"Why did you not take a gap year?" was a question posed to me by an interviewer at a T5 school about a month ago. She did acknowledge that the question was "perhaps unfair".
I looked around at fellow interviewees—partially looking for inspiration and partially gauging whether I would even have a shot at this school amidst these shining peers—and, well, it's safe to say I was inspired! I saw some interviewees with multiple master's degrees at Oxford, several people with master's degrees in progress at UPenn, Harvard, and other schools, lots of people doing "research at Penn Med" (verbatim from an eerily large number of people), a few Fulbright/Rhodes/Marshall scholars, one TFA teacher, many working in post-bacc research positions at the NIH, a Mayo bioethics fellow, and a couple people who had biotech experience or PhDs, and people doing things I didn't even know were possible.
After fumbling less-than-concisely for a couple sentences (ouch, I know), my response to the interviewer's question was that funding was my primary contention, and though my parents would be insistent upon supporting me, they had already made many sacrifices for my brother and I over the course of their lives, and I wanted them to be able to live their lives without having to worry about delay. After looking like she was intently listening (or perplexed??) during my fumbling, the interviewer seemed to receive the "funding" response well—she smiled, nodded, and jotted something down on her note sheet.
Did I provide a clear and valid answer? I don't exactly feel like it was particularly compelling enough to put me on level ground with the other gap yearers I was interacting with in events/interview day, but it perhaps did demonstrate some considerate/conscientious qualities? Earlier, she and I talked a bit about how I bond with my grandma through cooking despite she and I not speaking any of the same languages, so this may have helped convey how I value family (which adds dimension to my being otherwise hard to discern in essays, and might suggest deepened compassion for families shouldering tough times? Idk). It was interesting to see gap-yearing acknowledged as the "standard" by someone who went through their app cycle when it wasn't the standard.
If you were asked this question, how would you ideally respond? Is there an ideal response? Did I give a version of it (minus fumbling)?
If I could go back in time, I would want to make it clearer that the financial difference between the gap year and going straight through was that, in med school, I could survive on loans/already-built 529 savings without having to depend on parents to an oppressive degree. Not sure that's immediately clear (though I don't know if she would have taken a limited look at my financial situation and thought "hmm let me judge what I think his options are" in the first place??). I also didn't elaborate on those particular sacrifices my parents made beyond saying "we weren't always well-off"...
And on the topic of interview regrets, I would also want to take back the "whoops, sorry for rambling there" that slipped out of my mouth after a particularly long answer (this prompted a "Oh no, no reason to be sorry—we want and love to hear about your experiences and your journey! nothing to apologize for" from her. Red flag raised? Check). I interview applicants for a student-run free clinic with an (unfortunately) extremely low acceptance rate, and if interviewees ever apologize for acceptable conduct during the interview, the "confidence" score I give them immediately drops. Yikes. I hope she's nicer than I am, but T5 interview was not the time to mess that up. Yet, despite that, this was overall my best-feeling interview yet—just one or two unfortunate interactions. I feel like I'll never forget these little blunders I made. Maybe that's just post-interview/pre-acceptance syndrome. Or maybe I do have something to worry about.
Good thing the second interview went well. We chatted about espresso, cooking, and psychedelics for 30 minutes and spent another 30 chatting about his kid's coming out story + my experience coming out (which ties into my passions that dovetail nicely with this school's offerings). Hoping for the best.
I guess I just wanted to get this off my chest at 3:14am so I can finally stop thinking about it. This was my only T5 interview (thanks to me only applying to 8 schools + submitting secondaries exclusively minutes before their final deadlines, perhaps? maybe THAT's why I was asked about not gap yearing?? is my response still valid?), so I worry a bit more than I would for another school. Glad SDN exists. Thoughts welcome.
I looked around at fellow interviewees—partially looking for inspiration and partially gauging whether I would even have a shot at this school amidst these shining peers—and, well, it's safe to say I was inspired! I saw some interviewees with multiple master's degrees at Oxford, several people with master's degrees in progress at UPenn, Harvard, and other schools, lots of people doing "research at Penn Med" (verbatim from an eerily large number of people), a few Fulbright/Rhodes/Marshall scholars, one TFA teacher, many working in post-bacc research positions at the NIH, a Mayo bioethics fellow, and a couple people who had biotech experience or PhDs, and people doing things I didn't even know were possible.
After fumbling less-than-concisely for a couple sentences (ouch, I know), my response to the interviewer's question was that funding was my primary contention, and though my parents would be insistent upon supporting me, they had already made many sacrifices for my brother and I over the course of their lives, and I wanted them to be able to live their lives without having to worry about delay. After looking like she was intently listening (or perplexed??) during my fumbling, the interviewer seemed to receive the "funding" response well—she smiled, nodded, and jotted something down on her note sheet.
Did I provide a clear and valid answer? I don't exactly feel like it was particularly compelling enough to put me on level ground with the other gap yearers I was interacting with in events/interview day, but it perhaps did demonstrate some considerate/conscientious qualities? Earlier, she and I talked a bit about how I bond with my grandma through cooking despite she and I not speaking any of the same languages, so this may have helped convey how I value family (which adds dimension to my being otherwise hard to discern in essays, and might suggest deepened compassion for families shouldering tough times? Idk). It was interesting to see gap-yearing acknowledged as the "standard" by someone who went through their app cycle when it wasn't the standard.
If you were asked this question, how would you ideally respond? Is there an ideal response? Did I give a version of it (minus fumbling)?
If I could go back in time, I would want to make it clearer that the financial difference between the gap year and going straight through was that, in med school, I could survive on loans/already-built 529 savings without having to depend on parents to an oppressive degree. Not sure that's immediately clear (though I don't know if she would have taken a limited look at my financial situation and thought "hmm let me judge what I think his options are" in the first place??). I also didn't elaborate on those particular sacrifices my parents made beyond saying "we weren't always well-off"...
And on the topic of interview regrets, I would also want to take back the "whoops, sorry for rambling there" that slipped out of my mouth after a particularly long answer (this prompted a "Oh no, no reason to be sorry—we want and love to hear about your experiences and your journey! nothing to apologize for" from her. Red flag raised? Check). I interview applicants for a student-run free clinic with an (unfortunately) extremely low acceptance rate, and if interviewees ever apologize for acceptable conduct during the interview, the "confidence" score I give them immediately drops. Yikes. I hope she's nicer than I am, but T5 interview was not the time to mess that up. Yet, despite that, this was overall my best-feeling interview yet—just one or two unfortunate interactions. I feel like I'll never forget these little blunders I made. Maybe that's just post-interview/pre-acceptance syndrome. Or maybe I do have something to worry about.
Good thing the second interview went well. We chatted about espresso, cooking, and psychedelics for 30 minutes and spent another 30 chatting about his kid's coming out story + my experience coming out (which ties into my passions that dovetail nicely with this school's offerings). Hoping for the best.
I guess I just wanted to get this off my chest at 3:14am so I can finally stop thinking about it. This was my only T5 interview (thanks to me only applying to 8 schools + submitting secondaries exclusively minutes before their final deadlines, perhaps? maybe THAT's why I was asked about not gap yearing?? is my response still valid?), so I worry a bit more than I would for another school. Glad SDN exists. Thoughts welcome.
