Medical Should I scribe or not?

[TheBoneDoctah]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi all,

Thank you for taking the time to provide your input. I've been out of school for 4 years and by the time I apply it will be over 5. Long story short I have quite a bit of factors going against me: took me 8 years to get a dual bachelors (but do have a good upward trend), in my earlier years a lot of Ws and cGPA 3.03 sGPA (AACOMAS) 3.30. I did Dental assistant volunteering at a low income health clinic for about 8 months between 2015 and 2016 and worked as a Dental Assistant for 3-4 months, accumulating around 300 hours of clinical experience (70 hours volunteering). I really enjoyed helping those in need but found that Dentistry was not for me and could not afford to continue work as a DA after graduating college and found a job in IT where I have been ever since.

I have only shadowed a DO for a day in 2016 and she would not write a letter, so I know I need more shadowing experience. I applied and got a PT ER Scribing job with the thought of being able to get recent additional medical clinical experience and reassure myself (and ADCOMS if I choose to apply) that medicine is the route I want to take. Along with that, I am hoping I could get some good physician recommendations out of it. It requires 2 days a week and my having a FT job already I expect I'd have to do a shift that starts at night and runs into early morning (like 3am). I think this would be a great experience and would reassure that medicine is the route I want to go, but I have not taken the MCAT yet (plan to in March or April) and will begin studying in September. On top of this I will be volunteering in the community 1 or 2 days a month. With 2 kids (a toddler and a newborn) my only worry is that I am loading up my plate too much and my MCAT score will suffer. Between morning and night I have about 3 hours to study during the weekday and a little more on the weekends, so scribing will eliminate 2 days of study per week.

Question is should I not do scribing and focus more on MCAT, community volunteering, and hopefully get shadowing experience during covid or should I stick with Scribing?

You need to take a step back. The first thing you need to focus on is your GPA. As you sit now, 3.03/3.3 is not competitive or MD or DO schools. What was your degree in and have you already taken the prereqs for medical school (chemistry, biology, physics, etc)? Even if you have taken these courses, you are 4-5 years out from taking them.

If you have taken your prereqs already and have done well in them (A/B), then you should be doing a DIY post-bac to 1. raise your GPA, 2. show you can handle upper-level courses.

This is going to be hard with kids, having to work, being in school, studying for the MCAT, and trying to get ECs. Your first step with this though should be your GPA. If and when you succeed in that, then focus on the MCAT.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

@TheBoneDoctah I have a bachelors in Biology and a 2nd in Biopsychology. I’ve taken all the upper science including Histology, Embryology, Neurophys, Immunology & Disease Patterns, Biochem, Endocrinology, and probably others I am forgetting ATM and got A/Bs in all. My alumni school listed as graduating with a 3.771 because a lot of the classes I took and bombed early in my educational career I had retaken and that is what they used. About the only class I have not taken is Patho which I was considering doing through UNE along with Medical Term and retaking Orgo 2 and some of the other classes where I made a C. Having medical bills from our newborn and some debt to take care of, a DIY postbacc would be hard to do financially; it’d be more feasible to do a Masters. Perhaps I should consider an SMP instead? I need to keep my FT job to pay the bills until we have at least eliminated the debt we have accumulated, but plan to have that gone in a year or 2.

Unfortunately, medical schools aren't going to look at your school's GPA calculation. They will use every class you have taken into account and calculate your GPA that way (it seems like you already knew this and is why you stated the 3.03/3.3).

So...you didn't answer my question about the prereqs though. All the courses you listed above (Histology, Embryology, Neurophys, Immunology & Disease Patterns, Biochem, Endocrinology) are not medical school prereqs.

Have you taken:

1-year general chemistry
1-year organic chemistry
1-year biology (you obviously have this)
1-year physics

...and so on.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Sorry yes, on a quarter system when I completed these so you'll see 3 classes for Gen Chem, Orgo, and Physics. General chemistry (1-3 and B, A, A respectively), 1-year orgo (1-3 and B, C, B respectively), and 1 year physics (1-3 and B, A, B respectively). B in stats, C in Calculus 1. From my understanding DO does not have a math pre-req, MD does. I have really only considered the DO route (like the philosophy and additional training) and that has been the path I've wanted to take since discovering it shortly after graduating college.

Okay, well that's good that you have taken those courses. I am still holding strong on my thought of taking courses to raise your GPA especially with you being out of school that long.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Got it, thank you for the advice. Do you think 2 online classes a semester would be fine given my FT job and family commitments, or would ADCOMS want to see at least 3-4 classes a semester? I have read that online classes are typically a mistake unless you have a solid excuse for going that route but hoping with my circumstances it would be understandable to ADCOMs. Both my wife and I work (and neither have set 8-5 type hours) and with 2 kids its would be near impossible to attend class in person unless we spend a small fortune on a nanny, not to mention covid19 going on right now.

2 courses a semester is most likely not going to be enough. You have a degree with a low 3.0 GPA and four courses online isn't gonna show ADCOM that you can swing it.