pregnancy and interviewing

[Arista.MD]

I don't know if this belongs here, but do you or did someone you know interviewed for medical school while they were pregnant and the pregnancy was visible. My husband is older than me and we wanted to have the baby before starting medical school. I know people start families in medical school, but what about before, do adcoms look differently at the applicant?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

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[KyGrlDr2B]

I would think if you told your interviewers your reasoning they would think you were smart thinking for planning ahead. Half of my class has children and they were accepted just fine.

 

[docuw]

I think the fact that you asked the question, answers your question. You see, people will sit here and try to tell you yes or no, but the fact is that every adcom consists of PEOPLE. They get gut feelings about an individual. Some will think it is cool, others will think you will not be a good fit. It is all very subjective. The fact that you ask the question makes it likely that the adcom will at least think about it at some point. No one can tell what their take on it will be.

 

[doc05]

docuw is right. if you are visibly pregnant at your interview, they will assume you plan on deferring entry. this will work against you. best of luck.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I'll have to take the more conservative side here as well. Despite the fact that over 50% of current medical students are female, some of the old guard still haven't accepted it - bad enough being female, even worse being pregnant.

I should think that they might worry about how you will handle the inevitable adjustment (which is difficult for ANYONE) to first year medical school while pregnant. This is not to say that everyone will view it this way, but it seems to me that they may look askance at making two significant life decisions at the same time - both without having previous experience of same.

Might be easier to defer until you get in and then plan on having the babe between first and second years when you have some summer to get used to having a child, make all the arrangements you need.

 

[KyGrlDr2B]

I don't necessarily agree with the above posters. I guess if you are 21 then it might seem a little hurried to have a child before med school or whatever. But I see having a child before med school a pretty smart idea. This way you do not have to worry about missing class or exams due to delivery. And what if you have a difficult pregnancy and need a little less stress in your life? There were several people in my class who had children the summer before med school and yes, some of those include girls. So they were probably pregnant during interview season. There is one girl in my class who had a baby the friday before classes started back for 2nd year. She was back to class on thursday (our 4th day). I think that is way more stressful than having the child in advance so that you are not adjusting to a new class and a new baby at the same time.

Also, I think that if a school were to not accept me just because I happened to be pregnant, that I would not want to go to that school anyway. You want a place where the faculty is understanding and concerned with the class' well being. I guess I'm lucky because I go to a school like that and I just think that is expected.

 

[MSV MD 2B]

there are several people on www.mommd.copm who have had this experience. the threads move slowly though.