<p>A wealth of information to say the least. </p>
<p>So, DS will not lose his Texas residency doing his undergraduate studies OOS?</p>
<p>It is very personal decision, which is based on each family circumstances and goals. Not everybody has a choice. We did not give our D. a choice because of our age and our desire to support her thru Med. School. She herself had no plans to have a gap year, so worked both ways in our family. However, it might be very good choice for somebody else. In fact, one of D’s pre-med friends has decided to have a gap year based on his specific goals and family situation, although he has taken MCAT and got a decent score. Make sure that schedule is lighter in senior year if they decided to go without gap year. It is a juggle with interviews and exams and lots of talking to profs, some being more understanding than others. However, D. has planned for that also and is having less classes in her senior year. That is why her first 2 years were pretty heavy. We had had “gap year” talk before her freshman year, so everything had been carefully planned.</p>
<p>Nope. He will not lose his TX residency by having a normal UG experience OOS. Mine didn’t.</p>
<p>Jewels-He won’t lose Texas residency because it is nearly impossible to gain Maryland residency, especially accidentally.</p>
<p>Son is also taking a gap year while applying. However, he is in school again, just at another college (local). The school he graduated from does not allow double majors nor did it offer degrees in which he is completing now. His first undergrad did not offer summer courses either so during the summers he did research and attended our local 4 year university. After he graduated he matriculated within 3 days to our local uni to complete a triple major biochem/genetics/micro which they did not have ANY of these 3 majors at his previous school. Between his many units from previous college/AP/summer units (previous school did not take many APs- 2nd school took 78+ units) his “gap” year is 2 semesters completing more research (easier to grant research position if student is full-time) and 3 more degrees (1 more minor as well).</p>
<p>He had completed all his pre-med pre-reqs while at 1st school so his classes now are all much more specific in the 3 fields.</p>
<p>His advisor at 1st school also suggested the gap year so he could devote all his time on his required senior thesis (now completed also playing a role in med school process). He still took classes his last semster but nothing required. He took his MCAT in Jan of senior year and GMAT earlier. It is also easier for him to travel to interviews with profs permission at second school than at his first. Location was better for the first but his committments (varsity athlete, work/research/other ECs) made it impossible to travel all around the country for interviews.</p>
<p>So for him it has worked out well (so far!) and was what he had hoped to do all along.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>My D took two years off before med school and it has only been a good thing. Her original plan was to take one gap year so that she could go abroad as an undergrad for more than a semester and still be able to finish up her major and the pre-med requirements. As a senior she was accepted to a graduate program in the humanities that compliments where she wants to go with her medical career so she extended her gap time. She has numerous friends who worked in labs, went to grad school or even had other careers before committing to medical school. </p>
<p>Perhaps the one con of not going straight through is that D won’t be done with her medical education until she is in her early 30’s though I don’t believe she thinks it is a problem at all.</p>
<p>I just returned from a parent’s weekend at my daughter’s college and attended a pre-professional talk. It seems that many students are taking a gap year. Almost half of the incoming students to the University of Pennsylvania School of medicine last year took some time off before starting medical school.
I can see many advantages to this if we are talking about a short break. It makes it easier to do a half year to a year abroad, could improve your academic record by inclusion of your senior year work, (especially if you are writing a honor’s thesis), allows you to live on your own or explore the world etc.
Once you start medical school it is difficult to take time off for anything other than medicine until you are older and retired. I can see a nice opportunity to take a break from medicine while you are young and free.</p>
<p>An additional thought occurred to me while I was reading Curmudgeon’s post. State residency can have a significant effect on one’s chances for medical school admission. Taking a gap year (s) to change residency to a state like Texas where the medical schools are less expensive and easier to get into than some states might be a good career strategy.</p>
<p>^^^^^Research such a decision very carefully. Some states make it easy. Some states make it dang near impossible.</p>
<p>^^cur: do y’all still have that unheated tool shed for rent out on the back 40? Ooops, I mean ‘purchase’ (since TX grants residency to ‘homeowners’)?</p>
<p>fwiw: If you google law school and residency, you can find several blogs that discuss grad school attendance and state residency…(don’t think I can link to them since they are blogs).</p>
<p>Best idea (I think)</p>
<p>Apply to medical school while in college. Once accepted, take a year leave. Almost all schools that I know will allow it and support it. </p>
<p>That way you don’t have to worry about losing residency</p>
<p>The reason to do it is that ot is the last year of your life “to have fun”. There is a good reason that the old liberal arts education “required” a year in Europe after college. Those kids I have seen do it usually become better docs</p>