Taking a year off before med school - to do very little
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Anonymous
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How common is it? Is it the mark of a weaker application?
DS is a rising college senior, came home for the summer, and is basically chilling (will do some lab work and EMT work this summer but hasn't started yet). DH and I were under the impression that he'd be applying to med school this spring/summer, in order to hopefully have acceptances in hand by year end 2023, so DH was wondering why he isn't using his downtime to do that. DS lets us know - nope, he'll be applying at this time NEXT YEAR and thus will end up taking a year off between college and med school. We have no problem with that but when asked why/what he plans to do in that year, he just shrugged and was like IDK - more shadowing, part time lab work at school and/or part time EMT. I'm not understanding the point of submitting your application in say July and then continuing to shadow or do lab work for the rest of the year. Sure he can make a few $ an hour in some professor's lab, but unless I'm mistaken how is it helping an already submitted med school app? FWIW I have no issue with a kid taking time off before med school to actually DO SOMETHING; I started my career in finance and had a few friends who were like eh I know I'm going to med school but I just want to try out i banking or consulting for 2 yrs so they did; I know others who delayed because of Fulbrights; heck I'd even understand delaying to travel for a yr. To me that's different than working a few part time jobs 20 hrs/wk (it's not like these jobs will make him so much money either so it isn't about defraying a lot of med school cost). DH's only opinion on this is fine when you graduate, you can come back here and live for free but you need to be doing things at least 30 hrs/wk OR if you choose to stay at school to shadow/lab/EMT, fine but you are paying for your own apt and food so whatever jobs you cobble together better pay for your luxury apartment or you need to plan on moving someplace cheaper. Having already paid 4 yrs of room and board (and we'll cover it for med school too), we just aren't looking to pay $2400/mo for a whole year of doing nothing. He goes to UNC and we live about 20 miles away, so it's not like he couldn't live at home and drive to whatever he's doing at UNC. How common is this? Would you just let it lie given that he's a grown man now? |
Anonymous
A grown man pays his own rent if he’s living away from home. |
Anonymous
| Med school applications have skyrocketed. A year of shadowing and EMT work doesn't look great. Sad but true. I could recommend a year of research with a single lab. |
Anonymous
| Med school and residency is a slog. I’d be happy both for him to start not but t out and to have more clinical experience before he goes ahead snd starts down this grueling snd expensive path. |
Anonymous
But per OP's post, if he were to apply in June/July, wouldn't he just be starting his year of research work? Sure he could tell med schools that's what he'll be doing, but it's not like there will be any final research or papers at that point. I guess with rolling admissions he could apply later in the cycle to show what research he's done, but IDK with med school applications skyrocketing that would make me more nervous as classes tend to get full and then the remaining spots are even more competitive than they would've been had you applied day 1. |
Anonymous
| He can do whatever he wants and you don't have to subsidize it (and in fact, shouldn't). I'd think that working in a lab and being an EMT would not be seen as "nothing" so as long as his MCAT scores and GPA are good I don't think it will put him in any worse position than he'd be applying this year. |
Anonymous
I got the same impression from this post - is it possible that OP's DS is just trying to slow this road down because he knows once it starts, there's no way to take a year off? I mean once he starts med school, it's 4 yrs of that, then rolling right into internship and residency and even the shortest possible internship/residency will be 3-4 years total. He may be looking at the slog of 7-8 years and thinking this is his last chance to chill. Or maybe he's reconsidering and doesn't want to say yet; it's quite possible that in 12 months he decides not to apply at all because when he's back on campus as a senior, he goes through on campus recruiting and picks up a business type of job (not necessarily McKinsey but any 40 hr/wk job that college grads take). |
Anonymous
Has he taken the MCAT? What is his score? Lots of words in your post… |
Anonymous
PP here— Also all of your dates same a few months off it doesn’t seem like you know the actual medical application cycle. |
Anonymous
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1) what are his chances of getting into med school in the first place. Maybe your kid is worried and delaying it.
2) overworking him prior to med school is not smart. At least take the summer off before starting, after getting accepted. It will be long hours for many years. 3) research is a very good use of time, if that interests him and he can do well. It could help for immediate applications or down the road. |
Anonymous
| Nothing wrong with taking a gap year or two gap years as long as your kid uses it to strengthen his app. My kid took two gap years to gain more research/clinical experience and now in T20 med school. It is incredibly difficult even for high achieving students - near perfect GPA, 95% MCAT, hundreds of hours of clinical/research experience. Good luck to your kiddo. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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OP's dates are technically right, but OP this isn't like undergrad - not that many pre meds apply on the FIRST day that applications open. Maybe they should, but they don't.
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Anonymous
| My DS is taking a gap year to travel before med school. He scored 525 on the MCAT and got accepted to several medical schools. He wants to take a year off before heading into the meat grinder (aka medical school) |
Anonymous
Thanks but your son's case is not relevant. |