Teach for America / Americorps?

Of the many schools I applied to and interviewed at, only one (Tulane) made a big deal about this kind of service in the interview and even application process. I definitely got the impression that TFAs were gods and Americorps were demigods there. None of the other schools seemed to care.

It's a handy way to fill a Community Service EC on your primary and it's something to mention on some secondaries.

Teaching at an inner city school is an emotionally, mentally and physically obliterating experience. It is absolutely nothing like tutoring kids in college.

Do not do Teach for America in order to boost your medical school application. You will most likely be personally destroyed by the experience. You cannot survive teaching for 2 years in a difficult classroom if your sole motivation is boot-strapping yourself into med school.

If you want, do AmeriCorps.

Signifier said:

Teaching at an inner city school is an emotionally, mentally and physically obliterating experience. It is absolutely nothing like tutoring kids in college.

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This is a lot of what I have heard, especially from females in TFA. If you are a male and have a strong presence and charisma you might be able to pull it off and actually gain a lot out of it, otherwise you are setting yourself up to be destroyed. No wonder inner city schools are so bad though when the kids act like they do toward teachers with parents not taking any responsibility.

darkstar1337 said:

Hey guys. Wondering if anyone could give some advice.

I am currently a senior in college and I already applied to medical school last year but no luck so far. So I am currently reapplying for this upcoming cycle and that will leave me with a year gap. I was considering doing Teach for America in that year off. I tutored science classes in college and I really enjoyed it and I think Teach for America would be nice to do. I know it is a 2 year program and I have heard it was intense and brutal. I was wondering what former/current TFA members thought of the program. Also, if I was accepted to TFA and applied for the upcoming cycle, my 2nd year in TFA would conflict with my first year in med school (assuming i'd get interviews and get an acceptance). Would this be a disadvantage in the interview because I would HAVE to defer a year due to TFA? Considering I won't be there for the entering class of 2013, I wouldn't seem like a good prospective student but I'm not sure.

Another option I was thinking about is americorps. I've heard other people recommending it and saying its only a 1 year commitment which would be good timing in terms of interviews for the next cycle. Does one look better than the other on an application or are they roughly the same? Would it be better to wait another year and apply later so that during interview time, I will already be in my 2nd year of TFA instead of the 1st year? Sry bout the long post. Really appreciate if you guys could give some insight! Thanks.

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I am currently applying for TFA and have my final interview next week. Like the other two posters have said, TFA is a great opportunity, but do NOT do it if you are only doing it to boost you EC's. You must really want to teach these students so they get something out of it and you do not get destroyed. AmeriCorps is probably a bit more relaxed in that aspect as you could probably survive regardless of actual interest level. Note, FTA's final deadline is tomorrow, so unless you have already written your application, TFA may not even be an option.

With that being said, you cannot apply to medical school this year and have an accepted position at TFA. 1) because if you were accepted to medical school you would already know you would have to defer and schools are not in the game of accepting someone for the following year's class. 2) because it would be impossible to get secondaries written during TFA's institution they hold over the summer.

The deferral thing for TFA and other programs has been disused a lot on this forum, so if you do a quick search you will see all the reasons behind it.

Hope that helps!

Signifier said:

Teaching at an inner city school is an emotionally, mentally and physically obliterating experience. It is absolutely nothing like tutoring kids in college.

Do not do Teach for America in order to boost your medical school application. You will most likely be personally destroyed by the experience. You cannot survive teaching for 2 years in a difficult classroom if your sole motivation is boot-strapping yourself into med school.

If you want, do AmeriCorps.

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This for sure OP. But if you DO decide on AmeriCorps, be sure it's something you'd like, and I'd recommend staying close to home (it can be pretty expensive/emotionally taxing to up and move across the country; not saying it isn't possible and even fulfilling, but distance from a support system is something you should seriously consider before making a final AmeriCorps decision).

What they do not really tell you about TFA is that the experience varies widely. Some teachers are placed in higher-performing magnet schools with hard-working administrations and a good number of students from the suburbs. These classrooms are very different places from the mismanaged and failing public schools that (most) TFA teachers are placed in - institutions where as few as 10% of the student body meet state educational goals.

