Senior year courseload and interview scheduling

[Patterned_illuminator]

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The classes/research are fine, but the organic lab takes around 10-15 hours a week, and by decree of my school - is once every 2 weeks, but for two terms. I am not allowed to miss any labs. I would normally have no issue with this, but I am trying to squeeze in clinical experience. I have been invited to interview for a pretty cool opportunity, but the hours are during the regular week M/F. I would like to take it because it is close to where I do research and seems challenging and enriching.

The issue is, if I take it, it's at least a 4 hours/week commitment. It would cut into my research time, and I spoke with my premed advisor and she said that given that I switched labs recently, I need to devote significant time to research, which I have no issue with. Thus, given that clinical and research both appear to be important to have prior to applying, I thought I could drop the lab and take it next year. It would also give me more time for MCAT prep.

My advisor said that it would be largely ok except for the fact that I can't miss any classes for Orgo (unlike my other classes), and given that interviews are seemingly scheduled for any day of the week, https://calendar.google.com/calendar/[email protected] , it would be tricky for me.

So, I was just wondering what you all thought about it? Would taking one such class adversely affect my application process/cycle by making me miss interviews? I considered counting every single offered weekend and analyzing per school, but I don't have the tie right now, so I'd love to hear about your experiences. I was considering coming to the lab on the weekend, but I work directly with the PI right now, so that seems hard.

Thank you 🙂

 

[phonyreal98]

Could you see about taking orgo lab at another institution over the summer? By no means do I sit on any admissions committees, but this seems to me like a pretty legit reason to take orgo lab at another place--- life happens.

 

[globe199]

This is just one person's perspective, but I think I had a similar autumn senior semester to what you would have should you choose to drop the lab. I applied for MSTPs in my senior year of college while taking 21 credits worth of science and math classes/research during the autumn semester. One of the classes was a lab with mandatory attendance every week and a heavy lab report workload. Despite that, I still went on 14 interviews over the course of the semester.

I was always able to work out my interviews to not be on a lab day. Nevertheless, doing this involved lots of work and studying while traveling and more than a few close shaves with regards to keeping assignment due dates (e.g. flying back from an interview to get back home at 1 AM and having to hand in a report or take an exam the next day)! So even though it was by no means an easy semester, it wasn't impossible. Although everything looks better in hindsight, I think the heavy workload was good preparation for doing well in medical school!

From your post history it looks like you will be applying from NYC (as was I), so that definitely helps out with arranging travel and with the fact that NYC has 5 MSTPs.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do! Remember that the path of the MD/PhD is above all else one of hard work. Make sure you know what you're getting into.

 

[Patterned_illuminator]

Thanks for the replies! @phonyreal98 I just don't think my university would go with it. They're very onerous about requirements and I'm going to be at my school to do research over the summer anyway so the only place I could take it would be at the school itself, but if I did that, I would likely be ineligible for the grants I apply for to fund my housing etc. and the course would be expensive without the financial aid.

@globe199 Thank you for telling me about your experience. It would be roughly 2 days every other week that I absolutely need to be in NY - one for the lecture and one for the lab. I'm not frightened by the workload as much as the notion of having interviews conflict with the lab time, and missing them. I am an international applicant, so I'm scared that interviews, should I be fortunate enough to get them, will be scarce anyway. Knowing that you managed to get 14 interviews done with a weekly lab is very reassuring.

The timings of the course are so irritating, because everyone else has normal working hours and it's literally from 1-5 and the volunteering program asks us to volunteer clinically for 4 hours from mid afternoon continuously. If I do the program, that means I'll spent maybe 10 hours a week at the lab and I've been told by many people that my research needs to be a priority. If I drop, I'll be able to do that program and also have more research and MCAT time.

I have a very rough list of 24 or so programs that accept internationals that I plan to apply to, and most are at the least on the eastern side of the continental divide, so hopefully the travel won't be bad.:

• Albert Einstein
• Baylor
• Boston University
• Columbia
• Dartmouth
• Emory
• Harvard
• Mayo Clinic
• Medical College of Wisconsin
• Mount Sinai
• Northwestern
• Penn State
• SUNY Upstate
• Stony Brook
• Chicago
• UConn
• Minnesota
• Penn
• Pitt
• Uma
• Vanderbilt
• Wutsl
• Weill Cornell
• Yale