few hundred other applicants with similar stats and they're just looking for reasons to toss out another application. I didn't actually bring up deferral until a few months after I had reserved a spot in the class, just because I wasn't sure about my plans until then. If you're waiting on a lot of applications, it might be wise to wait until March or April when all of the acceptances/rejections are more settled. It is more polite, though, to ask well in advance of the beginning of classes so that they don't have to scramble to find someone to replace you. Good luck.

 

[e2k]

Agree with Alina: wait until you have acceptance in hand, on paper, before mentioning it.

I highly recommend taking time off before med school. You have a chance to learn about yourself outside of an academic environment, develop your personality and interests, and take a vacation. Travel, work a fun job, or do something different for a change.

I'm a third year med student, and I took several years off before med school, for which I'm grateful. I love what I do but it's exhausting. I want to take more time off now, but it's extremely difficult. Party while you have time!

ERIC

 

[Dr Krazy]

thanks for your advice! i feel much better now, knowing that deferral IS possible. does anyone know generally what schools let you defer before attending? i know that case western does, from alina's post.

 

[hansy]

Just adding my agreement and advice to the above posts. I went through the entire admissions process last year with the intention of enrolling in medical school in the fall of 2001. Unfortunately, family problems came up in the spring, and I opted to defer a year. The protocol for requesting a deferment for my school was to write a one-page letter to the dean explaining my reasons for the deferment. The deferment policies for various schools differ, so I would advise that you make an anonymous phone call to each school to which you are applying and ask the secretary for that school's policy.

Many schools will let you defer as long as you have a valid reason, (family emergency, health problem, etc.) but I strongly urge you to wait until you have the acceptance letter before you ask for the deferment. In fact, the only schools I've heard of that wouldn't grant deferments, were a couple of smaller state schools. As the above post mentioned, in the heat of the admissions process, schools are looking for reasons to weed candidates out, and having an "iffy" situation with respect to enrollment creates an easy criteria for the school to reject you. Once a school accepts you out of the thousands of other applicants it could have selected, it means they really want you and are willing to be more flexible about keeping you at their school.

Good luck.

 

[Dr Krazy]

so those of you who deferred, what were your reasons, if you dont mind saying? i wonder if mine would be considered "valid" by the school.

 

[alina_s]

I deferred for the Peace Corps but my school, at least, is pretty liberal about what reasons are valid. I assume that they'd rather have focused students and don't particularly care what you're doing in your time off.