Launching a freelance writing "career" while applying to medical school, what are the consequences?

[stayathomemom]

As a recovering homemaker, I'm trying to leverage my skills (and my tiny bit of legit experience) as a writer into a full-time "career" (which, if everything goes according to plan, will be usurped by medical school and medicine as my primary career). In order to do so, I'm trying to establish some social media/webpage presence so clients can get to know me. However, I am concerned that an admissions committee could view this recent turn of events as an indication that I am not fully committed to medicine as a career, and my new writing "career" could do more harm than good. Normally, I would write under a pen name to work around this issue, but I'd like to parlay my writing work into my medical career and do some medical/health writing when I actually have medical credibility, so I'd like my writing name and medical professional name to match; a pen name is not a feasible solution. To make matters a bit more complicated, I'm also interested in testing the copywriting waters, but copywriting is such a curveball from medicine it's really not related. (If you are unfamiliar, copywriting is writing the written part of advertising/marketing.) So that would be more difficult to explain in a med school interview.

What do you think? If you were evaluating applicants, what would you think of this?

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[armybound]

Everyone needs to make a living. I think it's interesting and unique. They're not going to think you're not interested in medicine because you had to find a way to earn money.

We had a resident applicant who had a restaurant review blog. I thought it was one of the most interesting applications I'd seen.

 

[stayathomemom]

Everyone needs to make a living. I think it's interesting and unique. They're not going to think you're not interested in medicine because you had to find a way to earn money.

We had a resident applicant who had a restaurant review blog. I thought it was one of the most interesting applications I'd seen.

Thank you for your reply. Yeah, I'm doing this primarily for the income so hopefully they'll understand I intend for it to be more or less a gap year gig (while my future writing clients are none-the-wiser about my med school plans).

 

[907914]

Silly question: Won’t it take longer than the 9 months you have left before matriculating to establish clientele, a reputation, and actually start to profit from this? (have you heard back from the school yet? I hope you have heard back from your school...) And in medical school writing will have to take the back burner...

 

[stayathomemom]

Silly question: Won’t it take longer than the 9 months you have left before matriculating to establish clientele, a reputation, and actually start to profit from this? (have you heard back from the school yet? I hope you have heard back from your school...) And in medical school writing will have to take the back burner...

No, I haven't heard back from my school. If a normal person asked me this, I would scream internally. But I know that you know my pain, so as long as you commiserate with me I'm cool with that.

Anyway, to answer your first question, no. You can get paid right away, although the hustle seems rough. I have the luxury of not needing to pay all of my household's bills, but this initial income will more than likely just go towards my kids' college savings plans that we've recently had to stop contributing to. Maybe it will amount to more than that, which would be a welcome development. The nice thing about writing is that the cost of startup is basically zero (the only investment I'm considering is a web domain and hosting service, which costs about $50/year).

 

[IsleyOfTheNorth]

Why not focus your efforts solely on getting into med school? Surely you'd make a lot more money towards your kids' college fund by not having to (potentially) take a gap year?

 

[deleted987519]

No, I haven't heard back from my school. If a normal person asked me this, I would scream internally. But I know that you know my pain, so as long as you commiserate with me I'm cool with that.

Anyway, to answer your first question, no. You can get paid right away, although the hustle seems rough. I have the luxury of not needing to pay all of my household's bills, but this initial income will more than likely just go towards my kids' college savings plans that we've recently had to stop contributing to. Maybe it will amount to more than that, which would be a welcome development. The nice thing about writing is that the cost of startup is basically zero (the only investment I'm considering is a web domain and hosting service, which costs about $50/year).

What ONE school did you apply to

 

[Goro]

As a recovering homemaker, I'm trying to leverage my skills (and my tiny bit of legit experience) as a writer into a full-time "career" (which, if everything goes according to plan, will be usurped by medical school and medicine as my primary career). In order to do so, I'm trying to establish some social media/webpage presence so clients can get to know me. However, I am concerned that an admissions committee could view this recent turn of events as an indication that I am not fully committed to medicine as a career, and my new writing "career" could do more harm than good. Normally, I would write under a pen name to work around this issue, but I'd like to parlay my writing work into my medical career and do some medical/health writing when I actually have medical credibility, so I'd like my writing name and medical professional name to match; a pen name is not a feasible solution. To make matters a bit more complicated, I'm also interested in testing the copywriting waters, but copywriting is such a curveball from medicine it's really not related. (If you are unfamiliar, copywriting is writing the written part of advertising/marketing.) So that would be more difficult to explain in a med school interview.

What do you think? If you were evaluating applicants, what would you think of this?

I'd think it's fine.

as a teaching moment, not everything you do has to revolve around medicine

 

[stayathomemom]

I'd think it's fine.

as a teaching moment, not everything you do has to revolve around medicine

Alright, duly noted. I appreciate it. (There's enough self-doubt about being a non-trad that I worry about being taken seriously. Thanks for the reassurance.)

 

[stayathomemom]

Why not focus your efforts solely on getting into med school? Surely you'd make a lot more money towards your kids' college fund by not having to (potentially) take a gap year?

Naturally.

What ONE school did you apply to

Feel free to browse my post history for the backstory.

 

[deleted804295]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't you only apply to 1 school?

 

[deleted987519]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't you only apply to 1 school?

Yeah. Feel free to browse her post history for the backstory

 

[907914]

Yeah. Feel free to browse her post history for the backstory

Y’all, random hate don’t need hate...

@stayathomemom I feel like if writing is your passion outside of medicine and you don’t need to necessarily worry about the income then go for it. No ADCOM at your school will care. Given how they love Nontrads, if you can speak passionately about it, you should be A-OK when you get your interview.