<p>Hey,</p>
<p>Does it hurt your chances for acceptance if you take a year off after graduating before entering med school? I've only recently decided to apply to med school and I still have 4 or 5 premed classes left. I really won't have the requirements fulfilled by the beginning of my senior year so I'll probably apply in the fall after I graduate. Any one have any ideas, insights, suggestions?</p>
<p>Yea.. I'd like to know about this also. This might happen to me.</p>
<p>In my opinion, why should it? I think most people say to apply right after your jr year MCAT is because admissions are roll-in, and they don't want to spend another year in school.</p>
<p>I think it should be no problem, but I'll probably end up getting served by Sakky or bigndude.</p>
<p>I think a year off would not hurt much at all, especially if you did something socially worthwhile in that year.</p>
<p>Med schools tend to like people who take time off from school. The more years off the more they like you. A family friend went to med school in his 30s after being out from college for about 6 years. His grades weren't all that great, but his life experience helped him big time. But you do have to do something worthwhile during this time off, and it is better if it is medically related.</p>
<p>I know that this question has been asked before, and I looked through this forum but I couldn't find it, anyway, my question is how does it work when you take like two years off after undergraduate school? I have to retake the MCAT don't I? I think that I read somewhere that the med schools want the MCAT to be taken the year before the enrollment. I was thinking that I would want to join the Peace Corps and when I come back then I would apply for med school. I want to do this so badly because I think that this would be an amazing experience, but I also wanted to know if this would help with med school applications. I am probably going to do this anyway and the benefit to my med school application really doesn't mean anything to me. Has anyone done this or known anyone that has done this? Is it a lot harder to study for the MCAT after being out of these classes for over three years. Well, obviously it is going to be harder, but would it be that much harder? Everyone that plans on taking the MCAT has to study for it anyway, would it be that much different? (I just realized I asked the same question three times and just rephrased it each time.)</p>
<p>Also, How does clinical experience time work out for this also? Do I still have to do all the hours over again? Or will the time I did in my undergrad career fulfill the requirement?</p>
<p>Med schools will generally accept MCAT scores that are three years old, but usually not older.</p>
<p>Last week, I started playing with the idea of joining Teach for America after graduation. They really need science teachers, and I think that I'd love to transfer some of this biology knowledge that I've gained to younger kids (hopefully instilling them with an interest in science in the process!).</p>
<p>What do you all think about applying for medical school in this situation? Should I wait until after TFA, or should I apply before senior year and defer? I know that there is a big list of schools that accept TFA deferrals for 2 years, which was comforting.</p>
<p>thank you so much thesmartazz for mentioning Teach for America. I have never heard about it before, but now that you mentioned it, i did some research and it sounds wonderful. I have always wanted to do the Peace Corps but now I think that I want to do Teach for America more. I feel like I would have a greater impact. Plus I really like that two year deferral thing, It makes me feel a lot more comfortable about doing something like this and applying to medical school.</p>
<p>I've never seen the list for med schools that let you defer because of that. Most med schools do not like deferals at all because you aren't using your spot and keeping others out.
As far as the teaching, my physics teacher from this past year is taking the MCAT for a second time in August (after taking it 5 years ago and getting a 32). He taught for a few years and now if moving on to med school, and med schools realllllly like that life experience.</p>
<p>On the Teach for America website it gives you a list of all the schools that allow you to defer if you join the Teach for America Two-year program.</p>
<p>For lazy people (:D), here's the list of medical/PH schools that accept TFA deferrals. Tulane also offers course credit and waives the application fee for TFA alumni.</p>
<ul>
<li>Albert Einstein School of Medicine - NEW!</li>
<li>Baylor College of Medicine</li>
<li>Boston University School of Medicine - NEW!</li>
<li>Cornell University - Weill Medical College</li>
<li>Dartmouth Medical School</li>
<li>Emory University - The Rollins School of Public Health</li>
<li>The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins University - Bloomberg School of Public Health</li>
<li>Louisiana State University School of Medicine</li>
<li>New York University School of Medicine</li>
<li>Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine</li>
<li>Temple University School of Medicine - NEW!</li>
<li>Tufts University School of Medicine</li>
<li>Tulane University School of Medicine</li>
<li>Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine</li>
<li>University of Cincinnati College of Medicine - NEW!</li>
<li>University of Florida College of Medicine - NEW!</li>
<li>University of Michigan Medical School</li>
<li>University of Miami Miller School of Medicine - NEW!</li>
<li>University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine</li>
<li>University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine</li>
<li>University of Rochester School of Medicine - NEW!</li>
<li>University of Southern California - Keck School of Medicine</li>
<li>University of Southern California - Master of Public Health Program</li>
<li>University of Virginia School of Medicine</li>
<li>University of Washington School of Medicine</li>
<li>Vanderbilt University School of Medicine</li>
<li>Wake Forest University School of Medicine</li>
<li>Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis</li>
<li>Yale University School of Medicine</li>
</ul>