Need input on how am I doing

[Jaxey]

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Hello,

This is my first post here, and I would really appreciate some input on how am I doing.

I am a non-traditional pre-med student. I am not a citizen (green card), but I have established residency in CA.

I am 27 years old married female. I will apply for both MD and DO schools in summer 2017.
My GPA is good (3.95 total, 3.87 sGPA), and I have not taken MCAT yet.

I am not sure how am I doing on my EC's.... I am currently a Junior at a private university, and to support myself through school I have to work, which does not leave much free time for EC's. For my entire undergraduate career I have been working 30-40 hrs per week and taking 16-17 units per semester.
That in mind, here are my EC's:

144 hours of volunteering at a hospital
10 hours shadowing an orthopedic surgeon (1 day in office + 1 spine surgery)
8 hours volunteering for non-profit
I will not have ANY research experience.
I should be able to get more shadowing and more volunteering by the time I apply.

What do you think? Do I have a chance at getting into a medical school?

 

[eteshoe]

Once you have a solid MCAT score (85th percentile+), more shadowing, and volunteering - you should be in good shape.

 

[futuremdforme]

Your volunteer hours are on track so if you can maintain whatever you're doing now, that's great. Shadowing a few more days would be good but don't go crazy with it. I would not be too concerned about the research as long as you don't apply to research-heavy schools.

 

[Jaxey]

Thank you for your responses!

I was reading all the long lists of EC's for traditional students and freaked out that mine is so meager. My pre-med advisor said that AdComs should take into consideration the class load and full time work hours that I have as a reasonable explanation to why I do not have more stuff done. Do you think it will actually matter?

 

[italiancowgirl]

What kind of work? What kind of leadership or skill building have you been able to do with your work? Your whole life will be "evaluated" so how you learned from those experiences matters. For example, I worked in food service and was able to discuss how customer service had helped me interact with people of all different backgrounds and gain perspective. It is important for you to continue building your ECs also but if you can show you were building yourself through hard work and dedication to the experiences available to you they will appreciate it. GL you can do it!

 

[futuremdforme]

Thank you for your responses!

I was reading all the long lists of EC's for traditional students and freaked out that mine is so meager. My pre-med advisor said that AdComs should take into consideration the class load and full time work hours that I have as a reasonable explanation to why I do not have more stuff done. Do you think it will actually matter?

You can put your paid work as an EC and talk about what you learned. No matter what the job is, you can find useful skills -- work ethic, persistence despite fatigue, interacting with others, diversity familiarity, etc. You might find a way to reference it subtly in your PS too but if it doesn't fit, don't worry about it. Remember that people on SDN are not typical so don't let their stats freak you out. Your volunteering and shadowing is absolutely fine for this stage, and probably ahead of the game since you're applying in 2017, not this summer. Just remember to keep your GPA up and give the MCAT the respect it deserves.