Can I put my self-employment on my application?

[Member200000]

I'm about three years out of college and now starting to study for the MCAT. For the first year and a half out of college, I worked in three different research labs (two were at the college I graduated from, one was at a hospital). I got laid off from all three due to either funding cuts or my position being eliminated entirely. One of my PIs in those labs was really awesome and I think would write a really great recommendation letter, the others were kind of jerks to be honest so I'm not going to ask for anything from them.

My last job in a lab ended June 2011. In July, I started a tutoring business - I proofread papers, and tutor in biology, chemistry, and physics. It's only now starting to take off, and I'm only now really starting to get students, start up an official website, get the permits from the city, hopefully eventually officially register it as a real company when I start making real money. At this point I'm still collecting unemployment but hope to be able to wean myself off of it soon. What I'm wondering is, since I'm only really successful recently with this, can I still put it on my application as having started last July? Even when I was barely getting any business, I spent a TON of time going to every college campus in the region to post flyers, talk to professors, network, etc. (part of the big problem was that though college students did want the service, they simply did not have the money to pay for it - so eventually I figured out that I needed to change my focus to high school students). So even though there's not a whole lot of "documented" accomplishments with this in 2011, I put a lot of time into it and would see that time as valuable because I learned a lot about how businesses work, how people think, etc. And since I want to go into private practice someday, I feel like this whole experience would be really valuable (though obviously there's a huge difference between a tutoring business and private practice in medicine). Not to mention that I don't want med schools to think that I spent 7 months sitting around barely doing anything when this was NOT the case at all.

So, long story short, would it be helpful to include this period of self-employment on my med school application as one of my 15 ECs?

I'm also considering going back to one of the labs that I worked in while I worked in research - the PI has indicated that it would probably be possible for me to do a research project there (though not paid because he doesn't have the funding to pay me). I was hoping to do some more research there, get some more experience (since I liked the lab a lot), and as a bonus it would probably enhance his recommendation letter as well. I would just go for maybe 10 hours a week or so in addition to the tutoring. Does this sound like a good idea?

Sorry for the uber-long post. I'm just going crazy thinking about med school requirements right now haha. Thanks!

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[NeuralNetwork]

Yes, include it

 

[sector9]

yes, include it

+1.

 

[Wombat Hunter]

+1.

+2
But never be dishonest about it on paper or in interviews. And never be honest about it socially. And teach your students not to start a sentence with 'and' or 'but.'

 

[AnnaTierno]

Yes of course. It was something you spent a substantial amount of time on and apparently a worthwhile pursuit, since you learned so much in the process. Also, if you can demonstrate at the time of your application/interview that it is successful now (maybe include the website in the application, and references from people you've worked with?), that's even better.

I think a med school would actually like to see something like this - it's a unique pursuit, and it shows initiative and that you're a resourceful, motivated self-starter rather than someone who spent a year unemployed moping around. In this economy, especially with research funding being abysmal right now, i would think they should understand that sometimes even the best lab techs get laid off. And if you can volunteer in a lab at the same time, keep your foot in the research door, that's even better.

I kind of see where you're coming from in that it'd be hard for them to verify everything you did last year when you weren't getting business, but from what I hear they really don't check up on ECs anyway. The most important thing is that you're able to talk passionately about things you've done in your application and interview.

Plus it'll give you another thing to talk about in your interviews, which is always a plus.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

+ Whatever

I would definitely want to talk to you about this in an interview. It shows great initiative, how you cope when things go wrong, how you react and pull it together when everything isn't going your way. Explain it well in your descriptions and I think you'll get a lot of good interview questions about it.