Interviewing when pregnant

[MedicineForLife 777]

Hi everyone! A friend and I are debating whether it's ok for a female to attend a med school interview when she's pregnant (able to see the full belly) or whether it would be better to wait a year before interviewing. Any thoughts? 😀

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[Disinence2]

I would still interview regardless, if you get in u could always defer for a year. ide say having a child is a pretty compelling reason

 

[BellyDancingDoc]

This is a really interesting question. Try asking LizzyM or REL (both adcom members) for their perspecitive). Alternatively, you could post to the "my semi-solocited advice" thread stickied to the top of the Pre-Allo forum to hear the thoughts of Adcomm and or Adcom2.

That having been said, is it OK? Of course it's OK, especially in this day and age. I think the more central question would be, is it significantly more ideal to interview having already had the child, so that adcoms could repose more confidnce in your demonstrated abilities to balance your parenting respinsibilities with schoolwork.

Frogs

 

[szhao]

if you have money to kill why not

 

[stoppushingit]

if you have money to kill why not

um, that's not the OP's point.🙄
it's because being pregnant may bring on more questions regarding raising a family as a first year medical student.

 

[cgscribe]

I think it's certainly risky. While adcomms can't ask those sorts of personal questions, showing up pregnant obviously addresses the fact that you'll be balancing family/study. That could certainly scare off schools (fair or not). If you can hide it, I say go for it.

 

[HumbleMD]

I think it's certainly risky. While adcomms can't ask those sorts of personal questions, showing up pregnant obviously addresses the fact that you'll be balancing family/study. That could certainly scare off schools (fair or not). If you can hide it, I say go for it.

I'd hope that they would question your academics because of a pregnancy. I think the bigger question would be thinking about the fact you may be missing school the first year, and planning on deferring, whereas they want to accept people who will actually be attending their school, preferably in the following year. As others have said I'd ask an advisor you've been working with, or the adcom members here on SDN.

 

[cgscribe]

Like I said, fair or unfair, you'll be judged if you're pregnant during an interview. If an employer was looking for someone to commit years of long hours and arduous work, and all else is equal, knowing that someone has a kid will affect their decision. Such is life.

 

[DoctorMom78]

Hi everyone! A friend and I are debating whether it's ok for a female to attend a med school interview when she's pregnant (able to see the full belly) or whether it would be better to wait a year before interviewing. Any thoughts? 😀

I say go for it. I think that you would run the risk of being "judged" because you are pregnant, but I think if you are a strong applicant and carry yourself well then it would work out in the end. It also makes a difference if you have other children. I have four children and that has come up in all of my interviews, but I feel I have already proven that I can balance going to school and raising a family. If it is your first child then you really have no idea what it will really big like having to take care of a child. (If I were interviewing you and it was your first child I might be a little bit concerned about how you would handle med school and a baby.) Ultimately, the reaction you receive depends on who interviews you. It is something that definitely could go either way.😀

 

[BellyDancingDoc]

I say go for it. I think that you would run the risk of being "judged" because you are pregnant, but I think if you are a strong applicant and carry yourself well then it would work out in the end. It also makes a difference if you have other children. I have four children and that has come up in all of my interviews, but I feel I have already proven that I can balance going to school and raising a family. If it is your first child then you really have no idea what it will really big like having to take care of a child. (If I were interviewing you and it was your first child I might be a little bit concerned about how you would handle med school and a baby.) Ultimately, the reaction you receive depends on who interviews you. It is something that definitely could go either way.😀

Agreed. This is why I suspect it may be better for the OP to wait until she has had the baby before applying. In this way, she'll be able to describe how she'll balance parenting and scholarly duties more creditably.

Frogs

 

[EBI831]

wait. ppl try to pretend they are openminded but i'm sure it will run through their head that it will be difficult to balance a newborn and give your all to medicine. i know ppl who have been grilled for just being married ie what will happen with the husband/wife's job etc, pregnancy i feel is more intense than marriage.

 

[LizzyM]

I interview applicants. If I interviewed a woman who appeared pregnant, I would not think anything of it and I would not bring it up in the interview to avoid any question of discrimination on that basis. I would not mention it in my write up of the interview unless the applicant asked me to tell the adcom what her plans were with regard to the baby. I think that it is only fair that a woman who is pregnant be judged on the same basis as every other applicant, "why medicine" and evidence in the interview of maturity,integrity, empathy, interests outside of academics, respect for others, and responsibililty.

Presumably, someone who is interviewing for a place in next year's class intends to attend classes. Someone who plans to be a stay-at-home mom in the coming academic year should not be interviewing.

From the perspective of an interviewer, it is my opinion that it doesn't matter if an applicant is married, engaged, pregnant, or whatever.... the question I need to answer is "is our school a good fit for this applicant and if so, how can we persuade this applicant to matriculate here?" Whether the applicant will be a parent at the time of matriculation is not a relevant question.

