Gap Year
What I wish I knew before doing a “gap year” of full-time research
A gap year is taking a year between graduating college and the next step in your career, usually graduate or medical school, to do something to improve your wellbeing or strengthen your resume. Even though gap years are becoming more common, the connotation of a gap year is doing nothing and relaxing for a year before applying to professional school. Some students do relax for a year because they can afford to or they need to take care of their mental health. However, most students use gap years to work full-time to financially support themselves in professional school and pursue passions they did not have opportunity or time to in college. I think that the phrase “gap year” should be renamed “postbac.” Postbacs can be very valuable in helping students strengthen their resumes in an increasingly competitive world and recover from college burnout. Here are 4 things I wish someone had told me before taking one postbac year to conduct full-time biomedical engineering research.
1) Gap years are really hard.
I did not expect my gap year to be difficult. I had to both work full-time and apply to medical school, which was like juggling 2 full-time jobs at the same time. I also felt left behind because almost all of my friends from college had already moved on to the next stage of their lives. They were working engineering industry or consulting jobs, studying at medical school, or studying in graduate school. I felt stuck. I felt like I was in limbo while everyone else had moved on.
I had to constantly remind myself that I was taking a postbac year to strengthen my resume. I also had to remind myself that I was not falling behind. I am now starting medical school at age 22 and the average age to start medical school in America is 24. Many Vanderbilt pre-med students start medical school immediately after college graduation, but that doesn’t mean I should compare myself to them. Everyone has their own path and there are many roads to Rome.
2) The first year after graduating college is really hard.
Think of it this way. You have the same routine for 4 years. You know Vanderbilt’s campus, you know what you are doing next year, returning to Vanderbilt for the next year of school. You typically know by your sophomore year who your close friends are in college. But as soon as you graduate college, you lose your entire routine and most of your social circles.
From my experience and talking to my classmates from the class of 2020, the first year after college is difficult because you are living in a new place, whether it’s an off-campus apartment or a different city, and you don’t have your friend groups anymore. Everyone is scattered across the world pursuing different things. There’s no more texting the groupchat, “Hey, anyone wanna get food at Rand for lunch?” We all really missed our routine and our friends, but we got through the year and you will too! Change is inevitable as an adult. We have to try our best to adapt and thrive in our new environments. :)
3) It’s up to you to make it a successful year
As opposed to a structured postbac program where you take classes, etc., most research postbacs are much more self-structured. Just like undergraduate research, it is up to you to stay on task, meet your goals, and make progress in your project. You will not be able to just go through the motions for a year and end up with 3 publications, knowledge of new skills, and whatever else you hope to gain. You need to make very specific goals for yourself based on what you are hoping to achieve over the year in order for it to be worthwhile. Just like with SyBBURE, you get out what you put in, so you should be prepared with knowledge of what you hope to get out of it and a plan to achieve those goals.
4) It’s a great opportunity to expand your horizons not only professionally, but personally
Even though you aren’t taking a year off, this is still a break from school between undergrad and medical school, and you should treat it as such! Definitely work hard in your job and on your applications, but take time to rejuvenate as well. It’s a great time to figure out a routine for yourself, try things around your city, or pick up a new hobby! You learn a lot about yourself when you transition out of school, and it is helpful to have a year to go through these lessons before making another whole series of changes by starting med school/maybe moving to a new city/etc. Get to know yourself, what you enjoy, and what you want! You often have to work harder to make friends/do social things now that you are out of college, but this can be a good thing. You have to be more thoughtful about the things you do and put time into, which allows you to make sure you are really doing them for yourself, not for some other reason.
