Second Advise Needed Guys..

[MexicanDr]

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I am really sorry for starting a new thread for this, but I simply want some advice again from you guys.

As you recall I told you guys about my opportunity working as a Scribe and how might be able to do it with classes and all.

In the previous post I mentioned:

The issue: The position is full time and I am currently somewhat concerned because I will be taking Biology 1 w/lab, Chemistry 1 w/lab and a different class, an upper G.E.

I don't want to mention anything now, because I don't want to lose this opportunity; I was thinking of mentioning it to them once the whole background and training is done. Since they invested time on me, then I am sure it would be ok to work with my school schedule and possibly cut the hours down to 32 per week.

The interesting aspect is that during the interview, the physician was aware that I am currently going to school as I told him I was working on my second B.S. [Biology] and when asked for a time commitment, I said 2 years since that is when I plan to apply.

I guess what I really want to know and seek advice from is if any of you has worked full time or 32 hrs per week and still took a class schedule similar as mine?

My current question and issue looking for advice is the following:

Do you guys suggest I tell the physician and the Lead Scribe who did the interview/hired me now about possible part-time accommodations because of my school schedule, or should I just wait until the background check goes through and the training period starts and then tell them?

What do you guys think is the best thing to do?

 

[Dianyla]

What do you guys think is the best thing to do?

You could try working full-time with the full courseload you're proposing. You could work full-time and reduce the courseload. You could work less than full-time... mix and match ad nauseum. You only have so many hours a week, and you know your own capabilities and needs better than we do.

If your greater need is to have reliable income, then working is the priority and coursework must be reduced to whatever level is manageable for you.

We can't make this decision for you.

 

[EdLongshanks]

You could try working full-time with the full courseload you're proposing. You could work full-time and reduce the courseload. You could work less than full-time... mix and match ad nauseum. You only have so many hours a week, and you know your own capabilities and needs better than we do.

If your greater need is to have reliable income, then working is the priority and coursework must be reduced to whatever level is manageable for you.

We can't make this decision for you.

Yeah, what she said.

Do you have any particular need to take a lot of courses quickly? Is there a deadline that you are trying to meet?

 

[Don Draper]

You could try working full-time with the full courseload you're proposing. You could work full-time and reduce the courseload. You could work less than full-time... mix and match ad nauseum. You only have so many hours a week, and you know your own capabilities and needs better than we do.

If your greater need is to have reliable income, then working is the priority and coursework must be reduced to whatever level is manageable for you.

We can't make this decision for you.

agreed here.

you need to know: How much $ do you need and how much work can you handle.

btw, you will not know how much work you can handle until about halfway through the semester. So it will be best to take a lighter load at first. Some classes seem easy then you get a horrible prof and it takes twice as much time to succeed in.

And guess what, if you get a B or a C or a few consistent low grades in these pre-reqs that looks bad. They don't let you write footnotes on grades, so you want to strike true and ace these things.

So first, establish a work schedule that provides however much $ you need and then add classes accordingly.

While this scribe position improves your chances at admission, take that with a grain of salt. A person with a bit of shadowing, volunteering, and good grades/mcat/LORs/PS will be just as competitive as a person with 2 years of scribing. So definitely be careful to damage your grades/mcat or other essentials to get this extra curricular.

 

[Don Draper]

If you're asking, can you take 11 science units and a 30+ hrs a week job and be successful?

Sure.

Are you limiting your chances? Sure.

Time is nice. Time to recuperate, time to relax, time to study. You won't have this time.

Realize some of these classes will be competitive. You will have some kids taking 15 units but 9 of them will be super easy, they will have no jobs, and tons of time. You will be competing with them for A's.

Understand that many people think they are smart and can do well in these pre-med pre-reqs, but some people get abused because, depending on the prof, you could have very difficult exams and very few high grades (A's). I know a guy who gave out 5% of the class A's in Organic. Just realize your success relies on allocating time to do well in classes (not on maxing out ECs).

 

[MexicanDr]

Thanks guys, really appreciate your advise.

Ed

 

[glamqueen]

Thanks guys, really appreciate your advise.

Ed

The job is a cool job for sure. However, the job of being a doctor at the end is way cooler. Maximize your chances. You can always get a cool job if you don't get in your application cycle, but if you don't do well in your classes as a result of this job now, it will be very difficult to make up for that. Not quite as easy of a fix.

