what to do in a year if you decide to delay applying for a year?

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Let's say you decided to take a year off before applying. What would you do in the year (to enhance your application package) that you decided to take off? Let's say GPA is not an issue and studying for GRE will not be a problem, but you lack other things such as research experience, publications, etc. I also think it would be better to apply when the application period opens up (usually in October) than when they're about to close (usually in December). So that would leave me about 10 months, not a full year. I was thinking of really spending a good amount of time on a writing sample and trying to see if professors at my current university would have any research I could assist them on. Any other ideas?

[dendy]

Get a job doing research. Save money, get an awesome letter of rec.

I wouldn't really worry about getting them in right when the application opens unless you are an international student or something, grad schools (different for med schools) realize plenty of smart people are lazy procrastinators so it won't make a difference either way in your admittance. Though it would be nice to get them out of the way I guess.

[TeaGirl]

I agree. Either get a job doing research, or if you can't, then do the research for free and get a regular job meanwhile to save some money. I would start right away, because if you have 10months of research, it's more impressive as an experience and you've got more time to get an actual result out of it, like a conference publication or an article.