Taking a Year off to do NOTHING hurt my chances?

[DRose]

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Well here is my story;

I am/was a 3.95 cGP and 3.93sGPA student. (senior boo yay)
MCAT taken in September got a 13, 11, 13 (I forget writing).
4 years of research, 3 national presentations, 1 2nd author publication.
Goldwater Scholarship.
Udall Scholarship
USA Today All Academic 3rd team (hs and undergrad)
Marshall Scholarship Finalist.
ECs are top tier, lots of leadership.
Great clinicals: volunteered 500 plus hours at hospital in hs and shadowed over 100 hours in college.

BUT I am royally BURNT OUT OF MY MIND. I don't know whether I am coming or going these days. My blood pressure is consistently 145 over 85 and my health has declined (I've put on at least 15 pounds since junior year). I really haven't had a minute to myself in the past 4 years. Every summer I was pounded with 50 hours in the lab and I spent the whole last summer studying for the MCAT and in lab.

I want to apply to the likes of Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Hopkins. I'm a little worried that they will not like the fact that I am doing nothing in my year off. I turned down the Marshall Scholarship because my parents would not let me go to England (two year program and literally no time to come back to the US for interviews so it would have set me back three years or more).

I have an offer at the NIH and at a lab at Hopkins, but I REALLY just want to relax a year and try to regain my 6 pack and get my blood pressure down. I would live with my parents (who live down in Florida) who live less than a minute from the beach and they said they would lease me a new BMW or CTS coupe because they miss me so much and my dad really wants to spend time with me and go fishing and golfing again (he has high blood pressure too).

I could always get a job teaching the MCAT or the SAT for Kaplan part time, right? I think I qualify and ther are many Kaplan sites around my house.

My friend frequents this site and says you are all very helpful. I go to school up in New England and I prefer to go to a top 10 med school if possible. So yes, please let me know what you think.

 

[Quinndom]

I think knowing when to take care of yourself and pursuing interests that make you a more well-rounded person outweigh the obvious negatives of taking a year off. As long as you engage your time meaningfully (not necessarily academically or with research), it should not be much of a problem. Your stats are amazing; I think they can recognize that you know how to do the work.

 

[Catalystik]

Doing "nothing" wouldn't look good, but there are activities you could get involved in that would still let you regain your academic edge and get your health back, and still enhance your application.

You don't mention nonmedical volunteering. This is something you could get involved in near home (Meals on Wheels, homeless or women's shelter, soup kitchen, food pantry, crisis hotline, after school tutoring of kids or ESL for adults, Big Brother/Big Sister, Special Olympics or coaching athletic programs for the physically disabled, helping with a scout troop or other youth group, providing enrichment classes in a poor school (eg, science demonstrations or health topics), Habitat for Humanity, or Humane Society).

Some part-time Teaching (tutoring/coaching/mentoring) sounds good too, especially if you don't have anything to list for that category yet. Another stress-free job for minimum wage could work fine too.

Hobbies or Traveling are ECs one can list, with uniqueness getting bonus points. Becoming the master of tyeing your own fishing lures might be an example.

Just don't spend the year playing video games in your parents' basement.

 

[lpmarcus010]

All you need to do is just find a good way to spin "doing nothing" for your AMCAS and interviews. In my case, I took a year and a half after graduating undergrad at UCSD pretty much surfing everyday. I put ads on craigslist to give surfing lessons to tourists in town for spring break and summer. I ultimately gave about 10 hrs. of lessons, but I was able to talk about being a surf instructor during interviews which sounded interesting to most. I also spent time doing photography, and I went to all those crazy tea-bagger town halls during the healthcare debate in '09. I took photographs of people acting stupid dressed in 18th century regalia and submitted my photos to local newspapers. Some of these photos made it into the local papers, and I therefore also could talk about being a photojournalist that documented the healthcare debate while on interviews. My point is, taking time to do "nothing" is never a bad thing if you can spin it correctly.

 

[raltima07]

Well here is my story;

I am/was a 3.95 cGP and 3.93sGPA student. (senior boo yay)
MCAT taken in September got a 13, 11, 13 (I forget writing).
4 years of research, 3 national presentations, 1 2nd author publication.
Goldwater Scholarship.
Udall Scholarship
USA Today All Academic 3rd team (hs and undergrad)
Marshall Scholarship Finalist.
ECs are top tier, lots of leadership.
Great clinicals: volunteered 500 plus hours at hospital in hs and shadowed over 100 hours in college.

BUT I am royally BURNT OUT OF MY MIND. I don't know whether I am coming or going these days. My blood pressure is consistently 145 over 85 and my health has declined (I've put on at least 15 pounds since junior year). I really haven't had a minute to myself in the past 4 years. Every summer I was pounded with 50 hours in the lab and I spent the whole last summer studying for the MCAT and in lab.

I want to apply to the likes of Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Hopkins. I'm a little worried that they will not like the fact that I am doing nothing in my year off. I turned down the Marshall Scholarship because my parents would not let me go to England (two year program and literally no time to come back to the US for interviews so it would have set me back three years or more).

I have an offer at the NIH and at a lab at Hopkins, but I REALLY just want to relax a year and try to regain my 6 pack and get my blood pressure down. I would live with my parents (who live down in Florida) who live less than a minute from the beach and they said they would lease me a new BMW or CTS coupe because they miss me so much and my dad really wants to spend time with me and go fishing and golfing again (he has high blood pressure too).

I could always get a job teaching the MCAT or the SAT for Kaplan part time, right? I think I qualify and ther are many Kaplan sites around my house.

My friend frequents this site and says you are all very helpful. I go to school up in New England and I prefer to go to a top 10 med school if possible. So yes, please let me know what you think.

You are the most awesome applicant I have ever seen! Why did you turn down the marshall though? You should have gone through wiht it

 

[DRose]

All you need to do is just find a good way to spin "doing nothing" for your AMCAS and interviews. In my case, I took a year and a half after graduating undergrad at UCSD pretty much surfing everyday. I put ads on craigslist to give surfing lessons to tourists in town for spring break and summer. I ultimately gave about 10 hrs. of lessons, but I was able to talk about being a surf instructor during interviews which sounded interesting to most. I also spent time doing photography, and I went to all those crazy tea-bagger town halls during the healthcare debate in '09. I took photographs of people acting stupid dressed in 18th century regalia and submitted my photos to local newspapers. Some of these photos made it into the local papers, and I therefore also could talk about being a photojournalist that documented the healthcare debate while on interviews. My point is, taking time to do "nothing" is never a bad thing if you can spin it correctly.

This is thinking outside the box. I wish I could come up with something like this.

 

[DRose]

You are the most awesome applicant I have ever seen! Why did you turn down the marshall though? You should have gone through wiht it

thanks, I'm not that great. The competition out there is tremendous.

Marshall? No thank you. Ever get the feeling that your work load is crushing in on you. Ever get 1000 emails in one day and and just shut your phone off and hope it would all literally just go away. I feel this way everyday. I want nothing to do with school for 365 days. The programs in England are much harder than here and I would simply get even more exhausted and probably drop out.

 

[raltima07]

thanks, I'm not that great. The competition out there is tremendous.

Marshall? No thank you. Ever get the feeling that your work load is crushing in on you. Ever get 1000 emails in one day and and just shut your phone off and hope it would all literally just go away. I feel this way everyday. I want nothing to do with school for 365 days. The programs in England are much harder than here and I would simply get even more exhausted and probably drop out.

If you don't mind, can you PM me some pointers for the Marshall? I am going to apply next year