Medical How screwed am I? No job or in-person volunteering during gap year.

[Goro]

I've lived with my grandparent and my aunt since I was a kid. I am a primary caretaker for my grandparent (who is pretty much like my parent because I've lived with her my entire life), and the only other person who can take care of her right now is my aunt, but my aunt is a nurse so she is afraid to be in close contact. In addition to this, my aunt is a single mom to a 10 year old whose life I play a big role in. My great aunt who lives 30 min away also depends on me for a lot of things, she has cancer and is on government assistance and has no other relatives that can care for her (my family is all immigrants and there is only me, my aunt, my grandma, and my great aunt here in our state, and my aunt and I are the only fluent English speakers).

The problem is that I have an interview scheduled at a doctor's office several hours away to work as a medical technician, but when I told my family that I might be moving away for that position, they told me that they literally won't know what to do if I am not here. They said that at least by next year when I go to medical school that they will figure out what to do with my grandma, like moving her to a senior-living center or to another state to live with the only other relative we have here in the states. Moreover, they think that since I am constantly around my grandmother that it isn't a good idea for me to work or be around other people until the pandemic is over.

I am willing to risk getting COVID for the opportunity to attend medical school but I can't afford to give it to the people that depend on me.

Will adcoms sympathize with the situation? For context, I am bilingual, have above average GPA and >90th percentile MCAT, and ~300 clinical volunteering hours, ~100 non-clinical. Some other average ECs as well i.e. student government, tutoring, etc.

edit: also, I graduated in May and I've applied to 47 schools and have submitted all of my secondaries already.

2nd edit: forgot to add that I'll be doing some virtual volunteering - working with Alzheimer's patients twice a week doing math problems and reading, and might be able to convince my family to let me be a lab aid in the anatomy lab at my UG institution (my argument is that everything there is covered in formaldehyde)

Are you applying this cycle?

You can state that you were helping take care of family during this year.

Just make sure that you're able to cut the cord when you go to med school. Also, they need to be aware of the fact that you won't be able to rush home every time that there is an emergency. Med student shave to be somewhat selfish in this regard.

yes, I applied this cycle and just finished my last secondary

I did tell them that there is a good chance that I will be moving away for medical school and that we should spend this upcoming year figuring out a way for them to be able to manage things without me

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[tantacles]

it's ok to tell medical schools that you are taking care of ill family members. Many people do this, and it is a reasonable reason not to have a job for a year while you apply.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Agree. They will understand that it does take a ton of time (and sometimes a full-time job) to take care of the family. I agree that you need to work towards them transitioning away from depending on you though since the most likely situation will be you attending school for away from them.