Nontraditional - Postbac with short timeline; Advice

[cgs]

I am new to this website and have spent the last couple hours looking at different forums, but haven't found exactly what I was looking for. Here is a brief bio followed by my questions.

I am 26 years old, graduated in May 08 with a degree in communications and currently in my third postbac semester of science classes. I graduated with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 and in my post bac have a 3.91 thus far. After graduation, I had a couple different jobs with my last one working for a medical equipment company. I worked in the OR managing laparoscopic instruments and logged about 1500 hours in the OR. This is were I decided medicine is where I wanted to be and went back to school a year ago. I am taking 17 hours this semester as well as a MCAT prep course offered through my university that meets 3 times a week. I also was blessed with the birth of my first daughter over the Christmas break. With this being said, I am going to be very busy this semester and was wanting your advice on what EC's you feel I need to focus on in my limited free time before I apply this summer. I was active during my undergrad especially with my fraternity, but I feel I am lacking in the comm. service/volunteering area. Will adcoms ( i've seen that in a lot of forums and am guessing it stands for admission committees, but don't laugh at me if im way off) take into consideration taking 56 hours in 18 months, having a child as well as working part time to pay the bills when looking at a lack of EC's I may have? I was also going to look into research opportunities but my advisor told me not to do research just to do it to put on an application. He said for me to make sure I do well in my classes and study for the MCAT instead of trying to do research in order to fill up my application. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

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[FrkyBgStok]

Congrats on the baby. They will consider your work load however they won't cut you any slack. It sucks but it is what it is. In addition, you will be competing against traditional students as well nontraditional ones that made time for ECs. as a personal example, I worked a 50 hour job and a 20 hour every week with 20 credits, active in shadowing and volunteering and 3 kids for the year I applied and my interviewers still mentioned that if I would have attended school part time I probably wouldn't have been accepted.

The good news is, you lack community service and that's about the main thing. If you can get a two hour per week average until you apply you can fill that which should be easy. That is 8 hours per month. Basically, I volunteered at my kids's school once every other week and got it. Remaining active in ECs is essential for the best chances.

 

[Jikmik]

Congrats on the baby. They will consider your work load however they won't cut you any slack. It sucks but it is what it is. In addition, you will be competing against traditional students as well nontraditional ones that made time for ECs. as a personal example, I worked a 50 hour job and a 20 hour every week with 20 credits, active in shadowing and volunteering and 3 kids for the year I applied and my interviewers still mentioned that if I would have attended school part time I probably wouldn't have been accepted.

The good news is, you lack community service and that's about the main thing. If you can get a two hour per week average until you apply you can fill that which should be easy. That is 8 hours per month. Basically, I volunteered at my kids's school once every other week and got it. Remaining active in ECs is essential for the best chances.

Wow. It sounds like your plate was extremely full. While finishing up your prerequisites did you attend a community college, or a university? My son was born in November and I am trying to figure out how I can continue to work a full-time job AND attend my local research university full-time. I only have science courses left to complete, so I need to do very well in order to get accepted to MD school. Trying to land a job in a medical center/hospital may be my best bet. What would you recommend?

 

[FrkyBgStok]

Wow. It sounds like your plate was extremely full. While finishing up your prerequisites did you attend a community college, or a university? My son was born in November and I am trying to figure out how I can continue to work a full-time job AND attend my local research university full-time. I only have science courses left to complete, so I need to do very well in order to get accepted to MD school. Trying to land a job in a medical center/hospital may be my best bet. What would you recommend?

I took everything at universities, but it was many. I basically cherry picked the class and time I wanted from all the colleges in the area. I also drive a semi so if I wanted the 50 hour job could double as study time with a voice recorder an a FM transmitter. I also worked patient transport on the weekends knocking out my clinical experience and if we were slow I would study. My FT job was also nights 4 days per week so I could ram my classes in the morning and drink coffee like crazy. But weeks we didn't have class I would shadow and/or volunteer. It sucked and the only way it worked is that everything fell in place for me. I would definitely recommend a university and if you can take night classes, do it. I do not mean to say a schedule like mine is necessary, but I am confident that pushing myself past what I ever thought was the main reason I received interview offers to every school I applied to. It doesn't have to be like that, but it increases the odds.

 

[Jikmik]

 

[Jikmik]

I took everything at universities, but it was many. I basically cherry picked the class and time I wanted from all the colleges in the area. I also drive a semi so if I wanted the 50 hour job could double as study time with a voice recorder an a FM transmitter. I also worked patient transport on the weekends knocking out my clinical experience and if we were slow I would study. My FT job was also nights 4 days per week so I could ram my classes in the morning and drink coffee like crazy. But weeks we didn't have class I would shadow and/or volunteer. It sucked and the only way it worked is that everything fell in place for me. I would definitely recommend a university and if you can take night classes, do it. I do not mean to say a schedule like mine is necessary, but I am confident that pushing myself past what I ever thought was the main reason I received interview offers to every school I applied to. It doesn't have to be like that, but it increases the odds.

I find your success very encouraging. I am trying to make a transition from a my current full-time job, to a part-time job while attending University of Colorado Denver full-time. I still need to complete College Algebra before I can take Chem or Physics. My plan is to continue working as a full-time banker, while taking College Algebra at my local accredited community college in the evening (the credits will transfer). unfortunately CU Denver does not offer College Algebra as a night or online class. From what I have heard, taking this one math course at a CC should not "taint" my record, especially if all of my science prerequisites are completed at the 4 year university. If adcoms ask why I took a class at a CC I will explain my family, work, financial, and time situation. It is better to start now, than be held back an entire semester for one course.

 

[theseeker4]

I find your success very encouraging. I am trying to make a transition from a my current full-time job, to a part-time job while attending University of Colorado Denver full-time. I still need to complete College Algebra before I can take Chem or Physics. My plan is to continue working as a full-time banker, while taking College Algebra at my local accredited community college in the evening (the credits will transfer). unfortunately CU Denver does not offer College Algebra as a night or online class. From what I have heard, taking this one math course at a CC should not "taint" my record, especially if all of my science prerequisites are completed at the 4 year university. If adcoms ask why I took a class at a CC I will explain my family, work, financial, and time situation. It is better to start now, than be held back an entire semester for one course.

Sounds like you are all set in what you should be doing. I agree that only the most picky schools (which would be an extreme long shot anyway) would care about a college algebra class at a community college. Getting A's in the science classes at the university will be plenty for the adcoms to ignore the fact that you took a basic math class at a CC.

Fit in a bit of community service, in something you want to and enjoy doing, and it sounds like you are pretty much on track. Maybe shadow a few doctors including primary care on a day off here or there (such as between semesters) to show you have explored what being a doctor is actually like.