How is EMT experience viewed?

[Curious_Joe*]

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While in college I am interested in becoming an EMT. I think the experience would be great. I would much rather work as an EMT, than volunteer to clean test tubes, etc! I know Adcoms value volunteering, but while in school things may be a bit tight and I will need to work to support myself. My question is how do Adcoms look at students who work as an EMT? Will they understand my situation? Or will I be expected to volunteer on top of school and work to be a competitive applicant? If anyone has any experience working as an EMT (positive or negative) I would really like to hear about it. Thanks in advance. I hope everyone is doing well!


Thanks!!!
~ JoE ~

 

[Looksgoodonya!!]

I got certified as an EMT before being accepted. Doing both may help you get an interview especially if they go by some sort of point system to evaluate applicants for example 2 points for research puls clinical experience. In an interview though you need something to talk about thats real and not just set up for the purpose of checking off having done something. Even just getting certified seemed to help me. I told them if I wasn't accepted that I planned on working as an EMT and then re-applying. I also had several years of research experience also. I think you may have a somewhat unrealistic perception of what your potential research experience might be like. Test tubes? You would need to pick an area you are interested in for example neuroscience, surgery, whatever. Maybe you could do it during the summer.

 

[hotbovie]

I doubt it matters whether your EMT experience would be volunteer or paid. It will help in that it will show you have some idea of what the medical field is like.

However, be ABSOLUTELY VIGILANT about your grades. It won't help you at all if your grades suffer. I actually got my EMT during undergrad (a long, long, time ago) and then worked with a volunteer ambulance. Problem was, I liked it better than organic chem (duh) but also spent my time in proportion to my liking things, with disasterous results in the GPA department. Despite the fact that I got my act together at the end of my undergrad career, my overall GPA was low enough to make getting into med school very tough, and is part of the reason why , though I'm a 4th year med student, I'm older than many of the attending physicians.

Any outside activities/jobs must be kept under control so that your GPA doesn't suffer.

 

[KyGrlDr2B]

SDN doesn't allow posting of threads in multiple forums. I'm going to close this one because you posted your pre-allo one first and you already have a lot of replies over there (plus pre-allo gets a ton more traffic!).

thanks.