<p>Since reading the comments over on the 2009-2010 Med Apps thread, I have been mulling over the idea of a gap year. Looks like there could be many pluses to that idea. I have been trying to think of what the downside might be. Thought I would start a list with the pros and cons I came up with and ask people to add their ideas - </p>
<p>PROS
1. You could more completely "savor" your undergraduate experience without having to superimpose all the tasks applying to medical school adds onto an already full load.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>By taking a gap year you become a "nontraditional" medical school applicant which I have heard some believe is the "new, hot thing" in medical school admissions. It seems many schools have nontraditionals as greater than 50% of their accepted students. i.e. - University of Colorado 72%, OHSU 75%, Pritzker 53%, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>The gap year could be filled with a TON of things you had trouble fitting in during your undergraduate years - job in research or an area of health care, creative volunteering, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Gives you a year to potentially work and earn some money!</p></li>
<li><p>If your GPA could use the boost, by taking a gap year you can factor senior grades into your GPA.</p></li>
<li><p>With the right job/experiences, interviewing would not be the stress filled scenario it is when you have to miss classes, etc. senior year.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>CONS
1. If your major isn't bio or chem, would you get too much time between when you took the premed science classes to ask those professors for a letter of recommendation (would they remember you?)? This brings up the question of how long letters of recommendation are good?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are probably medical schools out there who might not value a gap year and look unfavorably on that applicant.</p></li>
<li><p>You would have to be the motivated kind of student who would fill that year with an appropriate job or experiences and not just lay around on the sofa for a year.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Add your ideas - it will be interesting to see what we come up with!</p>
<p>In my experience, there is no such thing. As long as you have done something good/interesting/useful during your time off, medical schools will not look unfavorably on your gap year.</p>
<p>+1
I don’t think there is any med school that wouldn’t value an extra year (or several) of positive experiences. In my class alone we have lots of people who took time off to do peace corps or teach for america or any number of other things, and several others who are in their 40’s who had long careers already before med school.</p>
<p>It also adds another year to the already long process of getting your degree and training.</p>
<p>Now I year is negligible when compared to people who wait until they’re 30 or 40 to go to med school, but still, the main complain you hear isn’t how hard it is, it’s that you’ll be in school until you’re 30 (or likely even more).</p>
<p>Not a con, either. You don’t have to know much from those courses to do well in medical school. Obviously, if you’ve forgotten that what molecules and atoms are, then…</p>
<p>You would have a year of working and doing apps & interviews, but not be in the study mode, it would be easy to get out of the routine of studying hard and difficult to get into it again in med school.</p>
<p>But then again, maybe one could use the breather and return to the trenches refreshed. </p>
<p>You pretty much covered DDs reasons, plus she did not decide early enough to be a med school applicant to get the MCAT done and still apply early. She has always been a bit un-traditional, does things her way, etc. </p>
<p>DD is working at a university lab and plans to take advantage of the opportunity to take free classes so will pick up an evening course this fall, just for the fun of it- probably some upper div science thing for ‘fun’ maybe some where she can use cadavers!</p>
<p>For me, the only con I see is trying to explain to some relatives why I want to take a year off if I don’t have to Of course, I’m still a senior in college. We’ll see how my perception of it compares to the real thing once next year rolls around.</p>
<p>I agree with somemom that the year off to do something else could be refreshing and a welcome break. My D hasn’t stopped to breathe since she started college. She took a strenous intensive language program one summer and summer school classes the other - along with volunteering, shadowing, clinical experiences, etc. She is now a junior and I could tell she was just fried and really needed more than a week at home before heading back in August, but a week was all she had.</p>
<p>My kid is planning on a gap year, or maybe even two, and the possible con she’s running into is exactly when to take the MCAT. She had planned to take it between jr and sr year when she’d finished most of her coursework, but the problem is how old a MCAT schools will accept. I’m about to go through the MSAR to see how long different med schools will accept a MCAT score.</p>
<p>If anyone has insight on this situation, I’d appreciate comments.</p>
<p>While I think your underlying point is valid, the term “non-traditional” implies a much longer timeframe than 1-2 years. I usually think of 7+ years and somebody who was not a premed in college.</p>
<p>BDM - I think you are correct, the term nontraditional “implies” someone who has been out doing other things for a longer period of time - working, getting advanced degrees, etc.
I was basing my use of the word “nontraditional” for a student who takes one gap year before entering medical school on the definition USNews Graduate Schools on-line gives for their statistics on nontraditional students. It labels those students as “the percent of the the entering class that did not start medical school directly after graduating with an undergraduate degree”.</p>
<p>There are expenses - room/board if staying near college or elsewhere. Perhaps a job will cover those costs. If working for a year or two, will that income affect financial aid or is there no such thing as financial aid for medical school? My DH’s medical insurance will not cover our children if they take a gap year. As my oldest (who just graduated) just found out, individual plans and/or COBRA are very expensive. Many recent graduates are simply doing without insurance - a chance we’re not comfortable with.</p>
<p>I’ve updated the pros/cons list for a gap year - adding new suggestions and removing things others felt did not belong on the list.</p>
<p>PROS
You could more completely “savor” your undergraduate experience without having to superimpose all the tasks applying to medical school adds onto an already full load.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>By taking a gap year you become a “nontraditional” medical school applicant which some believe is the “new, hot thing” in medical school admissions. It seems many schools have nontraditionals as greater than 50% of their accepted students. i.e. - University of Colorado 72%, OHSU 75%, Pritzker 53%, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>The gap year could be filled with a TON of things you had trouble fitting in during your undergraduate years - job in research or an area of health care, creative volunteering, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Gives you a year to potentially work and earn some money!</p></li>
<li><p>If your GPA could use the boost, by taking a gap year you can factor senior grades into your GPA.</p></li>
<li><p>With the right job/experiences, interviewing would not be the stress filled scenario it is when you have to miss classes, etc. senior year.</p></li>
<li><p>Gap year could provide a breather and the student would return to the trenches refreshed. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>CONS
If your major isn’t bio or chem, would you get too much time between when you took the premed science classes to ask those professors for a letter of recommendation (would they remember you?)? This brings up the question of how long letters of recommendation are good?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You would have to be the motivated kind of student who would fill that year with an appropriate job or experiences and not just lay around on the sofa for a year.</p></li>
<li><p>Loss of medical health insurance on parent’s plan during a gap year. Depending on what one would do during the gap year, health insurance could be very expensive or nonexistent.</p></li>
<li><p>Depending on whether or not the gap year experiences were paid experiences, there would be the problem of coming up with living expenses.</p></li>
<li><p>Would any income earned during the gap year(s) affect any financial aid calculations for medical school?</p></li>
<li><p>It would be easy to get out of the routine of studying hard and difficult to get into it again in medical school.</p></li>
</ol>
Of course, I’m still a senior in college. We’ll see how my perception of it compares to the real thing once next year rolls around.</p>