Do I need to scribe?

[brae.scha]

Hi guys,
Just wondering if I'll need to scribe before applying this summer. Scribing jobs in my area require far too many hours per week with my current class schedule alone, let alone with my research and internship schedule too. Listed below are my current EC's and important info that might help.

Major: Biology (Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior)
GPA: 3.70
MCAT: Testing in late April

EC's:
150+ hours volunteering at local hospital
65+ hours volunteering at local botanical garden
2 years as a chemistry lab instructor at my college (paid)
2.5 years (650+ hours) of research in nanomedicine at a very famous research center (2 posters, 2 presentations, 3rd author paper pending pub.)
Accepted into a selective Medical School Mentoring Program
Completed a clinical internship with the local Fire Department (first responders)
1 year as Senator of my college (freshman year)
2 years member of the Student Health Advisory Board at my college
Member of the University's Academic Bowl team for my specific school
Member of the honors college at my university
2 years in a selective research program at my university (received grant funding, etc).
Intramural sports captain (does this even matter? who knows, haha)
Won a scholarship from my local hospital (where I volunteer) for school expenses


Other notes:
From a very low-income family (received many gov. grants to pay for school)
Worked throughout my time in school to pay my mother's rent (for her and my little sister) as well as my own.
I'm a white male

If there IS a need to scribe, what is the best way for me to find a job? Calling local physicians? (I've applied to all the many Scribing companies, with all requiring I either work too many hours/week or in a location I can't feasibly travel to). Thanks again!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[pewpew95]

I don't think you NEED scribing, but you DO need more clinical experience (be it employment or volunteering) to offset all those research hours. That said, don't do anything to compromise your grades. Continue volunteering both clinically and non clinically. And have you not done any shadowing? Because you need that as well.

 

[E.Hemingway]

Looks like you have no clinical exposure. Scribing would be a good idea. Shadowing would be good too, but I personally find scribing much more interesting and rewarding. Either way, you definitely need a substantial number of hours (hundreds) of clinical exposure to be competitive. How do you know you want to be a doctor if you’ve never seen one in action?

 

[pewpew95]

Looks like you have no clinical exposure. Scribing would be a good idea. Shadowing would be good too, but I personally find scribing much more interesting and rewarding. Either way, you definitely need to get a substantial number of clinical hours (hundreds) to be competitive.

The reason I advise against scribing is because it cannot easily be done while in school. As OP noted, most companies are too many hours, very far commutes, or if they are in a nice nearby clinic the hours are 9-5 M-F. Scribing should be a gap year endeavor IMO, so I feel like OP should continue volunteering and shadowing which require minimal hours until he or she graduates, and if needed, use a gap year to really beef up the clinical hours with scribing.

OP, if you are a junior, I would advise against applying until 2019-2020 because by then you can have built up >100 hours shadowing, >200 hours volunteering at botanical garden, and >300 hours volunteering at hospital. You will then have at least 400 hours of clinical experience under your belt.

 

[Nucleophile1]

Scribing is not a requirement to get in to medical school. I worked a non-medical related job for all four years of college because comparing to scribing, it paid better, I set my own hours, etc. However, I made sure to shadow a myriad of physicians as well as volunteer at a hospital for a couple of years. Since it doesn't sound like scribing is a good option for you, I recommend finding some doctors to shadow as well increasing the amount of hours you volunteer at the hospital.

 

[LebronManning]

From a very low-income family (received many gov. grants to pay for school)
Worked throughout my time in school to pay my mother's rent (for her and my little sister) as well as my own.
I'm a white male

And yet a rich black student will still be looked at as less "privileged" than you. Good job man, keep working hard.

 

[ArteryStudyPainting]

I personally always hated scribing. You need those clinical hours though. Look for observation programs at local hospitals. I was able to find a small program that was hidden in the bottom of UMSTC for shock trauma, which I feel was a unique and special aspect to my apps.

 

[brae.scha]

OP, if you are a junior, I would advise against applying until 2019-2020 because by then you can have built up >100 hours shadowing, >200 hours volunteering at botanical garden, and >300 hours volunteering at hospital. You will then have at least 400 hours of clinical experience under your belt.

I am a Junior, and I should have clarified that these are my current EC amounts. That was my bad. By the time I apply, I'll have about 200-250 hours volunteering at the hospital, 150 hours at the botanical garden, and am looking to shadow for about 50 hours before the summer (have plans in place, but still waiting on one doc's reply... I have backup docs to ask if they say no for whatever reason). I'll be doing about 2 days with each doc, 8 hours a day, across 3-4 specialties. I also believe that the medical school mentoring program will give me around 50 hours of experience shadowing medical school students, would this be considered clinical experience? I'm confused about that, too haha.

Do you think this would be enough to at least continue my plan to apply this summer? I don't exactly want to cancel my MCAT at this point, and I have minimal interest in pursuing a gap year (whether it be finishing a 4+1 master's in Biology, etc). I'd much rather go straight to med school, even though I know that's a luxury that not all can afford. Any ideas on that?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

And yet a rich black student will still be looked at as less "privileged" than you. Good job man, keep working hard.

 

[brae.scha]

Lol, I thought the same thing. Don't want to play the privilege game here, just want to get into med school and I realize that demographic info often affects chances (and usually, rightly so), so I thought I'd include it.

