Zero Medical Experience

[childishgambino]

I'm just finishing my junior year at HYP and I've recently decided to do medicine. I had my mind set on a different career path but after multiple internships I've accepted that it's not for me. So now I'm in a tough spot. I have all the pre-reqs complete, so that's not an issue, and neither is my gpa of 3.93. I took the MCAT and scored in the 94th percentile-- very thrilled about that!

The main problem is I have zero volunteering, zero shadowing, and zero involvement in research or anything medicine-related. I have quite a bit of leadership on my resume, but none of it is in anything scientific or medical.

This summer I'm going to my home state, where I've secured a volunteering spot at a Mayo Clinic Hospital and I'll be shadowing an ophthalmologist and an ENT surgeon, both family friends. Pre-Health advising has told me that even with this, I should not expect any top tier acceptances due to the lack of demonstrated interest and medical experience. I've found those guys to be wholly unhelpful, which is probably to be expected applying so late.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I know there's no real "M7" for med schools, like you go anywhere and end up a doctor, but hopefully one of you brilliant people can suggest something I can do to make up for my shortcomings!

Thanks a ton

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[DrHart]

aha! troll thread!

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

gap year would be good to do more stuff

 

[Goro]

Look up "gap year"

 

[Hospitalized]

Take a gap year.

You seem like a smart person, I'm sure you'll figure it out.

/s (kinda not really)

It's as simple as demonstrating an interest in medicine. You have grades and MCAT, now help other people, clinically and non-clinically. Medicine is not just about being smart, it's about wanting to help others.

 

[Lamel]

So you were on a different career path --> didn't like it --> decided to do medicine. You made this decision without any medical experience?

You should take a gap year and make sure you demonstrate your interest, otherwise your story seems like you chose medicine as a back up career.

 

[Catalystik]

So you were on a different career path --> didn't like it --> decided to do medicine. You made this decision without any medical experience?

You should take a gap year and make sure you demonstrate your interest, otherwise your story seems like you chose medicine as a back up career.

. . . and that you're high-probability going to change your mind, once again. Why would med schools risk giving one of their precious seats to someone who has yet to test a career in medicine with appropriate experiences?

 

[gfp314]

I'm not admin of course but I think a great option is to look for premedical study abroad opportunities at your school and affiliated medical school. In less than two weeks you are able to have hands on experiences with patients and interact with less fortunate populations. If you fully commit to the experience then you will be able to have something interesting to talk about in your personal statement and during interviews.

 

[Gibbward]

Don't be mad coz I'm doing me better than you're doing you!

But yes, I agree with everyone. Take a gap year and get more clinical experience. Med school isn't all about grades. You want to prove to the adcom and to yourself that you'd actually enjoy interacting/dealing with sick people and working in that kind of environment.

 

[childishgambino]

Not really keen on taking a gap year. @gfp314 that's a solid suggestion, I might just have to weasel my way into something with patient contact that I can spin into something valuable on the app. thanks man

 

[hmockingbird]

Not to be a downer, but you're finishing your junior year? You need to apply this summer to start the year after you graduate. With no medical ECs, getting in *anywhere* is going to be a very uphill climb. Just doing a two-week service trip is not going to cut it either; you need to demonstrate commitment and long-term interest/that you're not applying on a whim. Your best bet would be to spend the next year boosting your medical ECs, then apply next summer (which would result in a gap year).

 

[gyngyn]

I'm not admin of course but I think a great option is to look for premedical study abroad opportunities at your school and affiliated medical school. In less than two weeks you are able to have hands on experiences with patients and interact with less fortunate populations. If you fully commit to the experience then you will be able to have something interesting to talk about in your personal statement and during interviews.

This will not help OP.
This makes more skin crawl than any other EC.

 

[Axes]

It sounds like you aren't sure if you want to be a doctor, which makes sense, because without clinical experience you don't have the information to make that decision. My guess based on your use of M7 and your school: you wanted to do finance, found out what finance actually is, hated it, and now you don't know what to do. Dude, don't commit 12+ years of your life to what seems like a backup plan that you have not explored at all. Honestly with those numbers and HYP you probably could get in somewhere but I think it would be a mistake to start down this difficult path with your lack of exposure to the field.

You're clearly smart & hardworking, don't make a panicked decision, just explore your options-- you don't HAVE to do medicine.

Also like previous posters have said 2 weeks of poverty tourism or an expensive trip for you to watch a different shade of doctor treat a different shade of patient with no actual involvement on your part is not going to help, don't waste the $$.