Second, this notion about male / female differences is misleading. Some of the most remarkable TFA teacher-leaders I've met and worked with have been women. It is also not necessarily true that the TFA experience is harder for women than for men. It depends strongly on the community, school, and person. Their personality.

That last one is the most key. If you are meek it will be very difficult for you to manage a classroom. Your college leadership experience, whatever aggrandized sense of your own charisma or presence or persuasive ability you have, will be snapped in two the second you're in charge of a room of 25 angry teenagers.

That said, as a fairly charismatic male, I did get a lot out of Teach for America. I've grown a lot, and the experiences I've had will stay with me forever. But I look back on these years with mixed feelings. I honestly don't know if I'd recommend it to another person.

2nd Year TFA Corps Member here.

I'm a little too tired to write a long response on the pros and cons of TFA right now since I just taught all day, but if you have specific questions let me know either here or through PM.

Gist of the story: only do it if you truly want to make a difference in children's lives. TFA shouldn't be used as an application booster, because people who do that usually burn out in the first 3 months and stick the kids with a long-term sub for the rest of the year (creating an even wider achievement gap than what they started with.)

With that said, if you're passionate about education reform and want to do something substantial during your gap year(s), then I fully recommend it. It's a life-changer. If you're going to do it though, don't apply to medical school until the summer after your 1st year. You need to focus on being a good teacher in the classroom during the initial year and should keep distractions to a minimum. Your personal statement will most likely change after a year in an Tier 1 public school as well.

Edit: +1 to everything Signifier said.

Signifier said:

Teaching at an inner city school is an emotionally, mentally and physically obliterating experience. It is absolutely nothing like tutoring kids in college.

Do not do Teach for America in order to boost your medical school application. You will most likely be personally destroyed by the experience. You cannot survive teaching for 2 years in a difficult classroom if your sole motivation is boot-strapping yourself into med school.

If you want, do AmeriCorps.

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THIS THIS THIS.

As a 3rd year Teach for America graduate, I can say that teaching has been simulataneously the worst and best experience of my life. As a first year teacher you will hate your life. Every day will be torture. You will work insane hours, get no sleep (seriously, five hours will be a blessing), and you will be yelled at from all sides for not being a better teacher. I did not apply after my 1st year teaching because I was an emotional wreck from 9 months of what essentially ammounted to war in a classroom.

Second year will be better because you will have the resources and experiences from first year. You will continue to have behavior problems, but this is the year you will connect with students. You will begin to see them as individuals and not just students who torture you. You will be proud of yourself for the work you do and the uphill climb that you continue to make every day. This is the year that counts.

My third year is even better than my second, but it is never, not even for a single day, an easy profession. I am usually exhausted and tired. My personal relationships with those not in the teaching profession have fallen by the wayside. Numerous teachers have told me it takes 5 years to be a good teacher and I believe them. I still learn new things every day.

That said, I am everything that I am today because of Teach for America. My strength and my determination, my passion, and my drive comes from my unique teaching experiences.

Enter TFA with caution. It is a once-in-a-lifetime expereince, but be sure that you know what you are getting into.

IowaStateFan said:

My sister did TFA and she was NOT invited back after 1st year. She was very eager, enthusiastic, and go-getter teacher at the beginning, and after the 1st year was over she was a depressed maniac. My parents could not believe how being a teacher would demoralize someone like this.

Another important warning: some schools will KICK you out after the 1st year for poor performance - which like all other poster states - is not even in your control when you are in a room with 25 angry black teenagers.

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Color of the teenagers aside (I have just as many angry white students as black students, OP- it's a socioeconomic problem, not a race issue), I know three people who were dismissed after their first year of teaching. It's a two step process and I myself underwent the first step before doing what was necessary to fix my classroom and jump through the necessary hoops to save my job. In retrospect, I am glad that my administration intervened in my classroom. It was out of control, I had no clue where to start fixing it, and they provided the necessary support steps to help me work towards becoming a better teacher.

