Questions from a community college adjunct instructor looking to go to med school

[pBluescript]

Hi guys,

I have a couple questions from a very non-trad student.

Bit of background: I am an adjunct instructor at two community colleges. I teach introductory biology for nonmajors, pre-allied health professionals, pre-meds/pharm/dental, A&P, and micro. Both the colleges I teach at have a hugely diverse student population with a large variability in academic skills and motivations.

I want to go into family medicine for the challenge, for the science, for the stories, and for the people. I see family medicine as a more complex extension of what I currently do -- talking, arguing, laughing, consoling, teaching, and ultimately helping patients have a better quality of life, should they want it. The more I learn about it, the more I believe that this is the job for me.

Onto the questions:

1) Should I retake my core prerequisite classes? All of my science classes are from 5-7 years ago. Some schools are saying don't bother, some schools are saying yes, and some schools are providing conflicting answers depending on who I talk to and what the person on the other end of the line ate for lunch that day. A few schools even recommended retaking my biology classes, which seems so very strange to me (can I enroll in my own class?? I would totally give myself an A.) Retaking the entirety of general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and biology would cost me about $50 and 18 hours of time, so it would be fairly trivial.

2) Letters of recommendation. I am going to request letters from my department head, my former department head, and a TT faculty member who's been a mentor. My thesis advisor for grad school has since passed away, so no go there. Now for the real kicker...should I request a letter from any of my former students? I have a fair number who have actually offered to write one. These are students with whom I've had extensive contact outside of the classroom -- testifying at immigration status hearings, scheduling and taking to doctors' appointments, acting as an AA sponsor, helping talk through suicide ideation, helping with dealing with the loss of a parent, and so many others.

3) Volunteer and shadowing hours. How many more hours of shadowing and/or volunteering should I be acquiring? Doing either is a fairly significant financial strain; adjunct faculty are notoriously poor. It's only been in the past four months that I've been able to acquire any semblance of significant hours, and that's only because I've been taking on less work and relying on social safety nets like Medicaid, EBT, etc. I am the sole provider for a family of 3 in one of the more expensive cities in the U.S. and any time off hurts.

4) How worth it is it to continue volunteering? My volunteer experience at the clinic has been a little underwhelming; patient contact at the clinic is so much like dealing with my students that I'm not really learning anything valuable except how to do medical record keeping. From my understanding, I got lucky in my clinic choice too -- the volunteers are my location are much more powerful and valuable than in the vast majority of other positions -- so I'm a bit discouraged.

5) Based off the stats below, anything else I can be doing?

Basic stats:

Undergraduate GPA: 3.79
Undergraduate sGPA: 3.85
Graduate GPA: 3.82
MCAT: Waiting on scores, but probably around a 514-517 based on practice exams.
Shadowing hours: 67. Forty of those hours are in family medicine, 16 in hospital medicine, 12 was shadowing a public health nurse (which was awesome!)

Volunteer hours: 65-70 documented hours in the past 4 months, probably several hundred more undocumented over the past 4 years. The 65-70 was in a latino neighborhood clinic for the low-income where I call and schedule followup appointments for patients, answer basic patient questions about the clinic, and educate patients about the services the clinic offers. The undocumented hours are in student counseling, student conflict resolution, and addressing all of the craziness and anxiety of being a first-generation college student plopped in the middle of a high-stress academic program. Can I claim these as volunteer hours since I did not get paid for them and I was NOT required to do them as part of my paid work?

Research experience:
- Lab research in molecular biology as part of my graduate program (2 posters, 1 publication)
- Academic research in developing undergraduate science curriculum to encourage retention among underrepresented minorities in community college (no official academic publications, but fairly extensive formal and informal presentations and publications at regional professional conferences)
- Sat on boatloads of committees for revising department policies, adopting textbooks, developing class materials, training and mentoring new faculty, etc. (Not paid for these either by the way.)

Thank you for reading this wall of text, and thank you for any input you have!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Dullhead]

1)...(can I enroll in my own class?? I would totally give myself an A.)