 

[gyngyn]

You don't want to be a doctor. My guess based on your use of M7 and your school: you wanted to do finance, found out what finance actually is, hated it, and now you don't know what to do. Dude, don't commit 12+ years of your life to a backup plan that you have not explored at all. Honestly with those numbers and HYP you probably could get in somewhere but I think it would be a mistake to start down this difficult path with your lack of exposure to the field.

You're clearly smart & hardworking, don't make a panicked decision, just explore your options-- you don't HAVE to do finance or medicine.

Also like previous posters have said 2 weeks of poverty tourism or an expensive trip for you to watch a different shade of doctor treat a different shade of patient with no actual involvement on your part is not going to help, don't waste the $$.

I'll admit, I googled M7 and couldn't find anything remotely relevant.
What the heck is it?

 

[Axes]

I'll admit, I googled M7 and couldn't find anything remotely relevant.
What the heck is it?

Fun lil term for the top 7 business schools. Wharton, Harvard, Stanford etc

 

[gyngyn]

Fun lil term for the top 7 business schools. Wharton, Harvard, Stanford etc

Why M?
Why 7?
Never mind (OT)!

 

[Axes]

Why M?

No idea-- I'm guessing M for "MBA?"

 

[northernlights15]

Why M?
Why 7?

It's magnificent 7 or something. Lol

 

[Axes]

It's magnificent 7 or something. Lol

LOL. Christ, those business types.

 

[northernlights15]

LOL. Christ, those business types.

I know, it's cringe worthy.

 

[otterxavier]

Not really keen on taking a gap year.

Why?

 

[qwerpoiuqwer]

I'm just finishing my junior year at HYP and I've recently decided to do medicine. I had my mind set on a different career path but after multiple internships I've accepted that it's not for me. So now I'm in a tough spot. I have all the pre-reqs complete, so that's not an issue, and neither is my gpa of 3.93. I took the MCAT and scored in the 94th percentile-- very thrilled about that!

The main problem is I have zero volunteering, zero shadowing, and zero involvement in research or anything medicine-related. I have quite a bit of leadership on my resume, but none of it is in anything scientific or medical.

This summer I'm going to my home state, where I've secured a volunteering spot at a Mayo Clinic Hospital and I'll be shadowing an ophthalmologist and an ENT surgeon, both family friends. Pre-Health advising has told me that even with this, I should not expect any top tier acceptances due to the lack of demonstrated interest and medical experience. I've found those guys to be wholly unhelpful, which is probably to be expected applying so late.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I know there's no real "M7" for med schools, like you go anywhere and end up a doctor, but hopefully one of you brilliant people can suggest something I can do to make up for my shortcomings!

Thanks a ton

You had your mind set on a different career path until very recently, but seeing as that you cite lack of clinical experience as the only hindrance to your getting accepted into medical school, you must have
all of your premed reqs done. (Year of bio, orgo, phys, biochem, stat, etc.) How have you gone through the trouble of doing so much without thinking of doing some clinical volunteer work, even or especially
if medicine was a backup plan? Just curious.

And seriously. Just take a gap year. I also considered business school and have a major related to it, and know that the business crowd has an abhorrent fear of any time spent on non- vocational matters post graduation. But if you're serious about medicine and like your brand name schools, it will only help you.

Also, I don't think its possible to "weasel into a short term pt contact experience and spin it as something valuable" for the med school adcoms. It just isn't done.

 

[Spinach Dip]

I'm not admin of course but I think a great option is to look for premedical study abroad opportunities at your school and affiliated medical school. In less than two weeks you are able to have hands on experiences with patients and interact with less fortunate populations. If you fully commit to the experience then you will be able to have something interesting to talk about in your personal statement and during interviews.

OH GOD!!!! THIS MINDSET STILL EXISTS?!?

MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP





...whimper....

 

[Spinach Dip]

Why?

Gap years imply slowing down.

Slowing down implies not being perfect.

Not being perfect implies the ability to fail.

The ability to fail means we are not the perfect snowflakes our mommies told us we are.

 

[gfp314]

I'm not sure where the hostility towards study abroad experiences is coming from. Maybe my experiences are out of the ordinary. I am just one student who participated in one program but it was very fulfilling for me. We trained before leaving in how to perform tasks such as taking blood pressure and using a stethescope to listen to lungs. Once in our hospital site we both shadowed and worked with Physicians to polish the skills we practiced and learn to perform other skills like pediatric physical exams and vaccinations. At the end we worked as a team member of a diagnostic team performing many of these skills under physician supervision in a clinic setting. After spending 4+ years volunteering and shadowing in a hospital, being able to provide that level of care to a patient was an amazing experience.