(We certainly don't ask these questions of women who don't look pregnant but who would be more likely to deliver closer to the start of the school year. And we don't ask questions about parenthood when we interview male applicants. So why should women with "bellies" be any different.)

 

[evade]

I would tend to say she should go for it and interview. Your reproductive status should NEVER hold you back. I mean, sure, if a woman knows she's pregnant in June and knows she wants to take that first year with her baby, she might think twice about sending in that AMCAS for the sake of convenience.

But let's think critically for a moment. This is a LONG process. Some applicants don't get interviews until January, February, March. I certainly had a couple in Feb (though I had several that were earlier, too). It is entirely possible that when that woman hit the "submit" button on her AMCAS, she wasn't pregnant. By the time she hits that February interview, she's going to be 8 months pregnant. Do you think she should throw it all away once that home pregnancy test shows two pink lines? Hell no.

Even if she knew she was pregnant when she was submitting her AMCAS, there are plenty of reasons for going through with it then. Maybe it's the last year that her MCAT scores are good. Maybe she's out of a job and doesn't want to find another one for one more year. Maybe now is the time she can financially swing it. Either way, if it's what she wants, she should absolutely interview while pregnant. To discriminate against an applicant because she's going to have a baby is flat-out wrong.

PS: I'm also a student interviewer. 🙂

 

[Haemulon]

I interview applicants. If I interviewed a woman who appeared pregnant, I would not think anything of it and I would not bring it up in the interview to avoid any question of discrimination on that basis. I would not mention it in my write up of the interview unless the applicant asked me to tell the adcom what her plans were with regard to the baby. I think that it is only fair that a woman who is pregnant be judged on the same basis as every other applicant, "why medicine" and evidence in the interview of maturity,integrity, empathy, interests outside of academics, respect for others, and responsibililty.

Presumably, someone who is interviewing for a place in next year's class intends to attend classes. Someone who plans to be a stay-at-home mom in the coming academic year should not be interviewing.

From the perspective of an interviewer, it is my opinion that it doesn't matter if an applicant is married, engaged, pregnant, or whatever.... the question I need to answer is "is our school a good fit for this applicant and if so, how can we persuade this applicant to matriculate here?" Whether the applicant will be a parent at the time of matriculation is not a relevant question.

(We certainly don't ask these questions of women who don't look pregnant but who would be more likely to deliver closer to the start of the school year. And we don't ask questions about parenthood when we interview male applicants. So why should women with "bellies" be any different.)

I really like your perspective/approach. However, these questions do come up at some schools. Even for me, a married male with kids, my interviewers really grilled me about how my wife feels about my time committment in medical school and how I would handle being a Dad and a medstudent/doctor. This came up several times during the interview and I had to keep reiterating that everyone was on board and that I was confident that I could balance family and medicine. That being said, it is certainly ok to be pregnant and in medical school. However, it definitely does put one at a disadvantage in many instances. Especially m3/m4 years and PG1, where being pregnant or having new little ones can really interfere with time commitments and training. Somehow I suspect that at least some schools take this into consideration.

 

[dokota]

I was pregnant when I went to all my interviews. Well I was blessed to have early interviews so I wasn't showing then. I think I was showing a bit on my last interview but I think people just thought that I was fat. However, I do have a son and I wrote about him in my my personal statement. All my interviewers asked me how I was going to combine that with med school and I told them my mind: "It's been done and I have been able to maintain a solid A average in Master's program while I work full time with a family. That seemed to pacify them. I even told them how having a family affected my study habits positively because I had to make time for family, work and school. Being an overachiever, I wasn't going to settle for anything less than an A in my coursework and be a mediocre mom/wife. I tried to be good at all of them although it was difficult and I wouldn't make it without my supportive husband."

Well, I guess my response was good anough for them becasue I have received offers and have made up my mind where I'm going. My baby girl will be three months old when I start med school. It will be challenging but I am going to take med school like an 8-5 job with occassional late night hours. Think about it, there are women with 3 or 4 kids who work two jobs to make ends meet and they survive.

On the other hand, I went to a Physician Assistant interview at a very prestigious medical school when I was 9 months pregnant and did not get accepted. I know it's because I was pregnant becuase when I asked the Dean of admissions to review my file, he could not give me any good reason for my not being accepted except that it was probably due to something that happened during the interview and that I should reapply. I was like, forget y'all then. That was my backup just in case med school didn't work out.

And now I'm going to med school YIPEEE!!!!!

 

[pirata]

Another thought: would you want to go to a medical school that will dismiss your app just because you're pregnant? I recently stayed with an M4 that was visibly pregnant and in the process of interviewing for residencies...she's had nothing but excellent experiences so far.

 

[littlephiLLy]

who is to assume this pregnant woman is married??