When to study abroad

[seals44]

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[kyamh]

I don't think spending a month abroad is enough to get to know another culture...so I would advise you to take a whole semester (that's what I did) and argue that you will gain SO much more abroad that by staying...but I think you've made a decision about that already 😉

In your case, it would be best to travel after you graduate. I don't think you will have a red flag since you can talk in your essays about how you have this plan to go abroad and that is part of the reason you have worked hard to graduate early, etc. I found the application summer to be quite stressful and busy (depending on how many schools you apply to) so I would hesitate to take off for a month.

 

[BABSstudent]

I am currently a sophomore, but I plan on graduating early (what would be the fall of my "senior year"), and then taking the spring semester off.

As a language major, I am kind of expected to study abroad (plus I'm sure it will make for great conversation during interviews, and given my primary reason for majoring in language -expanding my mind and way of thinking through experiencing others' ways of thinking - I believe it would be a huge red flag if I didn't go to the country in question). I truly want to study abroad for my own personal reasons as well, but I'm running into issues with scheduling.

I plan on taking the old MCAT at the end of this summer (end of August 2014). I am taking organic II and physics II next semester. My grasp on organic and physics are not the greatest, and my BCPM GPA is also not that great - I have an overall 3.7 with a BCPM of 3.54. That can be brought up to a 3.6x next semester, but since I'm a language major I don't have a lot more time for science classes. That was basically all just to say that my science GPA will probably be pretty mediocre, so I really need to kill the MCAT. Given that, and my fears about organic and physics giving me trouble, I want to make sure I really put aside a large chunk of time to nail the MCAT. That is why I'd be hesitant to do a 4 or 5 week summer abroad this particular summer.

I would ideally like to do it the summer between junior and senior year, but this worries me due to app season. If I do it early in the summer, I'd worry about being able to get my AMCAS together and submit on time, but if I do it late in the summer I'd worry about being crazy late on my secondaries. The program I was particularly interested in is usually 7-18 to 8-16. All of senior year is obviously out because of interviews.

I would prefer not to do a full semester just due to missing many ECs I still need and would like to participate in on campus (I don't think a full semester during junior year of all years would be worth what I would miss back on campus). In addition, I need to build enough rapport with a prof that year to get my second science rec letter, etc. There's more reasons as well, but I don't want to ramble too much.

Sorry for the hella long post but... any advice? I am still leaning towards the summer between junior and senior year, but I just can't help but worry about unintentionally sabotaging that whole app cycle. If there are any dates that would be ideal that summer when looking at programs, what would they be?

EDIT: Or would it be feasible to just skip studying abroad all together, and go live in the country for a couple months or so before med school? Ie, if I have an acceptance I like in February, I'll just go backpacking in that country from April-June. That's an option I'd be fine with, but I worry that not having gone before the interview might be a red flag to adcoms when my whole reason for majoring in language was experiencing another way of thought/culture).

Thanks!

I studied abroad for two and a half months during the summer between junior and senior year. It's totally doable. Just do the AMCAS application ahead of time and submit while abroad. Check the school specific thread for the previous year and write your secondary essays based on those prompts. Not much changes year-to-year, so using last year's stuff will be good enough and give you a big head start.

 

[IncognitoGuy]

I studied abroad for two and a half months during the summer between junior and senior year. It's totally doable. Just do the AMCAS application ahead of time and submit while abroad. Check the school specific thread for the previous year and write your secondary essays based on those prompts. Not much changes year-to-year, so using last year's stuff will be good enough and give you a big head start.

Ditto. I also studied abroad during my application cycle and the school-specific threads were key.

 

[Tappinfool66]

I agree with what others have said - the longer you can study abroad the better. I went to Spain for six months during my (I guess) junior year spring and being there for that long was amazing. I wish I could have stayed longer! I'm a non traditional applicant, though - took time off during school, graduated last may and I'm not applying until this coming June - so it's hard to say when the best time to study abroad for a traditional applicant is. I would totally recommend studying abroad this fall or next spring if you can, though. That way you won't be working about filling out your AMCAS/secondaries while you're there (trust me, you won't want to be wasting your precious time abroad doing applications). And this way you'll be able to put it on your application and talk about it in secondaries if you have as amazing a time as I did. That's just my opinion, though. Hope this helps!