Gaining Experience in Postbacc

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JackofAllM@sterofNone

English Major turned Pre-Med
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Jan 22, 2021
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Hello everyone,
Summer II of my post bacc has just finished and as I anxiously await grades, I wanted to gauge your thoughts on gaining more clinical, volunteer, research, or even community outreach experience. For reference, I graduated undergrad with a cGPA of 3.4 and let's not even mention my science GPA (I was an English major). Anyways, as far as extracurriculars here are some general items you should know:

- 6 years of volunteer EMT experience (I also became a preceptor to train incoming EMT before they treat patients independently during calls)
- 3 years of paid EMT experience (during this I mostly focused on private ambo, as I volunteered from 911)
- 2 years of research (I ended up dropping this project due to some serious issues with the males on my research team, but before that I was the chief liaison and leader of the team)
- I have tons of community outreach experiences including founding and teaching the first robotics program for 4H in my area, free tutoring offered to low income students, multiple mentorship positions, working with special needs children on their motor skills and higher functioning etc.

To keep this brief, I easily have 1000s of hours between each "category" (and I say this lightly because I have never been one to check all the boxes, I do what I love, regardless of how it may be perceived by others). I was wondering should I add on to this extensive list during the remainder of my time in my post bacc? Now that the fall is coming, I want to focus on getting the highest grades possible in every science course, but I also want to engage and contribute to the community for my own sake. I love to get my head out of the books and make an impact.

So far, I'm thinking of having my service animal registered to be a therapy dog at the local children's hospital as I really enjoy working with children and this is fairly low commitment in terms of time. I also am looking into becoming a mentor for undergrad pre-meds as we both work together to obtain an acceptance from medical school. One last thing is that I want to be involved in some form of sport and/or exercise, for health and stress relief reasons. Would that be doable?

For more context, I'll be taking biology, organic chem, and physics I in the same semester in addition to their corresponding labs. I'm aware that these courses require quite the time commitment, but I'm certain I can handle it.

Please share your thoughts, even if they are negative, it is always useful to get more opinions for others with different experiences.

Thanks,
Jack

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This sounds like you're in a career-change postbacc to get your pre-reqs, is that right?
 
I suggest that you challenge yourself to do something other than EMT-type service. Volunteer at a hospice, nursing home, clinic, hospital, crisis text line, Planned Parenthood, etc.
 
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I suggest that you challenge yourself to do something other than EMT-type service. Volunteer at a hospice, nursing home, clinic, hospital, crisis text line, Planned Parenthood, etc.
I've done volunteering at the Children's Hospital, clinic, hospital, and am currently looking to volunteer with sexual assault victims
 
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