Should I keep my PCA job or focus on MCAT?

[psu228]

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Hello fellow hopeful osteopaths,

I'm one year out of college doing a mini DIY post bacc while getting clinical exposure. I began working as a PCA in a radiology/ED unit in October to get clinical hours and see if I enjoyed medicine outside of the shadowing experience (I've loved it).

I'm wondering however if I should quit my PCA job in order to focus up for the June 16th MCAT. I'm also taking a genetics class this semester and bio chem 2 (cGPA=3.53, sGPA=3.38, if As in these class then over 3.4). Any thoughts?

-I basically have to reteach myself physics and o Chem. Which I have been doing, but clearly this will take up a ton of time.
-I currently only work one 8 hour shift a week; however my bosses are really inconsiderate with when I'm scheduled; for instance, I have back to back overnight shifts, with my two classes sandwiched in between during the day. I raised this concern with them yesterday and they basically said, find someone to trade with you, which will NEVER happen.
-I just started volunteering at an underserved health care center in my city, 4 hours a week every Friday morning, this could potentially serve as my source of clinical hours.

To date, I have 350 hours from working as a PCA, and 50 from shadowing a DO (who wrote me a letter). My concern is, will it look bad to adcoms that I was only employed at this place from October to February?

Thanks so much for any thoughts.

 

[Vitamin-D]

My advice, I would just keep doing what you're doing. I would not quit your PCA job, in fact, I would try to pick up more hours (20 hours per week) and keep on volunteering as well, possibly doing more hours. If you quit your job to study for the MCAT it will not look good on your application. You have plenty of time to study for the MCAT, and as long as you stick to an organized schedule of working, volunteering, MCAT studying, and class studying, I think you will be in good shape. As a bonus, try to get a LOR from one of the staff at your volunteer sites.

 

[psu228]

My advice, I would just keep doing what you're doing. I would not quit your PCA job, in fact, I would try to pick up more hours (20 hours per week) and keep on volunteering as well, possibly doing more hours. If you quit your job to study for the MCAT it will not look good on your application. You have plenty of time to study for the MCAT, and as long as you stick to an organized schedule of working, volunteering, MCAT studying, and class studying, I think you will be in good shape. As a bonus, try to get a LOR from one of the staff at your volunteer sites.

Thanks for the reply man. I think you could be right. Thing is, and I probably should have mentioned this above, but I can only stay at this job until May 1st anyway. Would working march and April really make that big of a difference?

 

[HuntDoc]

I wouldn't quit. One shift a week doesn't seem like a heavy load to bear, though this is relative from person to person.

Also, while it is good to start studying early for the MCAT, most of the advice you will find on sdn will tell you not to study for the MCAT until the 3-4 months leading up to it. It helps to reduce the burnout that many pre-meds get leading up to the test and is a short enough time that you are less likely to forget information you studied early on. If you feel you will need to quit to study for the MCAT, my advice would be to work until early April then quit and devote your life to studying.

 

[psu228]

I wouldn't quit. One shift a week doesn't seem like a heavy load to bear, though this is relative from person to person.

Also, while it is good to start studying early for the MCAT, most of the advice you will find on sdn will tell you not to study for the MCAT until the 3-4 months leading up to it. It helps to reduce the burnout that many pre-meds get leading up to the test and is a short enough time that you are less likely to forget information you studied early on. If you feel you will need to quit to study for the MCAT, my advice would be to work until early April then quit and devote your life to studying.

That seems like a good middle ground, considering I need to leave my job regardless in May since I'm moving. Thanks for the input.

 

[Vitamin-D]

Yeah, I like HuntDoc's plan as well, seeing as you are forced to quit in May. Plus you're taking orgo/biochem classes which are great for the MCAT obviously. But yeah, don't quit your job until April at the earliest, I think the few extra months would be good. I'd keep volunteering as long as you can tho. Good luck studying!

 

[Sardinia]

@psu228 Pretty ridiculous that you're quitting a job that boils down to 10 weeks. That's not my opinion on whether it's the best decision, but a visceral reaction to the amount of hours.

 

[psu228]

@psu228 Pretty ridiculous that you're quitting a job that boils down to 10 weeks. That's not my opinion on whether it's the best decision, but a visceral reaction to the amount of hours.

Well it's been 14 weeks, but who's counting?

I'm not quitting now, as might be implied by my responses to the other posters. But thank you for illustrating how ridiculous I am.

 

[HuntDoc]

And there is your typical sdn reply... Just have to ignore it psu.