It is a combination of school politics (they fire the newest teachers and are constantly low on funding) and personal advocacy. To clairfy, it is very unlikely that teachers do not return for a second year, but it does happen.

I'm a former two year AmeriCorps member, and I have to say that while TFA is very challenging, AmeriCorps is not such a light commitment either. You gotta be committed full time to it, and it can be quite challenging with all the rules and long weeks of service with little time off. But as a pre-med, AmeriCorps gave me the opportunity to be in the health field and work directly with patients, which is something I wouldn't have gotten with TFA. I definitely wouldn't join AmeriCorps because it will look good on the resume or you will be hating yourself 1 week into the program, but the two advantages are that it's a 1 year term and that you can pick a program that is health related, which will look good for med school applications.

darkstar1337 said:

Man, some of these stories sound terrifying (and rewarding at the same time). Def glad I atleast have some knowledge of what it's really like and what I'm going to get myself into if I pursued it.

In your 2nd/3rd year, do you usually end up with the same class as you first year?

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Depends on the school and placement. You have what is referred to as "preps". My first year, I had it easy teaching Biology class three times a day. (It didn't seem like that at the time, but boy was that easy, lol) Each year since I've had two preps at a time- Biology and Anatomy or Biology and Honors Biology. That means every day I taught two seperate lessons: two powerpoints, two lesson plans, two worksheets, two homeworks to assign, grade, etc. Even now though, I have it (Relatively) easy. Most English teachers have the pleasure of teaching 3 preps- different English classes for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades respectively.

Depending on your subject you may have the same kids for 1 quarter, 1 semester, or 1 year. IMHO Semester is the best time period because you can re-use your materials for 2nd semester (building on them, of course, to make them better).

Very few schools have kids "cycle" with the teachers (a 2nd grade teacher would teach the same students in 3rd grade the next year) but that also happens in select schools. This year was the first year I had the interesting situation of teaching kids I had already taught before (my 10th grade students now have reached the 12th grade). It is promising to see how much they have grown as individuals (probably the same way I've grown as a teacher, lol!)

These kids truly just need some stability in their life. Two of my "problem" students in 10th grade I ended up writing glowing college recommendations for during their 12th grade year. These kids will try you and try you and try you some more, but if you stay in the system and stick it out, you'll have their respect and their trust.

posted in an earlier thread...

1) What were your experiences with TFA? Did you enjoy it or did you regret taking that much time off from matriculating at medical schools?

I did TFA from 2007-2009 and had a wonderful experience. I was a product of the inner-city public school system and have a very strong opinion about the inequities in public education. Being an econ major with a few hundred hours of clinical experience, going to medical school felt right but I wanted to see what was out there before committing myself to medicine. I think considering the political climate surrounding the future of medicine, it's even more worthwhile now to evaluate all potential career opportunities. TFA definitely allows you to do do that.

TFA will give you 2 years to mull over your options and figure out what path will give you the highest amount of satisfaction in context of length of education, work environment, job availability and investment in education. It's generally a very favorable thing to have on your CV regardless of what field you go into. On top of that, you'll spend your time righteously trying to resolve the achievement gap. It's like community service on steroids. I really had a high amount of satisfaction doing my job. Every day wasn't pretty and there were A LOT of days (especially during the first year) where I felt absolutely miserable but at the end of the day when I look back on what I did for my students, I really feel like I accomplished something for those two years. Periodically one of the little rascals manages to find me on facebook somehow and will send me messages about what I did for them and they always make my day.

The skills development was also pretty huge. I was a fairly poor public speaker in college/high school. I'm a pretty damned good public speaker now. I get comments on it all the time. I think the nature of the work also makes you more assertive and outspoken over the two years (you'll get eaten alive the longer you aren't). Like all postUG programs, TFA is pretty big on """""professionalism"""". They are more so than most master's programs or medical school's I bet. I'm not kidding you...they watch you like a hawk and have excel documents to track how you're measuring up to professional standards and if you're not you'll certainly hear about it. I hated it at the time but I think the rigorous nature of the program allowed me to avoid some of the growing pains some of my classmates have had. I was never really miserable in med school and I kindof was already in the habit of treating school like a job. Going from TFA to first year of medical school was a fairly easy transition (for me, your mileage may vary). Aside for the part where I had to take anatomy, medical school was a giant vacation until I had to start studying for Step1.