Only you can decide what you can handle, because I've seen some crazy schedules out there that somehow work for people, but I can tell you I wasn't one of them. I vastly limited the amount of hours I volunteered/etc., but I did it over five semesters in total and varied the types of volunteering I was doing to add variety. It worked great, and I got great feedback on it when I was applying. I also still enjoyed what I was doing, but I had a lot of time to study, which was really important to me, and I still had time for hobbies of which I had several I wasn't ready to give up on as they helped keep me sane.

I can't tell you what to do, but I would challenge you to focus on doing what will maximize your chances of doing well in the areas of your app that you can't fix later. This is pretty much grades i.e. classes. You can't erase a B or C, and it might drive you nuts knowing they could have been A's. Yeah, you can replace them with a retake or average the grades for MD schools, but why plan to factor in all that extra time when you could do well the first time?

Make sure you allow time for yourself to have the best chance.

Good luck!

 

[Nasrudin]

agreed here.

.....

While this scribe position improves your chances at admission, take that with a grain of salt. A person with a bit of shadowing, volunteering, and good grades/mcat/LORs/PS will be just as competitive as a person with 2 years of scribing. So definitely be careful to damage your grades/mcat or other essentials to get this extra curricular.

Draper. It's not that I disagree with the necessity of maximizing your classroom performance. But you neglect the contextual nature of each unique application.

Maybe you got good grades in B-school and are going back just to do pre-reqs. And true enough, maybe you're competitive enough with "bit" of this and that premed nic nac.

But if I was interviewing such a candidate. I want to see some blood on their sleeves. B/c in reality, how do you know you really like taking care of stinky, sick, and f'd up people, or if you even if you like working within the various cultures of health care itself, if you just shadowed a bit. Volunteered a bit.

Maybe you get a pass from the pansy adcom who did likewise. But it's still the reason, in my opinion, why there are so many people in medicine that are ill-suited for the working climate. Meaning, they're bright, capable, talented people who are depressed, frustrated, and unhappy professionally.

 

[Don Draper]

Draper. It's not that I disagree with the necessity of maximizing your classroom performance. But you neglect the contextual nature of each unique application.

Maybe you got good grades in B-school and are going back just to do pre-reqs. And true enough, maybe you're competitive enough with "bit" of this and that premed nic nac.

But if I was interviewing such a candidate. I want to see some blood on their sleeves. B/c in reality, how do you know you really like taking care of stinky, sick, and f'd up people, or if you even if you like working within the various cultures of health care itself, if you just shadowed a bit. Volunteered a bit.

Maybe you get a pass from the pansy adcom who did likewise. But it's still the reason, in my opinion, why there are so many people in medicine that are ill-suited for the working climate. Meaning, they're bright, capable, talented people who are depressed, frustrated, and unhappy professionally.

well, ideally people want to get deep into the field yet it isn't always a reality. I have a combined 250 hours between shadowing and volunteering. I will put this record up against any scribe. I'm transitioning from tough career too, so I have applicable skill sets in dealing with people.

Would I have liked to work 30-40 hours as a scribe? Sure. But lets be honest, MOST accepted candidates won't. You can't do everything (research, ECs, volunteering, shadowing, full time medicine job, MCAT, high GPA). And if you did do all that, you probably don't have hobbies or family or social life, the things that make us human.

I do agree with you that people are unhappy when they don't know what they are getting into. But medical schools do it to themselves. By having 40 activities they want their ideal candidates involved in, they make sure that people have no time for other things and waking up "miserable in medicine" is a very real possibility because of the constant demands/business and no time to stop and think.

 

[student1799]

Maximize your chances. You can always get a cool job if you don't get in your application cycle, but if you don't do well in your classes as a result of this job now, it will be very difficult to make up for that. Not quite as easy of a fix.

But if I was interviewing such a candidate. I want to see some blood on their sleeves. B/c in reality, how do you know you really like taking care of stinky, sick, and f'd up people, or if you even if you like working within the various cultures of health care itself, if you just shadowed a bit. Volunteered a bit.

