How Should I Prioritize My ECs?

[shannonigans]

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Hi SDN!
My second semester of post-bacc work is wrapping up and I need to spend this summer improving my ECs. I would love some opinions on what/how I should prioritize them while taking a 10 credit course load, working part-time, and beginning to study for the MCAT.

About Me
I'm a post-bacc pre-med student. I graduated from an honors college in 2009 with a degree in Humanities (concentration was art history/theatre, wrote a thesis on Marilyn Monroe in Pop Art). From 2009-2014, the bulk of my work consisted of internships/account coordinator/manager positions in Public Relations and Marketing, with some considerable success in social media for the past couple of years. I also got my cosmetology license. After thinking and researching about going to med school since early 2010, I decided to go back to school to start knocking out pre-reqs (I started in Fall 2014 and will be done Spring 2016).

At The Moment

• Current GPA: 4.0 (likely to continue this semester)
• Working part-time (I own a digital marketing consulting company and do social media freelance) to pay the bills
• Leadership Positions
  • During Undergrad: Orientation Leader for 2 years, Orientation Planner for 1 (do these even matter if I graduated in 2009?)
  • Current: Co-director of Marketing of school's AMSA club, on the Board of Directors of my alma mater's Alumni Association
• Other
  • Gave a presentation on social media at school's recent Pre-Health Student Conference
• Non-clinical Volunteer Hours
  • Notetaker for the Office of Students with Disabilities (will have 150+ hours at the end of this semester)
• Looking to begin studying for the MCAT this summer and take it in January
• Planning on applying to med school during summer 2016
• Most likely will do a Masters program while applying

What I Need

• Shadowing
• Volunteering
• Clinical Experience
• Research
• What I'm Doing About It
  • Calling a local free clinic as well as look into options at a local AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF).
  • Reaching out to doctors about shadowing

My question to you: how should I prioritize my ECs to make myself a competitive candidate? I've been focusing on doing well in my classes (and work to pay my bills), but I know I'm potentially shooting myself in the foot by not having a longer history with the shadowing/volunteering/clinical experience.

 

[Cawolf]

Looking to begin studying for the MCAT this summer and take it in January

As far as I know there are no confirmed January dates.

Most likely will do a Masters program while applying

Why?

how should I prioritize my ECs to make myself a competitive candidate?

I see no patient interaction or even slightly medicine related activities. How do you even know you want to medicine? In my opinion, clinical experience should be at the top of your list.

 

[shannonigans]

In my opinion, clinical experience should be at the top of your list.

That's what I was asking for- thank you.

 

[wholeheartedly]

I'll second the why masters degree?

that just doesn't seem like a good use of time or money if it isn't funded, a lot of them take two years as well.

I do agree that your focus needs to be on getting clinical experience.

 

[shannonigans]

The reason behind the Masters is that I believe it will give me a chance to do some research in addition to gaining more volunteering and clinical experience.

I have considered working during the year off. However, I had a friend attempt something similar and it was disastrous: she had a Masters in addition to the BA and couldn't even get an interview until her aunt pulled some strings at her hospital. I don't have those connections. 🙁 Currently, I live in an area with a difficult job market, low wages, and high housing prices. I do have undergrad student loans and anything less than $35K a year makes it incredibly difficult to afford cost of living, loan payments, etc. If I did work, I would want to do something medically related, but I don't know many places that will pay me $45k+ (what I was making before I went back to school). I could probably find a job doing marketing again, but I don't know many places that would hire me knowing I don't intend on staying more than a year. While I understand that doing a masters means more student debt, I'm excited by the programs I'd like to pursue. Unfortunately, I see doing a Masters' as a more reliable option than finding a short-term job.

 

[shannonigans]

^But if people have had luck finding short-term clinical/medically related positions that pay decently, I'd love to hear about it!

 

[wholeheartedly]

If you really want to do research, I'd suggest trying to get your foot in the door a bit now and try to get a fulltime research tech type position at your school on your gap year as opposed to a masters degree. Or try for a part-time research position along with a position as a scribe (which would get you clinical experience along with some good shadowing). Completing training / certification now for something like phlebotomy (also good clinical experience and generally decent benefits as well) might also open up some good job prospects, depending on where you are living.

Don't forget you can set federal loans up for income based repayment, so hopefully that will help you with finances as well so you don't need to go into further debt with a masters before medical school.

Also, depending on your situation, do you have to stay where you currently are with the tight job market, or will you have some flexibility to relocate within your state of residence after you graduate.

Research is always good to have, but it can be debatable how much you need as a Nontrad, which depends on the schools you apply to and so on. That discussion has come up in here before and a search might find some more points of view.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Some places look for phlebotomy certification, some don't. I'd vote for getting certified if thats something you want to try for, so make sure you get certified by a reputable board, ie and attend an accredited program.

• American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP)
• National Healthcareer Association (NHA)
• National Center for Competency Testing (NCCT) — National Certified Phlebotomy Technician

Or whatever is listed as required by local hospitals.

 

[shannonigans]

Thanks for the tips, @wholeheartedly- I really appreciate it!

 

[shannonigans]

Re: IBR. I did have IBR before going back to school. However, it was based on my pre-taxed income and it was really difficult to manage when I was earning below $35K along with my other living expenses and bills. I'm searching phlebotomy tech positions in my area and the average salary is $28K- that's just not a feasible income, especially when I earned almost double before I started my post-bacc.

I think people should definitely consider working as opposed to going into more debt for a Masters, but there seems to be a lack of understanding on this forum that the pay for these positions won't work for a lot of people. In my area, the average salaries for positions like phlebotomy, EKG tech, etc are all topping off at $30K while median rent is almost $1400/month and rising every year. When 3/4 of your moderate income is going towards housing/transportation and you're feeling the need to supplement that income with credit cards, at some point additional student loan debt becomes the more favorable option.