<p>So I know that taking time off after undergrad is viewed very very positively by med schools but my parents are strongly against it. So I wanted to be well informed before I started bringing the idea up with them. I'm graduating early so I have actually have to start thinking about this stuff (urgh).</p>
<p>Pros:
Time to pay off debts!!!!
Real world experience doing something I really like (hopefully research)
Medschools will view me better (a shot at Mayo?!)</p>
<p>Cons
Will I get out of the habit of studying and not be able to keep up?
Some medschools might think that I was unsure or something</p>
<p>If you guys can think of any other pros/cons or anything else for me to consider I would really appreciate it. I would like to do Teach for America but as that is insanely hard to get accepted into, I might just continuing doing research at a lab. Perhaps the lab I'm at now will keep me.</p>
<p>The MCAT is usually good for about 3 years, I believe.</p>
<p>My DD needed to take a year off after undergrad as she had requirements to complete and needed her senior year to get to know profs at her large state school etc. She also was simply not ready after junior year and took an August MCAT so waited until senior summer to apply early. </p>
<p>My take on her year off is that it was great to do a year of full time research, great to have time to work with no school just to mentally recharge, yet having moved to a new town and met many new friends who are not as educationally motivated as she is, she quickly began to look forward to going back to school. It was a wonderful experience.</p>
<p>It was also much easier for her to take time off of work to travel for interviews last fall than it was for Curm’s DD to miss senior classes. I believe mudgette actually had to drop a class and rearrange her schedule due to interview conflicts.</p>
<p>DD did not end up with a ton of savings, it takes money to live on your own in a new city, but she saved enough to be debt free and pay for her month in Europe, that was worth it.</p>
<p>So with the MCAT if I take it in Aug 2010 its valid till Aug 2013? Does that mean I can use it for the fall 2013 application cycle or do I have to do fall 2012?</p>
<p>You need to look at the MSAR for each school individually. For instance, I have the edition for the 08/09 cycle, and most schools would consider either 2004 (eg. HMS, JHU) or 2005 (eg. Dartmouth, UMichigan) as the oldest MCAT, but there are some schools that would accept 2003 (eg. Tulane, UNewMexico) and even 2002 (eg. UIowa, UMissouri).</p>
<p>The biggest problem is a job. Do you have one? If yes, sure, why not. If, no, good luck looking. We are not so lucky in our area, many people including lots of proffessionals with degrees / experiences / references etc…just stopped looking, very discouraging and it is not going to get better any time soon. One more reason to consider medicine (anything related), the only one that seems to have job security.</p>
<p>We started to have the idea of suggesting DS to have a gap year quite early on: when he was a sophomore. On the surface, the reason is we want him to have a better college experience. </p>
<p>If we dig the reason a little bit deeper, it is an issue of “fit.” We believe he is really not a kid showing any sign of being very ambitious or “high-moto.” (“high-moto” is a term BDM once used to describe a kid who is likely to be a quite successful premed – maybe curm’s D is like this?) Therefore, we think it is better for him to be on the slower track of premed. He will definitely do the necessary work, but we need to give him time. Actually, the unwritten “contract” we have with him is that he needs to finish almost all premed classes within 4 years, in any major. The reason is that, if he turns out to choose this career path in the end, we really can not afford to send him to a post-bac program. (In his senior year, he accused us of being too chicken because we slowed him down too much in the first half or even 2/3 of his college career so that too much work was accumulated in senior year. Well, which parents have not been accused by their child?!)</p>
<p>Will this reason fly if you tell your parents this? That is, you just tell them that you are not a high-moto kid and therefore you prefer to be on a slower track.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP - getting a job will be difficult. The lab I’m at now will let me on stay on for a few months and hopefully I can find something else during that time. </p>
<p>I have not talked to my parents yet but I will as soon as I have an MCAT score. My parents are stereotypical south asian and well…</p>
<p>^ As a parent that would be my biggest concern. D. had hard time finding even volunteering position. She is very persistent and finally was successful. However, one of the places told her, they have a waiting list over 100…to volunteer and she has no chance to get in before her summer is over. I would be strongly against gap year because of our specific family situation and location. We are much older parents than most and do not know how long we will be able to support D. and as I mentioned, job/volunteering/anything is a big problem here. We told our D. “NO” before inquiry from her. She said, she would not even have asked, she understands.</p>