I am in a position that may require that I take a year off. My concerns are that I have to take a certain amount of hours in order to stay on my parents insurance as well as keep my student loans at bay. I was wondering if anyone has taken a year off and what they did as far as school and everything else. Clearly I would continue to shadow and may try to improve my GRE score but besides that any information would be appreciated. Thank you👍
Taking a year off??? Pros/Cons
- Thread starter ItemN9ne
- Start date
Forgot to list my stats if anyone is interested:
Overall GPA: 3.67
Pre-req GPA: 3.5
GRE: 1140
Q: 720
V: 420 (this is where I hope to improve the most)
AW: 3.5
**Applied WAY to late and due to the rolling admissions I am on the alternate list of several schools**
Overall GPA: 3.67
Pre-req GPA: 3.5
GRE: 1140
Q: 720
V: 420 (this is where I hope to improve the most)
AW: 3.5
**Applied WAY to late and due to the rolling admissions I am on the alternate list of several schools**
Your stats are pretty good. I took a year off to get observation hours/experience bc I didn't know I wanted to do pt until a couple months before I graduated. I also had to take 2 prereq classes. U can try enrolling at a cc for music, art, or pe class that super easy and have enough units to continue deferring loans and stay on insurances until u start grad school. Hope this helps
Thank you, I really do not want to jump in to a graduate masters program that I'm not going to finish. I hope that the DPT schools don't frown upon taking "easy" courses in your year off though. I am currently waiting for emails from the prospective schools with their advice on this issue. Hopefully they will have the exact path I should follow but that would just make it too easy hahah. 
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2009
- Messages
- 49
- Reaction score
- 0
Many people take the year. It is a great time to relax as well as do some other things before diving in to the intense DPT program.
I personally took the year off. I spent a few months volunteering abroad and when I got back, I volunteered to complete my inpatient observation hours. I also took easy online courses at a community college (I retook a psych course and the others were computer related classes just for fun (dreamweaver, illustrator, computer graphics, etc). None of the schools I applied to mentioned it or even asked about it in the interview. They simply asked about my volunteer experience abroad and in the states. I also took the time and got a PT aide job to same some money before starting school and am trying to pay off my undergrad loans.
My point, to my knowledge, schools do not frown on it. Try and do at least one thing relevant to PT, whether it is volunteering or working, but show you are still interested in the field. I wouldn't worry about the taking easy classes thing. You have a pretty solid GPA and unless you feel you need to retake prereq's, taking easy classes works.
Good luck and have some relax time
I personally took the year off. I spent a few months volunteering abroad and when I got back, I volunteered to complete my inpatient observation hours. I also took easy online courses at a community college (I retook a psych course and the others were computer related classes just for fun (dreamweaver, illustrator, computer graphics, etc). None of the schools I applied to mentioned it or even asked about it in the interview. They simply asked about my volunteer experience abroad and in the states. I also took the time and got a PT aide job to same some money before starting school and am trying to pay off my undergrad loans.
My point, to my knowledge, schools do not frown on it. Try and do at least one thing relevant to PT, whether it is volunteering or working, but show you are still interested in the field. I wouldn't worry about the taking easy classes thing. You have a pretty solid GPA and unless you feel you need to retake prereq's, taking easy classes works.
Good luck and have some relax time
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2009
- Messages
- 308
- Reaction score
- 6
Just tell them that you wanted to spend more time observing and that, along the way, you wanted to take some "personal enrichment" classes.
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2009
- Messages
- 207
- Reaction score
- 4
this!
the ONLY con of taking a year off is that you delay the start of your career by a year. but who cares? are u really in a huge rush? taking time off will give u the opportunity to decompress and go into pt schools fresh. plus you'll the opportunity to work, make some money, and party with your friends. some may even argue to take more than a year off....but if you know you want to do pt, i would say take the 1 year off then go for it.
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2009
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 0
I think taking a year off can be pretty helpful so long as you aren't sitting at home doing nothing and as long as you stay involved in the field (really gives you a chance to check out extra specialty areas or to refine patient interaction skills). If you take a year off, I would recommend you put aside spend some time casually reading publications like APTA's PT in Motion and to get an understanding of what's going on in the profession. It is also a good investment of your time to get a head start on reading your state's PT practice act as well as the Guide to Physical Therapy Practice Act by the APTA. If you can somehow express this acquired knowledge of issues related to PT, it will definitely make you stand out in your future interviews.
If you are concerned about health insurance, what I did was signed up for a few classes at local community colleges to maintain full-time status as a student (and therefore remained under parents' insurance coverage). I just took a few low-intensity classes that I thought would be fun (plus they offered up to 3 semester units for showing up to their gym 6 hrs a week). I felt it was helpful to stay in school to some degree because it kept me sharp.
Finally, I personally took a year off to focus on applying, to study for the GRE, to let the stress and pressure of undergrad calm down a bit, and to acquire experience in an area I hadn't seen much of. I'd have to agree with MuscleHead above that taking time off lets you decompress and enjoy life a bit without much worry... because once PT school starts, say goodbye to ur free time.
If you are concerned about health insurance, what I did was signed up for a few classes at local community colleges to maintain full-time status as a student (and therefore remained under parents' insurance coverage). I just took a few low-intensity classes that I thought would be fun (plus they offered up to 3 semester units for showing up to their gym 6 hrs a week). I felt it was helpful to stay in school to some degree because it kept me sharp.
Finally, I personally took a year off to focus on applying, to study for the GRE, to let the stress and pressure of undergrad calm down a bit, and to acquire experience in an area I hadn't seen much of. I'd have to agree with MuscleHead above that taking time off lets you decompress and enjoy life a bit without much worry... because once PT school starts, say goodbye to ur free time.
I decided to take a year off. Whether or not it was a good idea or not is still to be decided. I do think a break from the world of academia will be beneficial. I don't know about health insurance. As for loans, there are options such as forbearance and deferment.
