<p>I know this varies by school, but what are the general holidays and breaks that students receive in medical school? The only thing I've heard is that you get the summer after your first year off and then there are no summer breaks after that? Is this true?</p>
<p>I just wanted to have an idea of what types of breaks you get (winter, spring?) while in medical school. Thanks!</p>
<p>At my school 1st and 2nd years get thanksgiving (weds-thurs-fri), winter (2 weeks), and spring breaks (1 week). You also get off for national holidays like MLK and presidents. Summer after 1st year is a 3 month break but if you aren’t doing research or some medical trip or something like that you’re going to look bad. The length of your summer vacation after 2nd year usually depends on how long you decide to study for step 1. At my school, classes end 6 weeks before 3rd year begins so if you study for only 3 weeks, you get a 3 week summer break, if you study for 5 weeks, you get a 1 week summer break. The longest break anyone I know took was 3 weeks, the shortest was 2 days (took step 1 on a Friday, 3rd year started on a Monday).</p>
<p>3rd year here you get a winter break (2 weeks) and 1 week in the spring with no clerkships but that’s when the school covers all the residency application stuff so you can’t travel or anything but at least it’s way less work than being on the wards. There is no summer break between 3rd and 4th year. You usually take 1 or 2 months off in the fall of 4th year to interview for residencies and then our 4th years graduate in early May and pretty much all residencies start July 1st.</p>
<p>At D1’s school, holidays vary by class year. </p>
<p>MS1 has a 1 week fall break, 2 days at Thanksgiving (Thursday-Friday), and 2.5 weeks for winter break (Xmas- thru the week after New Years) and 1 week spring break. Summer after MS1 has a required 6 week rural clinical rotation with 6 weeks off before/after the rotation. </p>
<p>MS2 is a compressed year. 3 days off for fall break, 2 days at Thanksgiving, 1 week for Xmas (classes resume on Jan 1). All classroom work is done by mid January. Students are required to take STEP 1 before March 2 so they have the latter half of January and all of February off to study. March is research for mandatory thesis, but no classes are scheduled. Clinical rotations start April 1. No summer break. </p>
<p>MS3 – fall break (1 week) and 2 weeks Xmas break. No spring break. No summer break.</p>
<p>MS4-- you schedule your clerkships home and away at your discretion so long as you have meet a minimum number of rotations. (8 4-week rotations required with at least 4 at home.) Graduation in May.</p>
<p>M1 and M2: Start in Aug. 1 week off in Oct. Wed-Fri off for Thanksgiving (but most second years move stuff around to have the whole week off). Mid-Dec to early Jan for Christmas. 2 one-week spring breaks. Year ends mid-May. Plus federal holidays (Labor day, MLK…).</p>
<p>M3 starts mid-June, and while we don’t have official time off to study for boards, our last block is pretty light so apparently studying for boards can happen then. M3 breaks vary by clerkship and director.</p>
<p>M4 is the same as WOWMom’s kid’s.</p>
<p>Your school really doesnt give you dedicated board study time?</p>
<p>Nope. But our avg score is considerably above the national mean, so it doesn’t seem to be a problem.</p>