Is this a possibility?

[LLSST3]

I'm a junior earning an undergraduate degree in psychology. I plan on going to graduate school for occupational therapy. However, I would like to take a year between undergraduate and graduate school. The reason is that I would like to volunteer for a year in South America. I would be teaching at an orphanage as well as working in the rehabilitation wing of a hospital. The dilemma I have is that I want to make sure I will have a program to come back to. There would be very limited internet while I was abroad and I would not have a cell phone. I've been trying to do some research and have been coming up short.

 

Are there graduate schools who would accept me and then allow me to defer the acceptance a year? Or would it just be possible to apply a year early? I'm not even sure if this is a possibility, but I want this to work out. I don't want to wait until after graduate school to go abroad because I am afraid I'll never end up going.

 

Thanks in advance!

[TakeruK]

There are some schools that will allow their students to defer matriculation by a year, but sometimes it's hard to find out whether they will allow this until you get accepted. Most of my offer letters mentioned what to do if I was not able to start on the date I applied for -- some schools allow deferring, while others made it clear that I would have to apply all over again.

 

Maybe you would want to research the programs you're most interested and then tell them your situation. If they say that you're allowed to defer admission for a year, then it would be worth applying there. If they say you cannot defer, then wait a year to apply. I would get as much of my application together as possible before leaving -- set up LORs, write all of your SOPs etc. and submit your applications before leaving for the year, if you are leaving after the applications open (usually around July). You can even use this application season as a practice so that you know what to expect next year -- you can usually access all of the application forms etc without having to pay any application fees since you only pay just prior to submission. This will save you time when you have to do this in the future with "very limited internet". You could also train a sibling, parent, friend etc. by going over this year's application forms with them so if you can at least fill out the forms ahead of time, this person can just press "submit" for you.

 

Alternatively, many programs do have paper applications as well, so maybe that would work. 

 

If you are worried about how schools might be biased against you if they knew you plan to defer, you could just send them an inquiry email about deferral protocol from a throw-away email address and don't identify yourself in that short email. Or, if application fees are not an issue, then you could just apply everywhere in your senior year and not mention this year away at all. Then, when you get the results, ask the ones that said yes to you about their deferral policies, and if they will let you, take it, and if not, then reapply next year. You would have to be convincing that you didn't plan to hide this year-away information from them (but I guess it's legitimate for you to say that you hadn't 100% committed to going away at time of application).

 

Anyways, in your shoes, I would definitely apply to programs while in your senior year just in case. I'm not sure if I would reveal my intentions to go away at time of application (it would really also depend on how committed I was to going). But after getting an acceptance, it would be important to let the school know and see what they say. Some schools even have leave of absence policies that would allow a student to do something like this. I think it would really depend on each department/program, especially how they handle the budgets (and there's a risk that you won't actually come back a year later and then they missed out on having a student for 1-2 years!)

[juilletmercredi]

I think you can take some of the advice presented above - but fewer and fewer schools are allowing deferrals these days, as they have more competitive classes.  So plan on adding an extra year after you return from South America and using that year to apply to grad school.

[NoSleepTilBreuckelen]

You might be surprised by the availability of internet where you will be working. I know you said your research was coming up short on this front, but I imagine a quick conversation with someone working at one of the places you'll be would help answer the questiogn pretty quick - perhaps you could call a contact at the hospital and ask. I imagine any hospital big enough to have specialized departments (you mentioned a rehabilitation wing) would have internet or at least would be in a town with internet somewhere (at a hotel, library or university). I've been to a pretty remote part of  Saharan Africa for fieldwork several times and, in the cities, it was not hard to find internet.

 

If you're worried about the time it will take to put the applications together while you are down there, prepare your SoP and CV and contact potential advisors before you leave, so that all you'll need to do while you're out of the country is upload those documents that you've already prepared into the applications. 

Edited November 14, 2013 by NoSleepTilBreuckelen