 

[pewpew95]

I am a Junior, and I should have clarified that these are my current EC amounts. That was my bad. By the time I apply, I'll have about 200-250 hours volunteering at the hospital, 150 hours at the botanical garden, and am looking to shadow for about 50 hours before the summer (have plans in place, but still waiting on one doc's reply... I have backup docs to ask if they say no for whatever reason). I'll be doing about 2 days with each doc, 8 hours a day, across 3-4 specialties. I also believe that the medical school mentoring program will give me around 50 hours of experience shadowing medical school students, would this be considered clinical experience? I'm confused about that, too haha.

Do you think this would be enough to at least continue my plan to apply this summer? I don't exactly want to cancel my MCAT at this point, and I have minimal interest in pursuing a gap year (whether it be finishing a 4+1 master's in Biology, etc). I'd much rather go straight to med school, even though I know that's a luxury that not all can afford. Any ideas on that?

You don't have to cancel your MCAT just because you don't apply this summer. Your MCAT score will be valid for 2-3 years after you take it.

In reality, if you apply next year, you'll have 1 more whole year to increase your GPA, increase your hours to what I had listed above (>400 hours across all clinical experiences). If you just wait 1 more year, you'll have a better and stronger application and the chances of you having to reapply will be slimmer.

All of the hours you stated you would have ready by this application cycle are pretty average. They're not too little, but they're not great either. The reason I'm cautioning you against applying this cycle is because I was at the same place you were. I had 100 hours clinical volunteering and 200 hours non clinical volunteering, which I could have increased by June. I also wanted to go straight into med school, because that's what all my friends were planning on doing! But then I decided that the risk of applying with too few hours and having to reapply was not worth it, and that I could wait a year. This decision will be yours and yours alone, but this was just my experience when facing the same decision.

I don't think shadowing med students would count as clinical experience unless it involves patients, but I would doublecheck with someone else about that.

If you did a gap year, it doesn't have to be pursuing an MS or certificate. You can do whatever the heck you like, preferably while also continuing to gain clinical experience.

 

[brae.scha]

You don't have to cancel your MCAT just because you don't apply this summer. Your MCAT score will be valid for 2-3 years after you take it.

In reality, if you apply next year, you'll have 1 more whole year to increase your GPA, increase your hours to what I had listed above (>400 hours across all clinical experiences). If you just wait 1 more year, you'll have a better and stronger application and the chances of you having to reapply will be slimmer.

All of the hours you stated you would have ready by this application cycle are pretty average. They're not too little, but they're not great either. The reason I'm cautioning you against applying this cycle is because I was at the same place you were. I had 100 hours clinical volunteering and 200 hours non clinical volunteering, which I could have increased by June. I also wanted to go straight into med school, because that's what all my friends were planning on doing! But then I decided that the risk of applying with too few hours and having to reapply was not worth it, and that I could wait a year. This decision will be yours and yours alone, but this was just my experience when facing the same decision.

I don't think shadowing med students would count as clinical experience unless it involves patients, but I would doublecheck with someone else about that.

If you did a gap year, it doesn't have to be pursuing an MS or certificate. You can do whatever the heck you like, preferably while also continuing to gain clinical experience.

Those are all great points, thanks for the insight! I'm mostly worried about the gap year because if I don't do the master's program (which I really don't feel like doing), I would be stuck without any money (I get all my money from loans and grants at the moment). So I'd have to work as a waiter or something similar, which would really crowd out any time I would have to spend getting more clinical hours. I suppose I'll still apply (might as well, I have the AAMC fee-assistance program so it's dirt cheap), and if I don't get in I'll reapply, and use that year to absolutely stack my clinical and non-clinical experiences. Do med schools have any preference between kids who reapply vs. kids who take gap years?

 

[pewpew95]

Those are all great points, thanks for the insight! I'm mostly worried about the gap year because if I don't do the master's program (which I really don't feel like doing), I would be stuck without any money (I get all my money from loans and grants at the moment). So I'd have to work as a waiter or something similar, which would really crowd out any time I would have to spend getting more clinical hours. I suppose I'll still apply (might as well, I have the AAMC fee-assistance program so it's dirt cheap), and if I don't get in I'll reapply, and use that year to absolutely stack my clinical and non-clinical experiences. Do med schools have any preference between kids who reapply vs. kids who take gap years?

I completely understand your hesitance because of the financial aspects! It seems like I can't change your mind about the gap year, but this is what I do know: Reapplicants are viewed less favorably than first time applicants, unless they have completely re-engineered themselves from their first try. Some school websites specifically say that reapplicants are viewed less favorably. And from what I've seen, med schools see students who take gap years as more mature than students who are trying to get in straight out of undergrad.

Trust me, I'm in this place right now where I might have to reapply, and it is scary as ****. It's not just about the money - it's about the stigma that you'll have to carry of being a reapplicant during your second or (hopefully not) third attempt. Applying shouldn't be as nonchalant as "might as well apply if it's free for me". You want to apply the first time with the best application possible so you don't have to go through this emotional turmoil and stress for >6 months again.

I really hope this helps! It was meant to scare you, but not too much. The good kind of scare.