<p>anyone have any thoughts on deferring grad school for 1 or 2 years for something like Teach for America or a mission trip? how do grad schools look at this?</p>
<p>I am seriously considering it as I can't seem to get the funding together... I don't think its a bad thing if it will help you in some way the following year. Don't know about two years, most I've heard is one.</p>
<p>Time off between undergrad and grad is common in MANY fields. In my field, we like to see it. (Although no time off does not detract from one's application.)</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, this time can enhance one's qualifications. One can engage in field-relevant work or studies (language acquisition, travel, etc.), one can take time to reflect on WHY one wants to do graduate work (theory or methodological preferences, specific area of focus, etc.), or one can simply experience the "real world." (I hate that expression - academia is not somehow <em>not</em> the "real world.")</p>
<p>Just make sure your letters of rec are updated to reflect what you accomplished / learned during your time off.</p>
<p>^ People academia are in the real world. However, they are situated in a tower by themselves.</p>
<p>I'll add a question to this thread, since I'm kinda curious;
Can you take a year off WHILE in grad school? I know for PhD you usually have a time limit of 6-8 years to complete the degree, is this part of why there are such deadlines? If you take a year off and had a deal/offer from the University for tuition waiver and a stipend, if you came back would you automatically be offered this back? And finally, how common is this?</p>
<p>^
I think it may vary by professor. We just had a girl come back to our group after working for a year and she apparently has funding and is starting back right where she left off, heading towards her PhD.</p>
<p>I don't know Professor X's field (which I assume to be in the Humanities area), but at least in mathematics, theoretical physics, and some math-oriented branches of engineering, my impression is that time out after college is actually a liability in one's grad school application.</p>
<p>Again, that's only my personal impression, but most professors I came across who did highly theoretical research had a certain degree of contempt for so-called "real-world job experience" and, especially in engineering, seemed to believe the commonly-held clich</p>