Taking a year or two off to work...

[emily487]

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Is it necessarily the "kiss of death" for med school admissions to take a year or two off and work before going to med school, even if the job isn't necessarily related to medicine? I have a job offer (restaurant manager) but my dad is convinced that it will somehow detract from my med school application that I took some time off to work and make sure that med school is what I really want to do.

I have a 3.6 GPA and 3.6 science GPA (not sure of my MCAT score yet, but I'm taking a Kaplan class and got a 24 on their diagnostic/practice exam the first time I took it), plus experience in public health, hospital volunteer (500+ hours), good recommendations, etc. so I don't think I'm an incredibly weak applicant.

I wanted to take a break from schooling for a year or two and save up some money and focus myself more on my goals and what I want to do in terms of my medical education, but I don't want this to have a significant negative impact on my med school application...

 

[Sammich117]

If the 24 is indicative of your MCAT score, you may need to retake it in that time.

 

[emily487]

If the 24 is indicative of your MCAT score, you may need to retake it in that time.

I hope it's not indicative! I'm starting the Kaplan class tomorrow, and I got the 24 on the "diagnostic" (the first practice test), so hopefully I will do significantly better on the actual test in May. I'm hoping for a 33+.

 

[MilkmanAl]

What's the motivation for working? If you want some time to be a normal person before sacrificing yourself at the altar of medicine, go for it. If you're trying to make some money for med school, don't waste your time. Go right in, and take out loans. Either way, it won't hurt your candidacy, but don't fool yourself into thinking that paying for med school up front with a low-paying is somehow more efficient than paying it off down the road when you're making 6 figures.

 

[Practitioner]

I think it's normal but you'd probably want to keep some kind of clinical exposure in a voluntary capacity, or shadowing at the very least. Just make sure the job doesn't take up so much of your time you don't have time for anything else.

 

[emily487]

What's the motivation for working? If you want some time to be a normal person before sacrificing yourself at the altar of medicine, go for it. If you're trying to make some money for med school, don't waste your time. Go right in, and take out loans. Either way, it won't hurt your candidacy, but don't fool yourself into thinking that paying for med school up front with a low-paying is somehow more efficient than paying it off down the road when you're making 6 figures.

Pretty much want some time to be a normal person, haha. I'm still sort of floating around on what I want to do specifically. I'm not assuming that I'll save a ton of money, so that's not my primary goal. I just want to take a year or two off to work, solidify my plans, etc. I'm not going to be like, living in my parent's basement playing video games, I will have a full-time job and be supporting myself so I'm not going to just be languishing waiting for med school or something.

 

[emily487]

I think it's normal but you'd probably want to keep some kind of clinical exposure in a voluntary capacity, or shadowing at the very least. Just make sure the job doesn't take up so much of your time you don't have time for anything else.

I want to continue with my hospital volunteer work, definitely. I've volunteered around 500 hours at this hospital so far (1 1/2 years), organized their student volunteer program, worked/shadowed a bit with the pathologist there, have a good rapport with everyone in the hospital and take on a variety of volunteer duties, so I'd really like to continue volunteering at the same hospital. Would this be acceptable?

 

[Marcus Brody]

I don't recommend it if you're not going to do anything clinical or research-wise. Telling an interviewer you took two years off to make money does not put you in a positive light. It shows you're practical, but honestly, what exactly is practical about embarking upon 8 years of education, 80 hr work weeks, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt?

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'm not going to be like, living in my parent's basement playing video games, I will have a full-time job and be supporting myself so I'm not going to just be languishing waiting for med school or something.

You'll wish you had been once school starts. 😛

 

[emily487]

You'll wish you had been once school starts. 😛

Haha I'm sure I will!

 

[uhmm]

I don't think it will hurt your candidacy at all, a lot of medical schools like more mature applicants who have taken some time off after college (I was told this by a couple of admissions directors that I interviewed with). And they certainly can acknowledge if not appreciate practicality. I am taking a year off right now doing corporate/finance job and I've had some good conversations about activist investing and corporate culture with my interviewers. I just answered honestly when they asked me why I double majored and chosed to work in corporate for a while (such as wanting to broaden my horizon, live independently, hone teamwork and business acumen, as well as save up some spending money for medical schools).😛

 

[futureNCmed]

I definitely don't think it would hurt your applicaiton as long as you keep up with your clinical volunteering as a previous poster mentioned. I think there's something to be said for taking a few years off and living the life of a "normal" person before starting on your career path. Let's face it... the majority of your patients are going to be "normal" people with "normal" jobs and it's really hard to relate to people if you've had tunnel vision since high school ----> straight shot to med school.

I took a year off in between (not really a choice since I got rejected the first time around) but it was such a blessing in disguise! I've also worked as a cashier in grocery store and a waitress (something I think should be required for EVERYONE... at least a few months in the service industry). Now I'm a receptionist at a doctors office (something I wish some of the doctors I work for had done in the past so they know how much of their dirty work we have to do for them). There are some experiences and life lessons you simply can not learn in school and paying your own bills and doing an honest day's work in a job you really don't like is one of them.

Good luck! and don't forget to keep up with the volunteering!

 

[emily487]

I definitely don't think it would hurt your applicaiton as long as you keep up with your clinical volunteering as a previous poster mentioned. I think there's something to be said for taking a few years off and living the life of a "normal" person before starting on your career path. Let's face it... the majority of your patients are going to be "normal" people with "normal" jobs and it's really hard to relate to people if you've had tunnel vision since high school ----> straight shot to med school.

I took a year off in between (not really a choice since I got rejected the first time around) but it was such a blessing in disguise! I've also worked as a cashier in grocery store and a waitress (something I think should be required for EVERYONE... at least a few months in the service industry). Now I'm a receptionist at a doctors office (something I wish some of the doctors I work for had done in the past so they know how much of their dirty work we have to do for them). There are some experiences and life lessons you simply can not learn in school and paying your own bills and doing an honest day's work in a job you really don't like is one of them.

Good luck! and don't forget to keep up with the volunteering!

I definitely want to keep up on my volunteering and I just want a chance to learn to live independently (financially independent) and have a "normal" life, etc. before throwing myself into med school.

 

[startswithb]

It's hardly the life of a "normal person" when you spend 80% of your time working on applications, thinking about applications, waiting for interviews, waiting for decisions, and trying to foresee/craft some sort of future for yourself. There was only about a month here and there when I felt "normal." 🙄

 

[searun]

I took two years off between college and med school. I worked as a construction worker and a waiter in an asian restaurant. I also volunteered at a free clinic and did an internship in the office of a primary care physician. The volunteer exposure strengthened my application.

You will be fine as long as you do something medically related in your two year break from school in addition to working.

I would estimate that about 50 percent of my med school class did not go to med school directly from undergrad. What you want to do is very common. Not a problem at all.