Question about Medical School Admissions

[dragonandfire]

Hello everyone,

I hope you are doing well. I had a question to ask about medical school admissions. I completed my job at my previous workplace at the end of 2019 and was registered to take the MCAT exam at the end of March 2020. I had planned to take the exam and apply for new jobs in April so that I could work for about a year before hopefully starting classes the following Fall. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, my MCAT exam got canceled and since I lived with my grandparents I did not think it would be right for me to seek employment until things settled down. I took my MCAT in July 2020 and I have started applying to jobs again now with the hopes that things will be better with the vaccine on its way, hopefully by the end of this year. I wanted to ask if you guys thought that admissions committees will think that taking nearly a year off from working a full time position will come off as a bad sign? I don't want them to think less of me for choosing to make the decisions I did but I did so with the COVID-19 pandemic and my family in mind. Please let me know what you guys think. I really appreciate your time and consideration in reading and helping me!!!

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[lumya]

Your health and the health of your family matters more than the activities section of your med school apps. If you're asked about it, you can easily say that you spent the time taking care of family. The pandemic has affected a lot of people in different ways and most people will be understanding of that.

 

[KnightDoc]

Hello everyone,

I hope you are doing well. I had a question to ask about medical school admissions. I completed my job at my previous workplace at the end of 2019 and was registered to take the MCAT exam at the end of March 2020. I had planned to take the exam and apply for new jobs in April so that I could work for about a year before hopefully starting classes the following Fall. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, my MCAT exam got canceled and since I lived with my grandparents I did not think it would be right for me to seek employment until things settled down. I took my MCAT in July 2020 and I have started applying to jobs again now with the hopes that things will be better with the vaccine on its way, hopefully by the end of this year. I wanted to ask if you guys thought that admissions committees will think that taking nearly a year off from working a full time position will come off as a bad sign? I don't want them to think less of me for choosing to make the decisions I did but I did so with the COVID-19 pandemic and my family in mind. Please let me know what you guys think. I really appreciate your time and consideration in reading and helping me!!!

Depends. Have you been doing absolutely nothing for the past year? That's not exactly a good look. Do you have lots of EC hours otherwise? The advice to take care of yourself and your family is solid, but you also need to keep in mind that you will be competing with people who don't live with their grandparents and won't have a one year gap on their resumes.

It sucks, but, depending on what else is on your resume, you might need another gap year after things go back to normal so you can resume activities and have something to talk about in applications other than isolating yourself in a bubble to keep your grandparents safe.

 

[Goro]

Hello everyone,

I hope you are doing well. I had a question to ask about medical school admissions. I completed my job at my previous workplace at the end of 2019 and was registered to take the MCAT exam at the end of March 2020. I had planned to take the exam and apply for new jobs in April so that I could work for about a year before hopefully starting classes the following Fall. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, my MCAT exam got canceled and since I lived with my grandparents I did not think it would be right for me to seek employment until things settled down. I took my MCAT in July 2020 and I have started applying to jobs again now with the hopes that things will be better with the vaccine on its way, hopefully by the end of this year. I wanted to ask if you guys thought that admissions committees will think that taking nearly a year off from working a full time position will come off as a bad sign? I don't want them to think less of me for choosing to make the decisions I did but I did so with the COVID-19 pandemic and my family in mind. Please let me know what you guys think. I really appreciate your time and consideration in reading and helping me!!!

It's a common pre-med delusion that everything you do has to be involved with Medicine. Your gap year is OK, especially in the light of COVID.

 

[KnightDoc]

It's a common pre-med delusion that everything you do has to be involved with Medicine. Your gap year is OK, especially in the light of COVID.

You missed the premise of the question -- he's not asking whether everything has to do with medicine. He's asking if it's okay to do absolutely nothing for a year due to COVID and living with his grandparents. Are you seriously suggesting that is okay, after telling me and anyone else who asked last spring that med school isn't going anywhere and that med schools would not make any allowances at all for low EC hours due to the seller's market?

Apparently, it's a common adcom delusion that they can glance at a question without carefully reading it and still provide valuable advice and guidance.

 

[lumya]

You missed the premise of the question -- he's not asking whether everything has to do with medicine. He's asking if it's okay to do absolutely nothing for a year due to COVID and living with his grandparents. Are you seriously suggesting that is okay, after telling me and anyone else who asked last spring that med school isn't going anywhere and that med schools would not make any allowances at all for low EC hours due to the buyer's market?

Apparently, it's a common adcom delusion that they can glance at a question without carefully reading it and still provide valuable advice and guidance.

Your response is also not addressing OP’s question. The OP asked if it was fine to have a year without employment. Nothing about their other ECs or that they’re going to be doing nothing except sit at home and twiddle their thumbs. Obviously it looks bad if you have a huge gap of doing nothing, but “I was taking care of my grandparents” is a valid answer.

edit: I re read the original post and it says that OP was unemployed starting end of 2019 so it wasn’t all due to COVID. But I think “studying for the MCAT” and taking care of your family is fine. It’s not an excuse for not having ECs but if you have plenty before/after no one is going to give you the stink eye for not being active for a year.

 

[KnightDoc]

Your response is also not addressing OP’s question. The OP asked if it was fine to have a year without employment. Nothing about their other ECs or that they’re going to be doing nothing except sit at home and twiddle their thumbs. Obviously it looks bad if you have a huge gap of doing nothing, but “I was taking care of my grandparents” is a valid answer.

Okay, but I took the question to mean, if he can't work due to his grandparents, he can't do anything else. I thought it was a given that employment didn't matter as long time is used productively, and that he was asking if it was okay to be doing nothing due to COVID and his grandparents. If he wasn't doing nothing, the question would be kind of pointless, at least to me.

For the record, my response DID address the question, since I specifically asked about ECs and the rest of his resume in the response, and specifically asked whether he was doing nothing while not working!