Is there any way I can get clinical experience without a car?

[tahdig]

I'm entering my senior year of college (graduating in 3 semesters). cGPA 3.48 (GPA trends -> 3.85, 3.3, 3.3 semester 1) and I have no clinical/nonclinical experience due to a myriad of Covid related and other reasons; I'm well aware I need at least 1 gap year (or maybe 5) to compensate for this.

Is there any way I can get clinical experience if I live in the south and was not blessed with a car? I was looking into virtual scribing but I don't think it would be taken seriously in my application, even if I bring up the lack of transportation.

Edit: W/O naming names, will apply broadly + tailor my application to a medical school that takes many students from my school and getting heavily involved in an EC tied to this med school over the summer at latest

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[Mr.Smile12]

I don't know how to help if you aren't in an area without public transportation, but it won't help if you wind up in a medical school where you would have to drive a lot either. Your grade trend suggests you will need to do some postbac work but it wouldn't mean anything if you don't have the clinical experience or community service first. Not having reliable transportation is a setback for most jobs. It also means you probably are not attending a university with a medical school within walking distance to get clinical experience. What are the circumstances why you would not have a car available to you now or in the near future?

 

[KnightDoc]

I don't know how to help if you aren't in an area without public transportation, but it won't help if you wind up in a medical school where you would have to drive a lot either. Your grade trend suggests you will need to do some postbac work but it wouldn't mean anything if you don't have the clinical experience or community service first. Not having reliable transportation is a setback for most jobs. It also means you probably are not attending a university with a medical school within walking distance to get clinical experience. What are the circumstances why you would not have a car available to you now or in the near future?

This^^^^.

Not having transportation is not going to excuse not having expected experiences. It means you are going to have to take gap years, and either get a car or get yourself to a place where you don't need one.

Tailoring an application to one specific school is a form of putting all your eggs in one basket, which is rarely a good idea. Particularly not in a thing with a 64% failure rate, like med school admissions. Applying broadly with an application tailored to a specific school sounds like a recipe for disaster. It's great that this school takes many students from your UG, so what does that translate to? Maybe a 10% accept rate from your UG as opposed to an overall accept rate of 5% or less? Good luck!!

 

[chilly_md]

That declining GPA trend may be a big concern for people reading your application. You do mention that you are ok taking gap years, but it probably makes sense for you to try to shadow and get a bit of clinical experience to see if being a physician actually is something you want to do. It is better to make sure you want to proceed with this career path, especially since you already have finished a majority of your time in college. Otherwise, pivot to something else.

 

[Goro]

I'm entering my senior year of college (graduating in 3 semesters). cGPA 3.48 (GPA trends -> 3.85, 3.3, 3.3 semester 1) and I have no clinical/nonclinical experience due to a myriad of Covid related and other reasons; I'm well aware I need at least 1 gap year (or maybe 5) to compensate for this.

Is there any way I can get clinical experience if I live in the south and was not blessed with a car? I was looking into virtual scribing but I don't think it would be taken seriously in my application, even if I bring up the lack of transportation.

Edit: W/O naming names, will apply broadly + tailor my application to a medical school that takes many students from my school and getting heavily involved in an EC tied to this med school over the summer at latest

How do you know that you want to be a doctor if you don't have any clinical experience?

How will you know what you're getting into?

How do you really know that you're want to spend the next 30 to 40 years being around sick and injured people?

 

[tahdig]

I keep having to edit my messages lol but thank you for all of the help!

How do you know that you want to be a doctor if you don't have any clinical experience?

How will you know what you're getting into?

How do you really know that you're want to spend the next 30 to 40 years being around sick and injured people?

@Goro: I was chronically sick as a kid (nothing major right now *knock on wood*) but I was in and out of hospitals and doctors offices quite a lot. I have a good idea of what being a patient is like but I don't really have a clear idea of what being a doctor is like (which is why I'm working on getting shadowing hours for this summer right now). Note: Doesn't count for much and very anecdotal but I spent half an hour looking at the anatomy of my knee yesterday.

I don't know how to help if you aren't in an area without public transportation, but it won't help if you wind up in a medical school where you would have to drive a lot either. Your grade trend suggests you will need to do some postbac work but it wouldn't mean anything if you don't have the clinical experience or community service first. Not having reliable transportation is a setback for most jobs. It also means you probably are not attending a university with a medical school within walking distance to get clinical experience. What are the circumstances why you would not have a car available to you now or in the near future?

Grades: My gpa is still within the realm of salvageable, I think (I have 4 semesters worth of credit left including this one). I'm fairly confident I might be able to bring my gpa back up to at least a 3.5/6-ish, since I'm doing well in my upper division science classes at the moment. I was planning on consulting with the pre med advising at my school after spring break, so I'll see what they think about the possibility of a post bacc while I'm at it.

Transportation: I live in an urban area but the public transportation has much room for improvement, so I use an Uber/Lyft if I need to. My parents can't finance a car since my brother and I are full time students and they pay for the bulk of our tuition and housing (they'll be paying for my youngest sibling in Fall 2023) so if I get one it would have to be on my own dime.
I would either have to get a remote, part time job with very flexible scheduling, a job which will pay me enough to cover transportation + something close to school, or quit school to work full time to save up for a car.
It will be very hard for me to balance classes + work because of my school (Think of it as being pre-med at Caltech), so the implication of this is basically sacrificing my health and living on a school->work pipeline for the next year and a half without the guarantee of my grades surviving.

This^^^^.

Not having transportation is not going to excuse not having expected experiences. It means you are going to have to take gap years, and either get a car or get yourself to a place where you don't need one.

