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When to Apply? Gap Year?


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Hello PA forum, 

 

 I still have about a year and a half before I finish my undergrad if all goes well, and I'm not sure when I should start applying to PA school. Ideally, I would like to have a gap year before PA school for work and travel. Would this decision be looked down upon? When would I apply if I wanted to start the fall after college as opposed to a year later?

 

Thank you, any response is much appreciated,

 

Steph

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Not looked down upon at all. I took like 2 years off to work and enjoy life for a bit. My buddy started right at undergraduate and she is finishing now. She told me that she wished she had taken time off before. It's up to you but I'm glad I took time off. Best of luck.

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I'm in a gap-year(s) right now.  Took time away form academics for a few reasons, one of the biggest being I took a job in a large hospital system so I could expose myself to more than fairly narrow HCE showed me.  At pre-health conferences I've been to, admissions panels repeat the same thing about a gap year - sure, do it but try to be constructive and show that you are continuing to work toward medicine.  Except UC Davis...that rep basically said if you take a gap year, you're not good enough for us.

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I got accepted into NYIT but declined because it wasn't that great of a fit for me (a variety of factors) and I kind of wanted to take a gap year to live my life with my college friends who just graduated or are doing 5 year plan. So far it's been great. I work at the hospital and I get to go out almost every night. If I had decided to attend NYIT I would be stressing about finding a place to live, how I'm going to move from Nevada to NY, finding a car to rent in NY, making sure I have proper apparel for NY, etc, etc. 

 

My point is, unless you got accepted into your dream program there's no rush. My only "stress" now is studying for the GRE so I can reapply to several west coast programs lol. Hopefully I get into a SoCal school :D

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I'm in a gap-year(s) right now.  Took time away form academics for a few reasons, one of the biggest being I took a job in a large hospital system so I could expose myself to more than fairly narrow HCE showed me.  At pre-health conferences I've been to, admissions panels repeat the same thing about a gap year - sure, do it but try to be constructive and show that you are continuing to work toward medicine.  Except UC Davis...that rep basically said if you take a gap year, you're not good enough for us.

Thank you for your reply :)

 

That's kind of strange for UC Davis to say, but to each their own. Thank you for the advice! When are you going to apply? Or have you already and are just waiting it out?

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I got accepted into NYIT but declined because it wasn't that great of a fit for me (a variety of factors) and I kind of wanted to take a gap year to live my life with my college friends who just graduated or are doing 5 year plan. So far it's been great. I work at the hospital and I get to go out almost every night. If I had decided to attend NYIT I would be stressing about finding a place to live, how I'm going to move from Nevada to NY, finding a car to rent in NY, making sure I have proper apparel for NY, etc, etc. 

 

My point is, unless you got accepted into your dream program there's no rush. My only "stress" now is studying for the GRE so I can reapply to several west coast programs lol. Hopefully I get into a SoCal school :D

That makes sense, no need to stay somewhere you're not going to be comfortable in. It sounds like you're making the most of your gap year :) I'm also trying to stick to SoCal, just because I already live in the area. Though I do have a school in mind that's in Vegas... 

Perhaps we'll meet some day and wouldn't even know it :)

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Not looked down upon at all. I took like 2 years off to work and enjoy life for a bit. My buddy started right at undergraduate and she is finishing now. She told me that she wished she had taken time off before. It's up to you but I'm glad I took time off. Best of luck.

Thank you for your reply! It's interesting getting both your and your friend's perspective on the matter, very much appreciated :)

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The above advice is good. As long as you can articulate a decent reason for taking the time and you use the time constructively I do not see why a school would hold it against you. Students who have been out in the "real world" often learn to approach challenges in a constructive fashion.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The above advice is good. As long as you can articulate a decent reason for taking the time and you use the time constructively I do not see why a school would hold it against you. Students who have been out in the "real world" often learn to approach challenges in a constructive fashion.

 

I'm glad you agree with the other posts, thank you for contributing :)

 

If you're not gaining HCE experience now, then I think most people would recommend taking a year off and gaining HCE. HCE is very important, it lays the foundation for patient care once you enter into PA school. 

 

So far I've only been doing clerical work at the hospital, but I'm getting my EMT license. Though apparently lots of student go for being certified as an EMT, I wasn't aware of that, and it's kind of sad that some people just do it for the HCE and not because they really want to. It's been a dream of mine to be an EMT, so I'll hopefully do that during my year off. I think it'd be so amazing, even if it's just transportation. Though, now that I think about it, does working for an inter-facility company count as HCE?

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That makes sense, no need to stay somewhere you're not going to be comfortable in. It sounds like you're making the most of your gap year :) I'm also trying to stick to SoCal, just because I already live in the area. Though I do have a school in mind that's in Vegas... 

Perhaps we'll meet some day and wouldn't even know it :)

 

I'm actually from Las Vegas. I'll be applying to their program (there's actually only one pa program in nevada) as well but dam it is hot out there. I am not ready to go back to the heat T_T 

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I'm actually from Las Vegas. I'll be applying to their program (there's actually only one pa program in nevada) as well but dam it is hot out there. I am not ready to go back to the heat T_T 

Haha, yes, the heat, that's the only thing keeping me from considering Vegas more seriously. I used to go there frequently when my parents had business meetings over there, but, it's really hard to get used to that kind of weather. Still, I think schools in SoCal are just more competitive...

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Haha, yes, the heat, that's the only thing keeping me from considering Vegas more seriously. I used to go there frequently when my parents had business meetings over there, but, it's really hard to get used to that kind of weather. Still, I think schools in SoCal are just more competitive...

 SoCal schools are definitely more competitive. I really rather not go back to vegas lol just hoping to get in somewhere else. 

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