Should I take a trip in the summer?

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

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I will submit my primary in June. My friends and I are thinking of taking a trip around Africa and Europe in July, which will last about a month with very limited internet access. Would it be foolish to submit the primary in June and not do anything with regards to the application process until late July/early August?

 

[Toutie]

I will submit my primary in June. My friends and I are thinking of taking a trip around Africa and Europe in July, which will last about a month with very limited internet access. Would it be foolish to submit the primary in June and not do anything with regards to the application process until late July/early August?

You will NOT have "very limited" access in most of Europe and will likely even have fair access in Africa. At the most you may go a few days to a week with little/no access.

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

You will NOT have "very limited" access in most of Europe and will likely even have fair access in Africa. At the most you may go a few days to a week with little/no access.

You didn't answer my question

 

[Toutie]

You didn't answer my question

It would not be the end of the world, but you really should try to send in your secondaries within a reasonable time after receiving them. Try to pre-write most of them before you leave. Check your email periodically and send in your secondaries when you have the time. Again, late July/early August wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be in your best interest to get them within a couple weeks of receiving them.

 

[PreMedStudent55555]

I will submit my primary in June. My friends and I are thinking of taking a trip around Africa and Europe in July, which will last about a month with very limited internet access. Would it be foolish to submit the primary in June and not do anything with regards to the application process until late July/early August?

I would suggest against this. From my experience, there have been so many times when I'd tell myself I'd do work while on vacation and would come back very disappointed with no work done lol. It's very hard to stay on top of things while on a vacation especially when you are with friends and are relaxed. With this summer being such an important one to you, I suggest just maybe working and keeping yourself ahead of everything just to make sure not to fall behind with anything regarding the application. Everyone is different of course. Some people can manage to work while on vacation and if that's you, then go for it. Getting a chance to travel with friends is so fun!

 

[happypenguin28]

I will submit my primary in June. My friends and I are thinking of taking a trip around Africa and Europe in July, which will last about a month with very limited internet access. Would it be foolish to submit the primary in June and not do anything with regards to the application process until late July/early August?

I think you'll be fine. I think submitting a primary anytime before the secondish week of July is not considered "late" and then there's also the verification time to think about - I think I submitted like July 7 and didn't get verified until August 3 or something. I also think the two week suggested turnaround for secondaries is really more to help applicants stay on top of it/not fall behind and I'm not sure it really matters to schools - I work a full time job with a lot of travel including a lot of weekend work so two weeks was pretty much impossible for most of my secondaries and I don't think any of my interviews were from places where I got things in in the two week time frame.

Of course, prewriting probably doesn't hurt, but I wouldn't beat yourself up too much about it. It's such a stressful process/stressful summer in part because everyone's timeline is different and you can feel like you're falling behind, but everything really does work out. 🙂

 

[coralista]

I took a two week trip overseas at the end of June after submitting my primary this cycle. I think that you could reasonably expect success should you go on the trip, provided that you pre-write your secondaries and are sure you have other things that could delay your application in order (for example, LORs/committee letter/transcripts).