2) Were you in any SMPs or post-bacc programs during your commitment with TFA? If not, do you know if this is common for some pre-meds in TFA or if it's even feasible?

When you join TFA, you're not going to be doing anything else. You'll work fulltime as a teacher, be expected to complete a concurrent master's degree in education/curriculum and meet all your TFA program requirements. Trust me, your plate will be full. Some of it is region-specific I guess but where I did TFA I was working 100-110 hours a week. It was pretty bad...at one point I think "sleep" was 15 minute catnaps throughout the night. I think I was also one of the crazier ones though. If you try to shave as much time as possible I think you could get it down to 60-70hours a week (again, some of this is region specific) and then MAYBE do a post-bacc program/SMP. TFA by itself is a pretty big emotional/time commitment though and I wouldn't recommend adding any additional responsibilities.

3) Do you think TFA got in your way with the admissions process (has being a teacher deterred you from being able to attend interviews or have you found it to be manageable?)

Not really. I usually just took a sick day or two whenever I had an interview. Depending on where you get placed, this shouldn't really be a problem. Teacher's unions are ridiculous and you should have a good amount of sick days saved up that it shouldn't really be a problem unless you take off every Friday for a few months (had a friend in the program do this).

4) Do you think TFA was looked favorably upon by medical schools? Would they have wanted to see applicants make better use of their time doing research, gaining more clinical experience, etc...?

I think I went on 9-10 interviews and each one said something positive when they saw that I was doing TFA. It's a good talking point but make sure it's not the only thing you talk about during your interview. I never once had it communicated to me that it was a suboptimal use of my time...but again, your mileage may vary.


Extra thought: The other day in the physician's lounge my former IR preceptor sat down and had lunch with me and another student. We were making random conversation and my friend asked him if he would recommend IR to medical students. He said that if he had to do it all over again, he would not have chosen medicine at all. Being a physician is hard work...the hours are long, the liability is high, the stress is never ending, midlevels annoy you, and the compensation is far from being entirely stable. However, I think that a lot of physicians have lost touch with the plight of the common man. It's pretty easy to say you hate your job when you're making 100k less than you were last year and you get called at 3am every night because a patient's WBC went from 23 to 26...but you're still making 400k+/60hrs (in the case of my IR preceptor) whereas most people would go their lifetime capping out at 70-100k, if that. I hate to stereotype but I think you see this a lot more in the people that never had a 40-50hr/wk job before medical school.

Wow that was long...any way, PM me if you have any other questions or want advice throughout the application process. I also want to reaffirm what others have said: don't do TFA if your main goal is to get in to medical school. Helping underprivledged children has to be at the forefront of your mind and heart--2 years is a long time to set aside for some marginal boost in competitiveness while applying. If you're absolutely set that you want to be a doctor, do an SMP/post-bacc or take some time to improve your MCAT. If you'd like to mull over your future career options and have a genuine interest in setting aside some time to do good, TFA should be a legitimate consideration.

darkstar1337 said:

wow that was long but def helpful ensuii . I was thinking of doing it to fill the gap but I am pretty set on trying to become a doctor. It seems like it's a huge life changer and it sounds like everyone has matured greatly and gained a lot from the program.

