Gap year(s)?

[Guest galacticmisfit]

Hi everyone, I have a question for you all.

I'm 22, have two BAs in psychology and political science and I think I want to go to grad school for a masters in school psychology. I don't really have any formal research experience except for conducting interviews with depression patients (but that's all). I have a 3.7 gpa, but no GRE scores, yet. I had a lot of experience with kids and teenagers, am working with delinquent teenagers right now and plan on working with them more.

But, first, I want to take two to three years off to move to Argentina or somewhere in South America to teach English, improve my Spanish and travel around.

Even if I am getting some experience with schools and teenagers, do you think taking three years off for language, travel and teaching is detrimental to my future grad application? Did any of you take a gap year travelling/teaching? What has been your experience or someone you know in regards to later applying to grad school?

[evasive]

hi there

this is wat i think: (rather myu knowledge of a thumb rule)

first, takin an off in between ur studies doesn go against anythin, provided u have gained experience in the stream u want to study further in

second, ur GRE scores and GPA do make th difference

third, its ur interest in the stream u choose to study and how u present urself thru ur SOP and such stuff to the admissions committee that'l make th difference

Hope this helps:)

good luck to u!

[Guest Guest]

Often, a gap year reflects positively on an application. It assures the admissions committee that you have taken time off from school and are certain that you wish to continue. A fear of some committees is that students applying directly from undergrad will burn out early in the program and/or are simply applying in order to stay in school (not out of a real desire to study a subject further).

[Guest theoriginal]

Just wanted to contribute my two cents...

I'm sure you know all about your field. I am a special educator. I wondered if you really were interested in school psychology or some other kind of theoretical/clinical field. If you go into school psychology you will mostly be testing students for disabilities, placing them, and designing intervention plans for teachers, etc. It's not like a counseling situation where you are providing therapy. It's ALOT of paperwork and less direct interaction with students...it is more interaction with teachers, etc.

But again, assuming you already know that. ;-)

You won't have to worry about taking time off to travel. Good luck!

[Guest shellyb]

i will agree with theoriginal. if a school has a school social worker, he/she would be the one doing the counseling while a school psychologist/counselor would be doing testing or academic advising. good luck! i have a friend who really wants to be a school counselor for the academic advising side of it.

[Guest galacticmisfit]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your replies. It made me feel much better about taking a couple years off to travel and teach. As for the school psychology vs counseling matter, I knew that but I'm still up in the air about what area I want to focus on. Thanks for the input!

[History_Nerd]

A friend of mine applied for a History program their senior year and was rejected. He was told it was because the program typically only accepts students who are two years removed from their BA because they typically finish faster than students directly out of undergrad. Just an anecdote, but some schools might be happy that you take one or two years before starting your grad school applications.

[duckrabbit]

Often, a gap year reflects positively on an application. It assures the admissions committee that you have taken time off from school and are certain that you wish to continue. A fear of some committees is that students applying directly from undergrad will burn out early in the program and/or are simply applying in order to stay in school (not out of a real desire to study a subject further).

I've heard this too. I took a gap year and fared well in the admissions process. As long as your SOP, essays, LORs, and "stats" (along with field experience) reflect your seriousness, the gap year will probably help rather than hurt you. Your GPA is good, and it sounds like you have a lot of experience, so I'd say don't worry about it, and enjoy your time off!

[jennesy]

From what I know taking a year or so off is good, and lots of programs look favorably upon it, if you've done something to improve yourself during the time off. So sitting around watching tv and working at Starbucks won't look good on your application, but traveling, learning a new language, and teaching are all great boosts to your app.

I graduated in May and was lucky to get a job TA'ing Experimental Psych at UW-Madison (my undergrad institution). It's been a great experience (e.g., I've learned I hate grading papers and that the APA manual is the devil... :wink: ) and I feel as if I've gained a lot of experience that will make me a stronger applicant. It also gave me time to think and decide if I really wanted to go to grad school rather than just going because that's the next logical step.

Anyway...go to Argentina!

[Guest Guest]

Just to add to this, I took about 6 "gap years" working in real jobs that utilized my master's degree before my recent apps back to PhD programs. I just went to one of my accepted student's weekends where the program chair told me that they didn't even look at my LOR from my current (2 years) employer and that I wouldn't have gotten into the program at all without some intervention because I had 2 LOR's from my employers of these intervening years and only 1 from an academic reference. The academic reference was 6 years old! But I guess that counts more than anything I have done in the intervening years because the real world doesn't count. What crap. Moral: no matter how long your gap years, keep in touch with your professors and do academic references only.

[Guest already_starting]

So, I'm thinking of a gap year in China teaching English. But my field is applied physics. Would a gap year hurt me in this case? I would be learning Mandarin, which is cool, but not doing anything science-y. (My GRE physics scores are crap, though, so I was looking forward to a second shot.)