2) Letters of recommendation...should I request a letter from any of my former students?

3) Volunteer and shadowing hours. How many more hours of shadowing and/or volunteering should I be acquiring?

4) How worth it is it to continue volunteering?

5) Based off the stats below, anything else I can be doing?

Will attempt to reply to some portions of your post.

1. That would be awesome if you could do that.
2. That sounds sketchy, unless they are currently physicians that you could shadow and then get a letter. Even then a bit sketchy.
3. I have heard numbers of 150 for "clinical" volunteering and between 40-80 for shadowing, with no significant gain after 80. If you mention your shadowing of the public health nurse, I would not go as far as describing the experience as awesome. Next thing you know - "In that case, tell us why medicine, why not public health nursing?" You seem to have plenty of activities and other ECs, so I don't think you need non-clinical volunteering any more than you already have.
4. The impression I get is that it is important to continue until the point you have an acceptance letter in hand.
5. Looks like you're in good shape mostly. If you hit that MCAT score of 514+, you'll be in decent shape for next year's cycle, and still good for this year's DO cycle.

Even if some of your volunteer hours were not "documented" (presumably by you keeping track in a spreadsheet), if you've volunteered at the same place for the past 4 years and the staff there know you, could you make a reasonable, honest estimate? And check with the staff to see if they back you up on that number. No reason "undocumented" hours need to be wasted. If you put in the work, and it's been at the same pace as the past 4 months, you should be able to estimate a lower-end conservative number truthfully.

EDIT: If you decide to go on the DO cycle, be sure you have a decent amount of "clinical" volunteer hours. If you don't, it's best to wait the cycle out. Lack of "clinical" exposure tends to be one of the biggest non-numbers reason for rejection.

 

[Cawolf]

1) It depends is the right answer, but I think you need to do a little more research into the specifics of your course history. I mention that because your intro bio course would not count for most places as prerequisites. You need a full year of biology for science majors with labs; not introductory, or sometimes specifically not for allied health majors. So what were your grades and were they the right classes? If they are the right classes and you have mostly A's, then I would consider taking upper level courses to supplement.

2) Those letters are good, but you really don't need three letters from work supervisors. You will need letters from people who taught you science courses. This may be where taking more upper level courses (or redoing your old courses if needed) would come in handy. A letter from a student is worthless - schools don't want letters from peers or people you had authority over. Character references are generally not desired.

3) I successfully applied as a non-trad with no volunteering and minimal shadowing. If you can use your work as a way to show your commitment to service, you will be alright at most places. You can totally list your "undocumented" hours though, just put the best reference or even yourself as a contact person. Your hours are probably fine.

4) It is just jumping through hoops, and if that is your only medical experience, it is worth it to keep it. Consider that when you apply you will be asked "Why medicine?" about 100 different ways. From your posts I can tell you are likely committed to serve and educate, but I am not seeing a great connection to medicine.

5) Your GPAs are excellent and if you scored an MCAT in the mid 90th percentile, that is excellent as well.

Hope that helps.

 

[ChE04]

1. Don't retake. The only point in retaking a class would be to replace a bad grade when applying DO. If you need more recent coursework, then take some upper level classes.
2. You need to check the letter requirements at the schools you are applying to. In general med schools want people who have taught you--graded you--and can speak to your academic prowess. The suggestions you have listed all sound like supplemental letters to me.
3. Just don't be a flake. Make a commitment to one organization and continue it long term, even if only a few hours per week. And definitely guesstimate your non-official hours and include those.
4. Med schools don't really care about your experience while volunteering. The point of you volunteering is not to have a cathartic experience, but rather to selflessly commit yourself to a cause. If you don't like what you are doing, then find something else. Or suck it up and grind out the hours like everyone else.
5. Your scores look good.

 

[DrMikeP]

1. If you are interested in a particular school and they say your courses are too old then retake them if you want that school. MD progs seem to be more picky than DO.
2. Many schools require science prof letters from those who taught you.

Good luck