Obviously, if you literally cannot do something in person then it is what it is; with that being said, what you're doing is wonderful and definitely a great activity and the fact that it's on zoom doesn't diminish your impact. The fact that you are still able to have some in-person activities is good nonetheless. My undergraduate health advisors said that medical schools will account for stuff like this, but people here seem to think on the contrary and that you still need X numbers/benchmark or you're going to crash and burn (despite covid), so take what I said with a grain of salt.
My advisor says the same thing, and I actually think the real answer is that nobody really knows. Advisors say what makes sense to them, and the so-called experts here do the same. I am learning to take everything everyone says with a grain of salt, and to rely on my own judgment and common sense.
Adcoms here predicted there would be no MCAT accommodations because there were far more qualified applicants than available seats, and schools and AAMC didn't have to do anything. WRONG. One even predicted that COVID would prove to be so disruptive that he wouldn't be surprised if the whole application cycle was canceled. WRONG. They said applications would spike due to the bad economy. CORRECT! They now also say no substitute for in-person experiences, more than enough qualified applicants, med school isn't going anywhere, blah, blah, blah.
The correct answer will depend on what future applicant pools look like. When AAMC and the schools realized just how many applicants would be impacted with no MCAT accommodations, they figured out a way to administer a shortened exam to enough candidates to make sure that tens of thousands of potential applicants weren't excluded from the current cycle.
Same thing with ECs. If relatively few people find themselves with inadequate in-person ECs, they will find themselves SOL, like people who waited until last spring (like me
🙂) to kick ECs in high gear and just cannot compete this cycle with everyone who didn't wait until the last minute. On the other hand, if, as seems likely, tens of thousands of people find themselves in OP's position, you can take it to the bank that accommodations will be made.
@joe32 is right -- right now, it is what it is, so you do the best you can. How med schools will view it will depend on how much longer the situation lasts, what the rest of your application looks like, and what the rest of the pool looks like when you apply.