Tailoring an application to one specific school is a form of putting all your eggs in one basket, which is rarely a good idea. Particularly not in a thing with a 64% failure rate, like med school admissions. Applying broadly with an application tailored to a specific school sounds like a recipe for disaster. It's great that this school takes many students from your UG, so what does that translate to? Maybe a 10% accept rate from your UG as opposed to an overall accept rate of 5% or less? Good luck!!

Potential Med School: The two schools are 15 minutes by car (Think Harvard and MIT-like connection) and have a strong academic relationship (one of my professors works at the Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis Center associated with the institution). I don't have exact percentages, but I can find 609 alumni associated with the medical school on linkedin (not exactly comforting now that I look at it), currently looking into a volunteering program tied to the medical school.

I can go into any other specifics over a private message if any of you are interested, but otherwise I will resume stressing over this tomorrow.

 

[KnightDoc]

Transportation: I live in an urban area but the public transportation has much room for improvement, so I use an Uber/Lyft if I need to. My parents can't finance a car since my brother and I are full time students and they pay for the bulk of our tuition and housing (they'll be paying for my youngest sibling in Fall 2023) so if I get one it would have to be on my own dime.
I would either have to get a remote, part time job with very flexible scheduling, a job which will pay me enough to cover transportation + something close to school, or quit school to work full time to save up for a car.
It will be very hard for me to balance classes + work because of my school (Think of it as being pre-med at Caltech), so the implication of this is basically sacrificing my health and living on a school->work pipeline for the next year and a half without the guarantee of my grades surviving.

No need to either stress or sacrifice your grades or your health. You just need to pace yourself and do what you can, when you can. Just resist the urge to apply with a half-baked application. That is unlikely to work out in your favor.

 

[chilly_md]

I keep having to edit my messages lol but thank you for all of the help!



@Goro: I was chronically sick as a kid (nothing major right now *knock on wood*) but I was in and out of hospitals and doctors offices quite a lot. I have a good idea of what being a patient is like but I don't really have a clear idea of what being a doctor is like (which is why I'm working on getting shadowing hours for this summer right now). Note: Doesn't count for much and very anecdotal but I spent half an hour looking at the anatomy of my knee yesterday.



Grades: My gpa is still within the realm of salvageable, I think (I have 4 semesters worth of credit left including this one). I'm fairly confident I might be able to bring my gpa back up to at least a 3.5/6-ish, since I'm doing well in my upper division science classes at the moment. I was planning on consulting with the pre med advising at my school after spring break, so I'll see what they think about the possibility of a post bacc while I'm at it.

Transportation: I live in an urban area but the public transportation has much room for improvement, so I use an Uber/Lyft if I need to. My parents can't finance a car since my brother and I are full time students and they pay for the bulk of our tuition and housing (they'll be paying for my youngest sibling in Fall 2023) so if I get one it would have to be on my own dime.
I would either have to get a remote, part time job with very flexible scheduling, a job which will pay me enough to cover transportation + something close to school, or quit school to work full time to save up for a car.
It will be very hard for me to balance classes + work because of my school (Think of it as being pre-med at Caltech), so the implication of this is basically sacrificing my health and living on a school->work pipeline for the next year and a half without the guarantee of my grades surviving.



Potential Med School: The two schools are 15 minutes by car (Think Harvard and MIT-like connection) and have a strong academic relationship (one of my professors works at the Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis Center associated with the institution). I don't have exact percentages, but I can find 609 alumni associated with the medical school on linkedin (not exactly comforting now that I look at it), currently looking into a volunteering program tied to the medical school.

I can go into any other specifics over a private message if any of you are interested, but otherwise I will resume stressing over this tomorrow.

You should focus on improving your grades and getting shadowing hours to see what a physician’s work day is like. Without the grades, it doesn’t matter if the 2 schools are 15 minutes apart. Seems like that is already your plan. You should also see how you feel about being around sick people in-person as that is drastically different than just being a patient yourself. There may be a creative way to get you transportation for that, but right now I don’t see how given your situation.

I assume that will remain the same throughout college, but you can try volunteering at non-clinical areas first at someplace close to school. Maybe there’s a student organization that helps at a food bank or homeless shelter and you can carpool with somebody. At least that gives you an idea of the altruism required for medicine even if it’s not clinically related. The summer activity might also help depending on what it exactly is. I assume it’s located on the undergrad school campus as opposed to the medical one, which is currently too far away without a car.

 

[Goro]

I keep having to edit my messages lol but thank you for all of the help!



@Goro: I was chronically sick as a kid (nothing major right now *knock on wood*) but I was in and out of hospitals and doctors offices quite a lot. I have a good idea of what being a patient is like but I don't really have a clear idea of what being a doctor is like (which is why I'm working on getting shadowing hours for this summer right now). Note: Doesn't count for much and very anecdotal but I spent half an hour looking at the anatomy of my knee yesterday.

I can't sugar coat this, it doesn't count for much at all.
Without clinical exposure (and being a patient doesn't count), you'll just get crowded out by candidates with such clinical experiences.

Suggest working for a few years, saving up for a car and then get in that experience if you're not able to in the short term.

 

[trillianMcMillan]

Have you looked into whether you have anything clinical (if not a hospital than an outpatient office, hospice, mental health crisis center, urgent care) within biking distance? I wouldn't overload yourself during school, but over the summer or post-graduation that could be a good option. I have a relative who was a home health aide for someone in her neighborhood in college -- of course you'd want to ask yourself if that's a job you want to do, have the time for and can do well, but maybe worth considering.