Even taking a year off to volunteer will not put OP at the same level of clinical experience as someone who has Been in a hospital for years. The addition of an experience like this could only help.

 

[Axes]

I'm not sure where the hostility towards study abroad experiences is coming from. Maybe my experiences are out of the ordinary. I am just one student who participated in one program but it was very fulfilling for me. We trained before leaving in how to perform tasks such as taking blood pressure and using a stethescope to listen to lungs. Once in our hospital site we both shadowed and worked with Physicians to polish the skills we practiced and learn to perform other skills like pediatric physical exams and vaccinations. At the end we worked as a team member of a diagnostic team performing many of these skills under physician supervision in a clinic setting. After spending 4+ years volunteering and shadowing in a hospital, being able to provide that level of care to a patient was an amazing experience.

Even taking a year off to volunteer will not put OP at the same level of clinical experience as someone who has Been in a hospital for years. The addition of an experience like this could only help.

I'm sure your experiences were valuable. Those medical trips just reek of poverty tourism and white savior-ism to me. And I think many Admissions Committee Members view them as expensive resume buffs.

edit: I don't mean to cast blanket judgement on these programs. I am very biased. I went to a prep school where each spring and summer people would go to 3rd world countries in order to "help the people." Like, really, those people don't need our help. What are 17 spoilt teenagers going to do that they can't, besides whiten up a photo. Another sort of wider ideological qualm I have with such programs is that they tend to impart a sense of fulfillment, as in you've gone to Guatemala or whatever and done your part, and so now you can live in the USA content with the global economic inequality that drives the world's worst atrocities. I just find the whole concept of rich (by global standards) kids going to poor places with no real skills inherently messed up.

 

[Grace184]

Not really keen on taking a gap year. @gfp314 that's a solid suggestion, I might just have to weasel my way into something with patient contact that I can spin into something valuable on the app. thanks man

Wait.... What?

I don't think anyone is suggesting "weaseling(?)" or faking genuine value of patient care

 

[gfp314]

I'm sure your experiences were valuable. Those medical trips just reek of poverty tourism and white savior-ism to me. And I think many Admissions Committee Members view them as expensive resume buffs.

edit: I don't mean to cast blanket judgement on these programs. I am very biased. I went to a prep school where each spring and summer people would go to 3rd world countries in order to "help the people." Like, really, those people don't need our help. What are 17 spoilt teenagers going to do that they can't, besides whiten up a photo. Another sort of wider ideological qualm I have with such programs is that they tend to impart a sense of fulfillment, as in you've gone to Guatemala or whatever and done your part, and so now you can live in the USA content with the global economic inequality that drives the world's worst atrocities. I just find the whole concept of rich (by global standards) kids going to poor places with no real skills inherently messed up.

I understand where you're coming from now. That program must have been special because it was a piece of a much larger plan for a mutually beneficial partnership between the government/ hospital and the U.S. school. While we sent medical students and premedical students there to learn they also sent medical students and physicians here to learn and work. The new doctors there were able to pad their resumes by being affiliated with an American program (that probably meant more than it should) and a new hospital in an area of need was being built because of the benefits of the partnership. We in exchange also were able to get a more robust and prestigious international health program because of the benefits of the partnership.

If anything we were meant to leave with a sense of the importance of respectful partnerships in global health than a feeling like we, the silly students, made a difference that no one there could make. Though I'm sure some people with big egos could choose to leave the program with even bigger egos!

 

[childishgambino]

Do the admissions guys typically check to verify volunteering claims on an app?

 

[Grace184]

As far as I know they know, they do not...but seeing your app and new found medical volunteerism probably won't add up.
One word: ethics. You submit that everything in your app is true. You want to start your career that you have no experience in based on lies?
@gyngyn you care to expound upon this for our new friend?

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

Do the admissions guys typically check to verify volunteering claims on an app?

Smh dude. Put in your dues like the rest of us. This process will expose you. Even if you make it to the interview stage, what are you going to say when they ask you why medicine? You WILL be asked that question at every single interview, and you better have a damn good answer.

 

[gyngyn]

As far as I know they know, they do not...but seeing your app and new found medical volunteerism probably won't add up.
One word: ethics. You submit that everything in your app is true. You want to start your career that you have no experience in based on lies?
@gyngyn you care to expound upon this for our new friend?

I think you've summarized it quite well.

 

[The Real SVB]

Do the admissions guys typically check to verify volunteering claims on an app?

Yeah, you're the finance type I knew in college. Not even in the pipeline yet and already thinking about lying or bending the truth to get it done. Classic.

You think you're some high-powered hotshot, but no one in medicine will give a ****. Afraid of slowing down? Go back to Wall/K Street.

