Gap year or years before grad/professional school

[Anonymous]

From your own life experience, would you advice your undergrad to finish education without breaks or to take gap year or work few years before heading to grad/professional school? (assuming money and acceptance are non issues)

[Anonymous]

Yes, do some work. Otherwise, you've got a masters, or PhD, and no experience

[Anonymous]

Well, if you are doing internships then you do have experience and you can get more experience while earning once you start work so how is it any different?

[Anonymous]

It depends on the kid. Not everyone is the same.

[Anonymous]

Depend on the person and the job. But in general, I think it’s really helpful to have some work experience in the environment or field that they are interested in. It helps decide if career goals are what you really want before heading down a track that might not be right.

[Anonymous]

It's called getting a relevant job

[Anonymous]

Depends on the grad/pro school. If your kid wants to go to law school but doesn’t know why, I’d definitely recommend working first.

[Anonymous]

There are so many variable involved in this decision. FWIW, DH and I met in law school. He had taken three years off and done some really interesting work, though not related to law at all. I had taken one year off to work at a law firm and was bored to tears. Our two oldest kids have gone straight through to, respectively, med school and law school. Good decision for both of them as they were sure about what they wanted to do. Our youngest will be taking at least two years off and I think that's best for her as she's torn between two different health care paths.

[Anonymous]

Yes to gap year or taking a few years after undergrad to work.

Several of my friends went straight to grad school from college and were just miserable toward the end. They realized that they picked the wrong field, had sunk too much money, and were burnt out.

I took a few years off, worked 3 different jobs because I was lost and didn't know the exact direction I wanted to go in. I needed that time to figure things out. Once I did, I got into grad school and have been on the career path that suits me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the grad/pro school. If your kid wants to go to law school but doesn’t know why, I’d definitely recommend working first.

+1
If you are 100 percent sure about what you want to do and know that a graduate or professional degree is necessary, then go for it. But anecdotally, the law students who had even a year or two of work experience before law school were more focused and happy being lawyers than those who came straight through. In contrast, people going into PhD programs don't seem to take a break after undergrad as often.

[Anonymous]

Is there any advantage in going straight from undergrad to grad then to work, if you feel sure about your career field, have resources to pay and can get admitted to school of your choice.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I would absolutely recommend a gap year(s), at least for law school. Make sure that you know what you want to do, get some relevant experience.

[Anonymous]

For law school definitely. You could never get those years back. And the years between college in law school, you can go off and do something totally crazy, and then get into a good law school, and then get a good job. Assuming you get good grades. Once you go to law school, you really need to buckle down and be on a very straight path and you can’t do something crazy like go work abroad or work in theater or even just work at Starbucks. I feel so bad for the people in the early 20s who were in law school rather than just having fun as a 23 year old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For law school definitely. You could never get those years back. And the years between college in law school, you can go off and do something totally crazy, and then get into a good law school, and then get a good job. Assuming you get good grades. Once you go to law school, you really need to buckle down and be on a very straight path and you can’t do something crazy like go work abroad or work in theater or even just work at Starbucks. I feel so bad for the people in the early 20s who were in law school rather than just having fun as a 23 year old.

To clarify, I meant to say definitely take time off

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I would absolutely recommend a gap year(s), at least for law school. Make sure that you know what you want to do, get some relevant experience.

Or take a fun job. I taught English in another country in a position that payed pretty well. I traveled every weekend and literally had the time of my life. I was fresh and ready to hit law school hard when I returned.