Americorps

[sourgrapes]

Does anyone know if you can do Americorps while interviewing for med school? also, is there a contract you sign before your commitment because most of the programs end after September 2010. Thanks!

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[Mattabet]

It depends on the project you do to some extent, but I think it could potentially be pretty difficult. You're not going to have a lot of money for travel expenses, and if you're stationed in a cabin out in Wyoming or something, it's going to be hard to get to interviews. Now, if you happened to be Americorpsing down the street from a medical school; I doubt it'd be a problem to take a Friday off and interview there.

I don't know about contracts and the like. I got to a phone interview phase for Americorps, but was not overly impressed with their organization.

 

[RavensGal]

Good question. I was looking into it as well but I guess technically you would end up taking 2 years off since you wouldn't be able to apply or interview while doing it.
From what I found on the website it looks like it would be difficult to interview while doing it since your not exactly going to be in big cities or necessarily always near an airport...

 

[Naijaba]

Hi sourgrapes,

I am currently in my second year of Teach for America and I plan on interviewing while teaching. I'm in Los Angeles, and I'm primarily applying to California schools. I will be able to interview on the weekend and/or during days that the school normally has off.

 

[dw2158]

i'm in an americorps-affiliated program, and while my year of service is ending and i haven't started interviewing yet, i imagine it wouldn't have been a problem. then again, i am stationed in NYC and my placement is really understanding about missing work for things like that. it totally depends on where you are and where you're working.

 

[Red Potato]

I think a lot of AmeriCorp placement programs would have no problems with letting students travel for interviews just as long as you complete the minimum required number of work hours (full-time: 1600 hrs, half-time 900 hours, give or take).

It'll be fairly difficult to do imho since you generally don't get paid much so expenses can be hard to obtain. But talk w/ the director or program coordinator and they'll let you know where they stand on the issues. I don't think you'll encounter much difficulty. Most programs know that you're a transition students, hoping to gain some experience before moving on, so they're quite accomodating.

I'm starting a stint soon next month and I was upfront about the possible needs for time off for med school interviews and my program coordinator told me it wouldn't be a problem. Luckily, I'm at a site with 2 big airports.

 

[casillas]

What i have heard is people applying to medical school when they are still in undergraduate, but then differing acceptance while on the program.

I think this would be the most hassle free way to get away with it. then you are certain that you have a medical acceptance waiting when you go back.

 

[spartan89]

I came across a post about this earlier...From what I remember, the consensus was that it depends on the coordinator for your project. I remember a few people saying that they were able to interview with relatively few problems.

I'm planning on doing Americorps/interviewing, so I'm interested in this too.
OP, are you thinking about doing NCCC?

 

[Nevadanteater]

Several of the Americorps folks in my program did this without any problem. Though I think they made it clear to their program directors from the beginning that they'd be doing interviews and missing days here and there.

It didn't seem to be a problem for most - minus the money issue...