Advice Request: The next few months...

[didanawisgi]

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Preface: this is long and mostly me mapping it out in an attempt to create a plan. Thanks in advance if you decide to play along.

I'm planning my schedule in hopes of a May MCAT and June application. Currently on the plate:

Typical Monday through Thursday:
1 - Work (7am-4pm)
2 - Organic Chem and Lab (5pm-8pm)
3 - Pregnant Wife (she deserves more attention...) (9pm-10pm)
4 - OChem Study/MCAT Study (11pm-1am)

Relevant Med School Background:
- I've currently got approximately 250 volunteering hours; the majority of which are in emergency rooms (~200).
- I've not yet shadowed any doctors.

Relevant Non Med School Background:
- I'm going to be a dad at the beginning of May. I'm looking for a job that will transfer me out of state and close to family. We're planning on purchasing a house there in ~July with or without the job. Kickboxing and BJJ class is too much fun to drop completely. I've wanted to learn a foreign language for some time and am currently studying French via Rosetta Stone.

My question to all those bored enough to still be reading is how do I fill the rest of my time.
- I've nearly convinced myself that the cost of a Kaplan course will be worth it. It meets on Saturdays and/or Sundays depending on the week.
- I've laid the groundwork to shadow a couple doctors, a PCP and ENT surgeon. Just need to meet with HR to finish the paperwork and submit vaccination records. I've got a couple others in mind to ask - a dentist and facial plastic surgeon, and will most like be able to find others through the PCP.
- Kickboxing/BJJ is great. Learning something, good workout, and not sitting at a desk. 2hrs Friday or Saturday.
- Opportunity to volunteer at a level 1 trauma ER. Spent 6 months there last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of access to doctors and opportunities to shadow, sit in during procedures, etc.
- Offering to help out my OChem prof - helping out with his writing a new ochem textbook, setting up the class website, a couple other incidental suckup things. Expecting a minimal time commitment and a good recommendation.
- French is cool. Enjoying it thoroughly.
- Need to spend time with the wife at some point on the weekend - help her cook and clean, help with baby clothes shopping, going to the new parents classes that she wants to go to. I also have to have some down time for myself.

Going through all that, there are too many things on the plate and some need to be cut. Ranking things in order of importance (as I understand them after reading here over the years), it should be wife, stellar MCAT, A's in OChem, shadowing/demonstrating understanding of the job and it's commitments, volunteering, letter of rec., and exercise.

I think I've already decided, but hoping for confirmation here.
On the Agenda:
-Weekend early afternoon and late evenings dominated by studies.
-Wife time late weekend afternoons and early evenings.
-Vacation days to shadow.
-Kickboxing/BJJ - barely makes the cut. 2-4 hrs/week isn't much and provides a breath of fresh air. Breaks monotony.
-Helping the prof is minimal non-recurring commitment and will make me stand out a bit more.
-Catching up on some sleep.

CUT:
French
Volunteering

If you're still reading, you're a champ and I appreciate it. Seems to me there are three unknowns (Kickboxing/BJJ is not a commitment, but a luxury. No sweat (pun intended) if it needs to be skipped and it's a one or two hour, no commute option). Wife time is set and probably not enough as it is. That leaves time to be split between studying and volunteering. Studying wins.

Let me know what you think.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

i can't give good advice for you because i am a complete workaholic and don't see why you can't get everything done, but that is just me. when are you planning on applying? if you say this summer i would not cut out volunteering. maybe you could cut it back. whatever you are comfortable with.

 

[didanawisgi]

i can't give good advice for you because i am a complete workaholic and don't see why you can't get everything done, but that is just me. when are you planning on applying? if you say this summer i would not cut out volunteering. maybe you could cut it back. whatever you are comfortable with.

Thanks for the response and for my third attempt of replying on a Blackberry...
Simply put: add in the commute and it turns into a large time commitment. I'm not sure if another hundred hours of relevent clinical volunteering hours are more valuable than a few extra hours each week at home and studying...

 

[Lefty Doodle]

Yeah I kind of think volunteering probably shouldn't be a priority, you could pick up with it again after the MCAT. Definitely keep the exercise in there! I think it's important to start (continue) NOW fitting exercise in, because our schedules will only get worse.

 

[Quik]

That's a lot to juggle, and personally, I wouldn't set that schedule in stone too much, as it sounds like you have a little one on the way, and that will surely disrupt your schedule more than anything else (afaik). Anyway, It does sound like you have plenty of volunteer hours, but the volunteering you are doing seems to also count for clinical hours, so being equal to shadowing. Why not continue that?

 

[didanawisgi]

That's a lot to juggle, and personally, I wouldn't set that schedule in stone too much, as it sounds like you have a little one on the way, and that will surely disrupt your schedule more than anything else (afaik). Anyway, It does sound like you have plenty of volunteer hours, but the volunteering you are doing seems to also count for clinical hours, so being equal to shadowing. Why not continue that?

Volunteering would count as time in a clinical setting, but I doubt it would be equal to shadowing. While it opens shadowing doors, and I do see some very "real" things (coding patients, drilling into people's heads, psych patients, ODs, assaults, car wrecks...), most of my time would be spent stocking BP cuffs and changing out linen bags.

Am I wrong? Knowing that people like FrkyBgStok, who have volunteered on top of everything else while I'm not, are going to have an application sitting right next to mine worries me...

 

[Damia]

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[didanawisgi]

So all eating and sleeping will occur between 1am and 7am? Dude, you're intense. I'd dump the MCAT until summer, organic studying will take up the whole 11pm-1am slot.

Also, I did Kaplan - their review books are meh, and verbal is trash. If you're going to further torture yourself do Princeton Review, so at least you have the hyperlearning books.

I'm hoping organic won't be too bad. I pulled off an A without studying too much, and in hopes of not delaying med school another year, MCAT has to happen in May at the latest. That is, unless I am mistaken and I do not need to have the MCAT right when I apply. Could that be delayed until ... say August? Even if it could, I'm not sure it would be a good idea. My undergrad GPA is less than decent (though explainable) and I would be counting on post-bac courses and a good MCAT to keep my application from being laughed at and thrown away.

As for Princeton Review vs. Kaplan - do you think it was just your site? I'm a little surprised to hear your experience as I've read so many positive reviews.

 

[Quik]

MCAT has to happen in May at the latest. That is, unless I am mistaken and I do not need to have the MCAT right when I apply.

Very good question, I'd like to know this as well.