Year off between 3rd & 4th years?

[bbpiano1]

Second year here interested in EM. I want to take a year off to teach English abroad, but am not sure when would be the best time.

Originally, I was planning to take a LOA between my 3rd and 4th years, but my adviser thinks this will screw up my residency application. He suggest I go between 2nd and 3rd years, but I'm worried that I'll forget everything by the time I return to the wards.

Any thoughts, especially from 4th years currently applying?

bb

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[EM_Rebuilder]

Taking a year off is 'not normal' and a year off between 2nd and 3rd years is as close to 'normal' as it gets.

I would not worry about forgetting everything. Just take Step I right after 2nd year, go do your thing for a year, and come back. You have a whole new set of skill to learn 3rd year and that year probably would have little impact....if you wait to take Step 1, that could be a different story.

 

[JBlue]

I was planning on taking a year off between 3rd and 4th yr. and working with an international health group. I think it depends on what you will be doing your year off and whether or not you think having clinical experience will be important to you. I wanted to finish third year before I went because I wanted to be able to work in a hospital or clinic and know what was going on. If you are going to be completely out of the medical setting then it probably doesn't matter when you go. Good luck!

 

[AmoryBlaine]

a) Being completely up to date on your M1/M2 curriculum is not that big of an advantage on your clinical rotations. Hospital/clinic medicine is an "on the job training" sort of deal. As long as you don't forget what GFR, potassium, and hypertension are you will be fine.

b) I would not advise taking time off to do anything that is not serious research or clinical work. Teaching English sounds like a gold star on a med school application, less so for residency. The risk you run IMHO is the perception that rather than wanting to have an exciting new experience you needed a break from med school.

 

[FoughtFyr]

Second year here interested in EM. I want to take a year off to teach English abroad, but am not sure when would be the best time.

Originally, I was planning to take a LOA between my 3rd and 4th years, but my adviser thinks this will screw up my residency application. He suggest I go between 2nd and 3rd years, but I'm worried that I'll forget everything by the time I return to the wards.

Any thoughts, especially from 4th years currently applying?

bb

Truthfully, this sort of thing wouldn't look as good on an application as you might think. You need to show your dedication to becoming a physician. Taking a break, for something that does not advance your medical education, before you even finish medical school, will probably not play well on your residency application.

Why the drive to do it?

- H

 

[missmod]

If you take a year off between third and fourth years, you might be able to pick up enough to do something clinical abroad. So... instead of teaching English, maybe you could be teaching English to doctors in Guatemala so that they can access more medical information. I would agree with the above posters and say that it may look questionable on your residency application if you whisk off for a year doing something completely unrelated to medicine. Now that you are older, smarter, wiser, and better trained, why not use that to your advantage while looking for something fun to do for a year?

 

[seldomseen]

Agree that it's probably best not to take a year off unless it's medically related.

If you still do this, it's probably best to do so between 2nd and 3rd year, but definately take step 1 before the break.

I took 2 years off between 2nd and 3rd year for Ph.D. work, and while the first rotation or two as a 3rd year were a little rough, I think i got back into the swing of things by month 3. It certainly made things harder than it would have been otherwise, and I'd counsel you to think hard about it.

 

[bbpiano1]

Thanks for all the responses. In retrospect, maybe teaching English is not the best thing to do. Originally, I did think about doing something clinical, but then I thought I wouldn't be prepared. My advisor says that I could do a 'practice' clerkship to gain some experience before taking leave, so I'm definitely going to look into more clinally oriented opportunites now.