I think both glamqueen and Nasrudin make excellent points. As an applicant with GPA baggage (I was one myself), I think you have to do both things at once: that is, rack up quality clinical hours AND do well in your classes. Yes, it's tough, but I think it's the only way for you to prove yourself and stand out from the crowd. You have to show the adcoms that you're really committed and dedicated to medicine, and you have to prove that you can multitask. (That's what nontrads are supposed to be good at, right?) And if you find the right volunteer job and work hard with a good attitude, you're highly likely to impress the people around you with your maturity and dedication, and some of them may go out of their way to help you get into med school.

In my case, I racked up quite a lot of volunteer time: about 550 hours over my 2 years of postbacc. I put in 5-8 hours a week every single semester, including the summers. My main reason for doing so was because I loved being around the hospital, and I had really interesting work to do (clinical research). Just as glamqueen says her hobbies "kept her sane," I found that my hospital work was really important in keeping ME sane. I learned a ton of useful practical and clinical information, and seeing real doctors at work was great motivation to keep slogging through some of my deadliest premed classes. ("If I do well in Physics II I can get into med school and be a great doctor like Dr. X..."). And last but not least, I got a really killer LOR for my application from the MD that I worked for. Since I stayed with the same job for the 2 years, he got to know me and my capabilities really well, and I think that made the LOR much more valuable than it would have been otherwise.

 

[jackieMD2007]

As someone who worked in a managerial role before medical school I think it is both sloppy and unprofessional to allow your manager to put you through (read: $$$ and time) training and background when you ALREADY KNOW you might not be able to do the job because of PREEXISTING COMMITMENTS.

Also, let's not forget a waste of resources.

I would consider it very unprofessional if I put you through background and training and then you came to me and asked if you could work part-time. When you knew it was full-time. When you already had these other things on your plate.

 

[Don Draper]

As someone who worked in a managerial role before medical school I think it is both sloppy and unprofessional to allow your manager to put you through (read: $$$ and time) training and background when you ALREADY KNOW you might not be able to do the job because of PREEXISTING COMMITMENTS.

Also, let's not forget a waste of resources.

I would consider it very unprofessional if I put you through background and training and then you came to me and asked if you could work part-time. When you knew it was full-time. When you already had these other things on your plate.

probably wise advice there.

 

[MexicanDr]

As someone who worked in a managerial role before medical school I think it is both sloppy and unprofessional to allow your manager to put you through (read: $$$ and time) training and background when you ALREADY KNOW you might not be able to do the job because of PREEXISTING COMMITMENTS.

Also, let's not forget a waste of resources.

I would consider it very unprofessional if I put you through background and training and then you came to me and asked if you could work part-time. When you knew it was full-time. When you already had these other things on your plate.

I am completely with you here.

The thing is that they [doc and lead scribe] never mentioned it was a full time position. The doctor saw my resume and knew that I am in school, that i will apply to med school in two years.

When the lead scribe sent the email to the recruiter [ i was cc], which was going to send me some paper work, it said that two scribes had been hired full time; that's when I was like oh shoot, its full time and the dr. never mentioned it.

 

[MexicanDr]

If I could work 3 8 hr shifts or even 2 12s and one 8 it would be amazing!

And I am giving the weekend to think about what I am going to do, in terms of contacting them or waiting as others have suggested... What I know for sure is that my grades/classes come first because I screwed up once and I am not going to do it again.

I have ~1000 hrs clinical experience as an EMT in ALS and some hrs volunteering at a free clinic, functioning as an M.A.

 

[student1799]

I have ~1000 hrs clinical experience as an EMT in ALS and some hrs volunteering at a free clinic, functioning as an M.A.

In that case, I would definitely stay away from the scribe job, as long as you can afford it economically. You need as much time as you can spare (ideally, full time) to devote to your classes so you can get A's. Given the past you have to overcome, your postbacc transcript HAS to be predominantly A's or adcoms won't want to take a chance on you (as they see it).

You do need to have some current volunteer work, so line up something that's not too taxing (4-8 hrs/wk). Since you have so many clinical hours, it might be wise to do some kind of non-medical community service--adcoms really love that, because it shows you're well-rounded. (I did tutoring in my app year, had a fantastic experience and it was great subject matter for interviews.)

The important thing is consistency: whatever you take on, do it every single week, not just during school breaks. This is something a lot of schools specifically look at when reading your app.

Good luck with your plans and go kick butt.