EC/Volunteering for Nontraditionals

[doctor0404]

Hi, everyone!
I've looked around the forum a lot and I saw a lot of advice to get as much community service and volunteering as possible... However, this is easier said than done for us, nontraditional students. I am almost 30 and have been on my own since 18. I have absolutely no family support of any kind and am single. Needless to say, I have to work to support myself and to pay for my education (and student loans from undergrad days). I also know there are people who are married and have children... How important really is this aspect of the application? I would really like to hear some real life stories from nontraditional students because I don't know if admission committees take our age and life experience into consideration. Of course, a 30-year-old who has to work 50+ hours per week, take prereqs and still have time to do laundry and cook, clean, shop, pay bills, take the car to the repair shop, yadda, yadda, yadda, is not going to have as much time to volunteer or do community service as a traditional student.
Also, has any of you been in a career previously that is in no way related to medicine? I've spent 8 years in a different field and was very much involved and took on leadership positions, but I am not sure if there will even be a place to put this on the application and whether it will matter to the adcomms.
Thanks.

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[FrkyBgStok]

In response to your second question first, I drive a semi for a national freight company. Not sure what can be further away from medicine. Now I am not sure the exact answer to your first question.

Legally (per transportation regulations) I can't work more then 70 hours in 8 days. We have to log everything. I start monday and by friday into saturday (I work overnight) I have less than 10 hours left every week. I have 3 kids, attend classes, and hope to get a CNA job every weekend or every other weekend. I am also studying for the MCAT.

I am not saying all of this to brag or to make myself look cool. I say it because the general consensus is "make time." It is very easy for a traditional applicant to tell us to make time when they haven't the faintest concept of reality. I hope to cut my hours back in the fall to about 40-50 hours per week so the 21 credits I am taking can be manageable and then I am told to "make time." Where is this time going to come from?

So I agree. I would like to know the REAL answer to this question. And if the real answer is "make time," then exactly how much time? Don't get me wrong, I am all for volunteering. I wish I could do more. And I am not trying to do the bare minimum to get into medical school. I just want to be realistic.

 

[eablackwell]

I agree with the above poster. I believe one of the reasons some schools like nontrads is because they manage to devote time to volunteering/medical pursuits even though they have the stresses and time constraints of many other things.

I am lucky I have a job as a chemistry teacher at a medical magnet school. I write medically integrated curriculums for several classes in the school, but even that is not enough. I take classes full time (orgo II, physics II w/calc, and calc 3 this semester) while working.

I leave home at 5AM and swing by to do volunteer work helping a lady with CP get ready for the day (dressed, showered, etc). Then I go to work, work until 3, go to class until 9. Still I've been worried about my lack of clinical, so I just started volunteering at a local ER on the weekends.

I'm married (no kids though). I wouldn't be able to do it without my husband's full support. But you have to have these things, or schools won't look at you very seriously even if your grades are stellar and your MCAT too. Lots of people have stellar grades and high MCAT.

 

[eablackwell]

The real answer is "make time." 100%

How much time is dependent on the school you want. Some schools require like 300+ hours of community service.

Clinical varies from school to school as well, but what I've heard from several people is if you have no non-clinical volunteer work you're likely not getting in either.

 

[familyaerospace]

I'm 29, married to someone with a 100% travel job, and have a 6 year old kid which makes me the sole parent/maintainer of the house. I ran a business until recently (actually I technically still do, but I don't have many clients anymore) all while going to school, publishing papers/going to conferences, and doing three volunteer positions (2-3 hours at my daughter's school, 4-5 hours per week at a hospital, and many hours at a space education non-profit.) I'm probably pulling 100 hour weeks if I add all the hours up. My point is, you have to be an excellent time manager and then you can do it. It also helps if you don't sleep.

I've heard mixed things when it comes to the non-trads and volunteering. A lot of adcomms are still going to want to see it or some other evidence that you want to be in medicine. So that's what I'm doing along with shadowing.

My former careers have included being a small business owner.

 

[ArkansasRanger]

It also helps if you don't sleep.

That's the one thing I can't give up. Literally. I did it once for 53 hours. Never again. Damn near killed myself.

 

[skeye777]

I don't know if this is possibility for you, but I was able to combine volunteering AND working full time. I did it by volunteering to head/recruit teams from work to walk/run in various 5K races for health-related causes (Susan G. Komen, JDRF, etc.). Also, I trained to be a part of our company's Emergency Response Team, which included CPR, First Aid and other training. I wasn't able to volunteer in a hospital until after I quit work to go to school full-time.

 

[NTF]

You're not gonna get much traction with an interviewer or an adcom with the excuse that you were too busy to find 2 hours/week to do some community service. Just as we're not gonna get any special consideration for a low MCAT because we're busy non-trads, we're not gonna get any special consideration when it comes to the basic expectations for a med school applicant.

I'd also like to add that many "traditional" applicants hardly have traditional lives, and work jobs to pay their way through school.

Don't use your non-trad status as a crutch. Use it as a plus to demonstrate to adcoms that you could juggle multiple commitments and still excel.

 

[wagmanager]

true, for everyone of us who are wondering how to find the time there is someone who is doing 21 credits(and getting straight A's), working 50 hours a week , raising three kids, volunteering 20 hours a week, teaching classes at the gym and is head of the local emergency response team all while growing their own organic vegetables. So I guess the answer is find the time(which i am still trying to find by the way) but good luck to all of us. If I could just find a way to get by on 4 hours of sleep a day I should be able to fit it all in.Any pointers?

 

[BennysBlanco]

Volunteering is horrible.

It is like shoveling crap, if you run a farm you have to do it.

 

[turkeybean]

I can totally sympathize with OP as a non-trad myself. Sometimes it's not just about finding the time to volunteer, but that my available times usually do not meet the needs of hospitals or clinics. Since I work and go to class at night, I can basically only do EC's on the weekends. The local hospital volunteer programs I spoke with all said that they could not fit me in on a weekends only schedule but would keep my info "on record" if something opens up...

I've been looking into other volunteering opportunities that would allow more flexibility. Recently, I've looked into possibly being a care-giver where I'll be assigned to an elderly person with disability/illness and I'll visit them, take them to appts or run some light errands for them. I think this type of work actually makes my time spent more worthwhile and constructive (since the person truly needs my help) than probably most 'hospital' volunteer work. The problem is this type of work will not be considered "clinical experience." Is this going to be a problem? Has anyone used similar experiences in lieu of actually working in a clinical environment?