Soft gap year schedule?

[reticence]

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Howdy folks,

So I'm in the second half of my gap year, and I was just curious on how the amount of time spent doing activities is looked at. At the moment I'm not doing too much - just my research for 8 hours a week, volunteering for 3, and shadowing for about 3-4 (trying to find a job in the mean time). My pre-med advisor told me that adcoms would like to see about 20+ hours worth of activity (in lieu of classes or a job) and since my temporary retail job ended I haven't had much luck. Will this be an issue at all or is this just another neurotic pre-med overreaction?

Thanks for reading!

 

[edawgmd]

Howdy folks,

So I'm in the second half of my gap year, and I was just curious on how the amount of time spent doing activities is looked at. At the moment I'm not doing too much - just my research for 8 hours a week, volunteering for 3, and shadowing for about 3-4 (trying to find a job in the mean time). My pre-med advisor told me that adcoms would like to see about 20+ hours worth of activity (in lieu of classes or a job) and since my temporary retail job ended I haven't had much luck. Will this be an issue at all or is this just another neurotic pre-med overreaction?

Thanks for reading!

My own experience supports what your advisor said. It may vary, but one of my interviewers was busting my chops about how I was spending my time during the gap year. I told him although I'm not a paid RA, I am working in the lab for 30-35 hours a week as an intern/volunteer. Essentially a free RA. It's also verified by my PI's LOR.

In short, he was questioning where my other hours went in a 40 hour work week and assumed I was being a lazy couch potato. I felt like he wanted more hours in addition to the 40 hours a week for more extracurriculars whether it was volunteering, shadowing, and etc. Granted I was a reapplicant to that school and interviewed there in the previous cycle, he was being quite an @$$ about it. In an interview with a different school, the interviewers didn't care at all about the hours. Better safe than sorry! Get those hours up!

 

[reticence]

My own experience supports what your advisor said. It may vary, but one of my interviewers was busting my chops about how I was spending my time during the gap year. I told him although I'm not a paid RA, I am working in the lab for 30-35 hours a week as an intern/volunteer. Essentially a free RA. It's also verified by my PI's LOR.

In short, he was questioning where my other hours went in a 40 hour work week and assumed I was being a lazy couch potato. I felt like he wanted more hours in addition to the 40 hours a week for more extracurriculars whether it was volunteering, shadowing, and etc. Granted I was a reapplicant to that school and interviewed there in the previous cycle, he was being quite an @$$ about it. In an interview with a different school, the interviewers didn't care at all about the hours. Better safe than sorry! Get those hours up!

Thanks for the info. Worst case scenario this'll only go until May/June when I apply again. But yeah, I don't like not having much else to do.

 

[Mclovin0351]

I remember at least one school's secondary asked you to describe your gap year activities and account for at least 40 hours a week

 

[flapjack3d]

what kind of research are you getting done in only 8 hours a week? might as well turn that into 15 hours a week at minimum. i think you'll be fine from an admissions perspective. alternatively, there's lots of jobs you can get for just a few hours a week -- like tutoring, or reffing little kids games at the Y.

 

[reticence]

what kind of research are you getting done in only 8 hours a week? might as well turn that into 15 hours a week at minimum. i think you'll be fine from an admissions perspective. alternatively, there's lots of jobs you can get for just a few hours a week -- like tutoring, or reffing little kids games at the Y.

There's something like 18 RAs so there's a lot of people to handle the load (volunteer RAs). Ideally I'd like a job with 20+ hours but if it came to it I wouldn't mind taking on 15 hours research/15 hours work/10 hours everything else.

 

[Medic741]

Go to Patagonia!!!