 

[Lawpy]

aha! troll thread!

Doesn't seem trollish to me but thanks for contributing to the thread by serving as one of preallo's finest troll hunters (as @mehc012 would say). Saying nothing useful besides determining who's a troll.

@childishgambino while you have good stats, you need to have exposure to medicine to actually see if medicine is what you want to do. So you need the corresponding ECs and expand your medical experience

 

[DrHart]

Doesn't seem trollish to me but thanks for contributing to the thread by serving as one of preallo's finest troll hunters (as @mehc012 would say). Saying nothing useful besides determining who's a troll.

:troll:

 

[childishgambino]

Alright thank you everyone

 

[Goro]

We're pretty good at spotting liars, and if you embellish your app, you might as well set it on fire.

Stick with investment banking or politics.

Not really keen on taking a gap year. @gfp314 that's a solid suggestion, I might just have to weasel my way into something with patient contact that I can spin into something valuable on the app. thanks man

 

[childishgambino]

We're pretty good at spotting liars, and if you embellish your app, you might as well set it on fire.

Stick with investment banking or politics.

Yes of course, but there has to be something to spot. No one is going to raise an eyebrow at an average number of volunteering hours and 100% run of the mill medical ECs, especially when coupled with my numbers. And even if they did, what, they're going to call a hospital's general line and wade through seven layers of "press this button for X" just to ask about some random kid? Or call a school club's president and verify? Of course not saying that I would stretch to that extent, but let's be real

 

[gyngyn]

Yes of course, but there has to be something to spot. No one is going to raise an eyebrow at an average number of volunteering hours and 100% run of the mill medical ECs, especially when coupled with my numbers. And even if they did, what, they're going to call a hospital's general line and wade through seven layers of "press this button for X" just to ask about some random kid? Or call a school club's president and verify? Of course not saying that I would stretch to that extent, but let's be real

Looks like I may have to start checking more often.
Especially HYP, apparently...

 

[ZedsDed]

Looks like I may have to start checking more often.
Especially HYP, apparently...

I personally know about half a dozen applicants that embellished their apps and did not get caught. Most of them got into their first choices as well. I think it's more prevalent than AdCom members would care to admit, and it's kind of upsetting.

 

[gyngyn]

I personally know about half a dozen applicants that embellished their apps and did not get caught. Most of them got into their first choices as well. I think it's more prevalent than AdCom members would care to admit, and it's kind of upsetting.

There are those work study students we could use. Sad, though.

 

[childishgambino]

I personally know about half a dozen applicants that embellished their apps and did not get caught. Most of them got into their first choices as well. I think it's more prevalent than AdCom members would care to admit, and it's kind of upsetting.

That's just the half dozen cocky enough to tell you, there's probably 3 or 4 more out of the twelve playing the quiet game. The only thing stopping people from lying is the assurance of consequence-- there's no significant or significantly publicized precedent of that consequence being enacted so there's going to be lies.

 

[Dares Dareson]

Why don't you take a year off and get a job at a hospital? CNA or EMT course. They're a few weeks. That worked for me.

 

[ZedsDed]

That's just the half dozen cocky enough to tell you, there's probably 3 or 4 more out of the twelve playing the quiet game. The only thing stopping people from lying is the assurance of consequence-- there's no significant or significantly publicized precedent of that consequence being enacted so there's going to be lies.

Yea. BUT, if you get caught (and people do get caught) you're medical career is done.

 

[childishgambino]

Looks like I may have to start checking more often.
Especially HYP, apparently...

What school do you work for?

 

[gyngyn]

What school do you work for?

Does it matter?

 

[Glandzburg]

This guy is a troll trying to play devil's advocate or (more likely) get a rise out of everyone.

 

[The Real SVB]

What school do you work for?

Ok we're done with this troll.

 

[qwerpoiuqwer]

This guy is a troll trying to play devil's advocate or (more likely) get a rise out of everyone.

I don't know... I know these business/ finance people and the ego there is unbelievable. I have no trouble believing that some cocky HYP business kid would think he can smarm
his way into medical school with some halfway decent numbers, and get all butthurt and defensive if told otherwise.

Why are we even trying to convince this kid anyway, since he's clearly one of those people who regards anyone not immediately pampering his ego as in the wrong.
Let him apply, get rejected, and ask his daddy to use his connections so he can crawl his way back to Wallstreet.

 

[NeuResurgens]

Start with the shadowing and see how you like it. If you do, take a gap year and get some clinical/nonclinical volunteering experience and you should be in good shape.

Edit: Wow, missed the devolution of this thread completely.. Yeah, don't lie to get into medicine.