Study Aborad

[U23527]

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Hello all, I would like some quick advice on a study abroad program I want to do.

A bit of background information, I am currently a junior, and I plan on applying to med school next summer.

Before I graduate college, i wanted to do a study abroad program in order to get the experience. I think that it will help me get out of my comfort zone and be more open. I am sure this will help me down the line in the medical field and also for med school interviews.

I found a program I am really truly interested in. It's a program to study Chinese in Chengdu, China for about 2 months (beginning of June to end of July). I really want to do this program, but lately I've been having doubts about whether or not it would be the right time to do so. I have already taken the MCAT and I am happy with my score (519), so I don't have to worry about this anymore. I was planning on having the AMCAS application fully filled out before I leave, as well as prewriting some secondaries. Then, when I'm in the program, I would just submit and write the secondaries as soon as I get them.

To anyone answering this, do you think this would be doable? or should I reconsider this entire plan? Thanks!

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

As long as you pre write your secondaries and have your primaries finished before you leave than it is completely doable. You won’t receive interviews until August at the soonest anyway. The only thing is that you won’t be able to include this on your primary application so it would have to be an update sent to the schools or like you said something that you talk about during interviews but I don’t see this helping you with getting interviews. I studied abroad in Costa Rica for a year and every traditional interview I have had brought up my study abroad trip and they all loved it.

 

[U23527]

As long as you pre write your secondaries and have your primaries finished before you leave than it is completely doable. You won’t receive interviews until August at the soonest anyway. The only thing is that you won’t be able to include this on your primary application so it would have to be an update sent to the schools or like you said something that you talk about during interviews but I don’t see this helping you with getting interviews. I studied abroad in Costa Rica for a year and every traditional interview I have had brought up my study abroad trip and they all loved it.

Thanks for your reply! I'll definitely send it as an update. And I didn't mean that it would help me get interviews. Rather, I think it will help me be a more natural and open person during them. I see this more as a personality development experience than a resume building thing.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

Thanks for your reply! I'll definitely send it as an update. And I didn't mean that it would help me get interviews. Rather, I think it will help me be a more natural and open person during them. I see this more as a personality development experience than a resume building thing.

Well then you have good motives for doing it. I would 100% percent recommend living abroad (although I don’t think 2 months is long enough) it is such an amazing experience and it could spark and interest for you to want to do more international traveling. I could totally see myself doing peace corps or Doctors Without Borders in the future.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

I was considering doing something very similar, and the only reason I didn’t was that my intended program had a “language pledge” that meant we couldn’t speak/read anything other than the target language. That would have meant not filling out any secondaries until I got back, which would have really delayed my app. I would double check to make sure this program doesn’t have a language pledge, but if not, go for it and have a great time!

I understand the reasoning behind this, and I made a personal pledge to myself to only speak Spanish while many other students used primarily English while abroad, but there is no way the program would know that you are filling out essays on your computer in English. I am genuinely surprised you let this hold you back from studying abroad.