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How competitive of an applicant would you say you are? If you consider yourself a weaker/average applicant it would probably make more sense to do an SMP/Post-bacc to raise your stats since from what I understand, the placement rates for those programs tend to be pretty significant. If the ultimate goal is to become a Doctor, doing an SMP/Post-bacc would open the most opportunities. If you've considered that another field may make you just as happy as medicine you should give TFA some consideration. I legitimately thought about staying in education for a while but I really didn't see myself taking away the same fulfillment from the career at age 50 as I did when I was 22 and straight out of college. With 3 rotations left in third year, I'm overjoyed about the decision I made to leave. Feel free to PM me with any other questions.

darkstar1337 said:

I was leaning towards americorps because they had health related programs and a lot more options as well. Roughly how many hours per week is americorps? Were you somewhere close to home? Is it hard to get in? I heard TFA's application process was pretty selective and competitive.

Thanks for taking the time out and writing all that soccrwon!

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On average, the program I did with AmeriCorps was about 40-45 hours per week. It varied sometimes based on if we had to do a monthly service project, fulfill outside service obligations, and when we had to catch up on hours missed based on time off. So, we had weeks where we were serving over 50 hours. Also, it really varies on the program; some programs like AmeriCorps NCCC are very intense and other seemed to be more relaxed with time constraints.

I wasn't close to home; I moved from the Northeast to Florida when I did AmeriCorps. I wanted to get out of the Northeast for a bit, but there are people who do programs close to home, and it'd save money because we get a pretty limited living stipend.

I don't know how hard it is to get into most of the programs other than that AmeriCorps applications have more than tripled in the past couple of years. I know for our program there were over 200 people applying for 23 spots and that the applicant needed to have previous community service experience.

Wow, Americorps has changed a lot since '09. I was dragged into my position (2 miles from home) because they couldn't find any volunteers. My obligation was 10 hours a week. I was paid $10 an hour, so ironically as a federal volunteer I was making more bank than the employees I was working along side in the nursing home.

Between contradictions like the paid volunteer, the piles of pointless paperwork, and the self-congratulatory meetings and conferences, I think I learned a lot more about the madness of being a federal employee than I ever did about serving my community.

MT Headed said:

Wow, Americorps has changed a lot since '09. I was dragged into my position (2 miles from home) because they couldn't find any volunteers. My obligation was 10 hours a week. I was paid $10 an hour, so ironically as a federal volunteer I was making more bank than the employees I was working along side in the nursing home.

Between contradictions like the paid volunteer, the piles of pointless paperwork, and the self-congratulatory meetings and conferences, I think I learned a lot more about the madness of being a federal employee than I ever did about serving my community.

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Going to have to agree with MT Headed on this one. Plus AmeriCorps funding has been on the congressional chopping block for some time; after my most recent experience with the program, I can certainly understand why.

For the record, I listed my experience as "Community Service/Volunteer" on the AMCAS. If I was ever called on it, I planned to justify my categorization as simply interpreting that slash as an OR and not an AND. I did perform community service. Also, as a part of my contract I had to (and did) recruit other unpaid volunteers from the community. I admit I did feel a little weird listing what is patently paid employment as a volunteer position, but that's exactly the type of doublespeak that the federal government will ingrain into you.

In the end, it didn't really matter how I classified the experience. Nobody ever called me on the my classification, and every adcom in the world knows exactly what Americorps is.

It definitely was something that was discussed in my interviews. Like any experience though, what matters is how you can articulate what you got from it and how it made you a better person. TFA was extremely rigorous and drains you emotionally and physically at times. You can go for long periods without confirmation or validation for the work you do and this is what burns people out. You have to be self-motivated and know why you are doing it. If you can handle TFA, I would say you are very well prepared to begin medical school. In addition, the perspectives you gain are very rewarding.

If you are truly motivated, go for it. If you're unsure about it, contact TFA and see if you can visit a classroom to give you an idea of whether this is something you'd like to do.

The interviews were easy to schedule. I just took a sick day when I was gone and it didn't cause any problems.

As other posters have confirmed, that is the ultimate double edge of Teach for America. It is a painful and difficult experience, one that tries the limits of your patience, energy and basic sense of good. But experiences like this are also great sources of growth. If all goes well, you learn to solve problems better, you learn to connect with and lead people more efficiently. You learn how to take care of yourself under tremendous stress and how to hold strongly to your convictions when essentially every force around you is trying to get you to give them up.