time off after residency?

[alparkeruab]

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Is it possible or common for people to take a year or more off after residency? Would taking a year off look bad or seriously jeopardize my residency chances? Obviously, I am talking about taking time off for valid reasons, not just to goof off.

In my case, this year off would be used to get married, relocate with my spouse, and basically just get my life in order after being in a long distance relationship for a very long time.

 

[Law2Doc]

Is it possible or common for people to take a year or more off after residency? Would taking a year off look bad or seriously jeopardize my residency chances?

Do you mean after residency, or before. Obviously anything done after residency won't jeopardize residency chances. As for before, it's "possible" but not common, and not the best idea unless you have a really good reason, and fill the time with research or something helpful for matching. Getting married probably isn't going to be the most compelling reason to take a year off because countless folks are getting married throughout med school without taking such time off. And relocating is something most people have to do before residency and without taking time off. You can do a year of research before entering the match, that may make you more competitive and would free up some time. You can also often do a research year sometime mid-residency in a lot of residency fields. But to take off to just try out being married for a year is pretty uncommon and hard to justify, let alone afford.

 

[mjl1717]

Is it possible or common for people to take a year or more off after residency? Would taking a year off look bad or seriously jeopardize my residency chances? Obviously, I am talking about taking time off for valid reasons, not just to goof off.

In my case, this year off would be used to get married, relocate with my spouse, and basically just get my life in order after being in a long distance relationship for a very long time.

As a L2D said basically after residency its ok, no sweat.. You already fought a bloody 15 rounds........... Before residency its more like playing jeapody or taking risk or it may not look good... Also as he said people get married all the time in med school.....I would not recommend slacking up/ taking time to to get married.. You are somewhat married to medicine believe it or not.. You have a real consistent fight on your hands.

 

[Dedikated2liftn]

Is it possible or common for people to take a year or more off after residency? Would taking a year off look bad or seriously jeopardize my residency chances? Obviously, I am talking about taking time off for valid reasons, not just to goof off.

In my case, this year off would be used to get married, relocate with my spouse, and basically just get my life in order after being in a long distance relationship for a very long time.

Why in the world would you want to? You've finally got a chance to start pulling in the income you've worked so hard for (not to mention, the debt that you'll most likely be in at this point will be motivation enough to jump in ASAP).

 

[Mr hawkings]

Wouldnt it also dpened a lot on how good(or bad) your board scores are?
I mean, if you are sporting a sub 200 step 1 score, dont you want to get in there a soon as possible in case you have to sit out a year to do research or do a prelim internship?
I think the higher your step 1, the easier it would be to make thedecision to sit out a year.

 

[alparkeruab]

Sorry for the confusing thread title. I did mean taking time off after medical school. Assuming a student had decent grades, board scores, and their financial situation could be taken care of, would taking a year off for the reasons mentioned above kill their chances of getting a residency? I'm not talking about a super competitive residency either, just an average residency program.

 

[Law2Doc]

Sorry for the confusing thread title. I did mean taking time off after medical school. Assuming a student had decent grades, board scores, and their financial situation could be taken care of, would taking a year off for the reasons mentioned above kill their chances of getting a residency? I'm not talking about a super competitive residency either, just an average residency program.

I think we answered this above. You can take a year off to do something productive (esp research), but yeah, taking a year off to relocate and get married won't fly. Too many people do both these things before residency without taking time off.

 

[Dr M T Head]

It does not have to be a research year, unless you want it to be. You can take off time after med school before residency without much consequence. Will it help? Not really. Will it hurt? Not really. Do not listen to the worry warts as I know people (normal ones) who have taken time off and gone to great residencies. Just do not ocunt on derm/ortho to wait for you.

 

[alparkeruab]

I think we answered this above. You can take a year off to do something productive (esp research), but yeah, taking a year off to relocate and get married won't fly. Too many people do both these things before residency without taking time off.

How much time do students typically have between ending med school and beginning residency?

 

[DoctorPardi]

I think the turnaround is pretty quick, and probably varies but I would guess a month, two at the most? Enough time to get married and move if you are efficient 😀 .

 

[Law2Doc]

It does not have to be a research year, unless you want it to be. You can take off time after med school before residency without much consequence. Will it help? Not really. Will it hurt? Not really. Do not listen to the worry warts as I know people (normal ones) who have taken time off and gone to great residencies. Just do not ocunt on derm/ortho to wait for you.

Residencies ask you to account for all this time and how you spent it. If it weren't important, they wouldn't ask.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

How much time do students typically have between ending med school and beginning residency?

Once again, this varies from school to school. At mine, we get enough vacation that if you work pretty close to straight through you can be done before the match fourth year. So you've got March, April, May, and probably half of June (depending on when your resident orientation starts.) Of course, this is without taking any real vacation in the fourth year or time off for interviews.

Another thing to consider, however, is away rotations. Let's say your in LA and your main squeeze is in NY. You can arrange rotations at hospitals in New York so you can spend time out there and still get credit. This is going to take a lot of work, however, to get these rotations, make the schedules work, and some can be quite competitive based on location and specialty.

 

[alparkeruab]

Once again, this varies from school to school. At mine, we get enough vacation that if you work pretty close to straight through you can be done before the match fourth year. So you've got March, April, May, and probably half of June (depending on when your resident orientation starts.) Of course, this is without taking any real vacation in the fourth year or time off for interviews.

Another thing to consider, however, is away rotations. Let's say your in LA and your main squeeze is in NY. You can arrange rotations at hospitals in New York so you can spend time out there and still get credit. This is going to take a lot of work, however, to get these rotations, make the schedules work, and some can be quite competitive based on location and specialty.

How hard/competitive is it to arrange away rotations, say for a specialty like family medicine, pediatrics, or internal medicine? If I did these away rotations in NY, would I have a decent shot at landing a residency there, even though I was from LA?

 

[45408]

How much time do students typically have between ending med school and beginning residency?

Varies. I know some people who put their vacation months at the end of fourth year, so other than showing up for graduation in May, they were done at the end of February or March. Residency starts July 1 but might have 1-3 weeks of orientation before that.