<p>I am planning on taking a year or two off before going to grad school because I a) want to make sure I am truly dedicated to what I'm studying and b) I need to gain some "real world" work experience.</p>
<p>I just have questions about how tough it is to apply after a year or so. I haven't taken the GRE yet, should I do that before I graduate or should I wait until I am ready to start applying to graduate schools? Also, how does taking off time work with letters of recommendation? Do I just use my employers instead of professors?</p>
<p>I took two years off after my undergrad to do exactly what you want to do (gain experience and make sure research is what i really wanted to do). It’s a great idea to see if grad school is something you really want to get into.</p>
<p>As far as I know…GRE scores are good for 5 years after the date you take them…so it shouldn’t really matter when you take them. Honestly, take them before you start working cause you won’t want to study afterwards. Might as well get it done as soon as you can and keep the scores.</p>
<p>For my letters of rec, I used 1 professor from my undergrad, and two from my different work experiences. As long as they can make a strong case for your work ethic, passion, potential, it doesn’t have to all be from your undergrad institution.</p>
<p>I applied to my MA program after 2 years off. I took the GRE the fall that I applied and while it was nice to have more time to study for it than I would have had during school, I wish I’d taken it sooner after taking a math course. I still well, but studying wasn’t a lot of fun. This might also depend on what industry you go into and what the work hours are like!</p>
<p>I had 3 letters, all from undergrad professors. I’ve always heard that you generally only want academic letters, unless your work experience is very closely related to your field of study. This will likely greatly depend on your field though.</p>
<p>My (current) advisor did mention once that it was my work experience (somewhat related to my field) that made me a good candidate for the program. It’s not like applying for undergrad where just taking a year off before applying is a detriment. If anything, you can gain valuable experience that will make you a better candidate/scholar.</p>
<p>Whether your letters of recommendation should come from employers or professors depends on where you are applying. As a general rule, at least 2 of your letters should be from professors - since you are going to an academic program, and admissions wants to know how you will do in class. If you are applying for professionally oriented programs (public affairs, international affairs, business, accounting, engineering, nursing) and your job is related, then getting one recommendation from your employer could be a good idea. But if you are applying to an academic program (like English, art history, math, environmental science, sociology) then you should get 3 recommendations from professors.</p>
<p>But yes, other than that - you can take the GRE whenever you want as long as you apply to school within 5 years, and you can either ask your professors to write your letters for you now and store them in Interfolio, or (if you are only planning on 1-2 years) just contact them via phone or email when you are ready and ask them if they can write them for you. Just send them along an updated CV and a draft of your personal statement so they can write more effectively.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the advice! I think I need to wait on the letters of rec because I switched from bio to psychology and have taken half of my psych courses online. I haven’t really been able to go to office hours with online classes so its difficult to meet with my professors. I think once I go back for the pre reqs to get into my biology program, I will just ask my professors from those courses.</p>
<p>My profs suggested taking the GREs before graduating, or soon after, as long as you plan to apply to graduate school within the 5 years that the scores are valid. One prof also suggested that I talk to my prospective letter writers before graduating and ask them if they would be willing to write me recommendations well in advance rather than popping up out of nowhere in a year or two and asking them. Although, if you keep in touch with your professors after graduation that shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>The only problem is that if I talk to my professors now, they are psychology professors. I’m not sure I want to go to graduate school for psychology and I think that would be detrimental if I applied for a biology program with recs from my psych professors.</p>
<p>I will be applying to business/marketing programs with recs from psych professors. They will be talking about my research capabilities, and my undergrad work wasn’t so far removed from marketing topics so I don’t think it would be such a problem. Do you have any bio professors you could talk to to have at least 1 rec be from that field? </p>
<p>People often attend graduate school for different programs than their undergrad study was in. If you’re taking time off for bio-related work, then you could probably use a supervisor’s rec as well, but most colleges prefer them to be from academics who know what graduate study will take and whether you are a good candidate for it.</p>