For the same reasons as Bryn Mawr.
Word to the wise - for those of you who are career changers, and have worked for more than 5 years in another field. YOU BETTER be willing to leave your career a year early so you can volunteer, and get your hands dirty. If you only have 40 hours of shadowing, are a VP of your condo board, and have built homes for habitat for humanity you will not make it.
BM and Goucher are not for true career professional changers. They are for recent grads, who have all the time in the world to volunteer, with very little responsibility or cachet to give up in order to go the medical route.
please take into consideration this post uses some generalizations
🙂
I am going to jump in on the side of businessmd06 here.
I had a similiar experience when applying at Tufts' post-bacc program, which also happens to be my alma mater. One would think that having graduated from Tufts and having very good recommendations from Science Faculty at Tufts would have helped me, but that was not the case.
I spent nearly 7 years in computers/IT consulting when I wanted to change careers. I had made amazing progress in my career and had demonstrated all of the qualities that make you successful in life and as a physician: leadership qualities, project management, effective communication skills, etc.
However, during my interview there, the women just simply could not understand why I hadn't been volunteering every weekend for a year prior to my application to their post-bacc. When I very calmly explained to her that my travel schedule for work, which frequently involved weekends, prevented me from committing to a rigid volunteering schedule that many hospitals required, she showed no sympathy. She even implied I should leave my job completely, do extensive volunteering, and then apply. I wanted to explain to her that financially it was impossible for me to do so, but I realized at that point that I would never change her mind.
At the interview, I chatted with other students. All were young, 1-2 years out of school, and were spending all of their time volunteering and padding their applications to post-bacc programs. They apparently didn't need to work in order to pay rent, buy food, etc. While I don't know if these students were accepted or not, they certainly looked very happy when they left the interview.
I could go on and on about this, but I won't. But when I read businessmd's post, it sounded exactly like my experience.
To generalize, the deck is stacked against people like myself. No matter how successful you are in your other career, no matter how many of your accomplishments are directly relevant for medical/dental school, if you don't meet the very narrow criteria set out by these Adcoms, you are dead in the water. After my rejection letter from the Tufts post-bacc program, that was crystal clear. I guess I should have quit my job, gone on welfare so that I could volunteer fulll time for a year, and then apply again to Tufts?
And in case anyone is wondering, I am currently a second year dental student and have had some amazing experiences with patients. Want to know how much my volunteer experience has helped me with my patient care? No impact at all! Want to know how much my prior business experience (the same experience that was practically laughed at by Tufts) has helped me with my patient care? All of it! I use all of the interpersonal and communications skills that I developed during my business career all the time in clinic.
To all the people who are in businessmd's predicament, just get through it, and realize that volunteering really doesn't mean anything. When I chat with the med students at my school, especially the M3s and M4s, they all mention that the volunteering/peace corps etc. is a bunch of b.s. So don't let the Adcoms at these post-bacc programs deter you. I didn't let them deter me, and I'm loving every minute of my patient care here at dental school. Good luck.
