Too much teaching on resume?

[The Deep]

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Is there such a thing as too much teaching on a med school application? I have 175 hours (100/75 hours respectively) to two separate underserved groups (African American special needs kids/inmates) I’m about to start become an organic chemistry TA, as well as tutoring organic chemistry in my school’s learning center for money (alongside service job so I could pay the bills). One of my goals is to join the Peace Corps and I’ll most likely become a teacher. Once I’m there, I’ll probably volunteer in other places. I’ve also volunteered at a soup kitchen and will most likely volunteer with patients that have delirium at a hospital next semester. My main goal was to work with as many diverse groups as possible so I can prepare myself for working with the underserved when I’m an attending. Is this way too much teaching?

Sorry for the grammar; I’m at work.

 

[The Deep]

Bump.

 

[ndafife]

Why are you concerned about having too much experience?

The only way to have too much of something is if it causes you to have too little of something else (clinical experience, research, grades)

 

[The Deep]

Why are you concerned about having too much experience?

The only way to have too much of something is if it causes you to have too little of something else (clinical experience, research, grades)

I was told by my premed advisor that I would be flat out told to go become a teacher by adcoms...

 

[darkeon]

I was told by my premed advisor that I would be flat out told to go become a teacher by adcoms...

WTF, your advisor is such a dum dum

 

[TempuraOreos]

I was told by my premed advisor that I would be flat out told to go become a teacher by adcoms...

Agree your premed advisor is being ridiculous. Having teaching experience is great. Just make it relevant to your application.

Are you interested in academia/teaching or working in a teaching hospital in the long-term?

 

[Catalystik]

Is there such a thing as too much teaching on a med school application?

LOL. What do you think most physicians do all day at work?

 

[aristotle96]

I was asked during an interview, why don’t you become a teacher. Just have an idea of why you want to be a physician and it is an easy question to respond to. And like the person above said a lot of practicing medicine is teaching patients.

 

[gyngyn]

I was asked during an interview, why don’t you become a teacher. Just have an idea of why you want to be a physician and it is an easy question to respond to. And like the person above said a lot of practicing medicine is teaching patients.

Doctor means teacher.

 

[meronebib]

I was told by my premed advisor that I would be flat out told to go become a teacher by adcoms...

Almost as ridiculous as telling an applicant with too much research to go become a researcher.

 

[The Deep]

Agree your premed advisor is being ridiculous. Having teaching experience is great. Just make it relevant to your application.

Are you interested in academia/teaching or working in a teaching hospital in the long-term?

Yep! I don’t know if I’ll be a strong enough applicant to enter academic medicine, as I hear it’s very competitive.

 

[Moko]

Yep! I don’t know if I’ll be a strong enough applicant to enter academic medicine, as I hear it’s very competitive.

One thing to recognize is that the best college students do not necessarily make the best medical students, who in turn do not necessarily make the best residents, fellows, attendings etc. Each step emphasizes different skill sets, and at each step, a clean slate is given from which the next application will be judged on. Academic medicine also isn't as competitive as some would think -- the most important qualities are passion and perseverance. So if that's your career goal, it will happen.

 

[TempuraOreos]

Yep! I don’t know if I’ll be a strong enough applicant to enter academic medicine, as I hear it’s very competitive.

It's a career aspiration, you may decide that you're not as interested in it as you thought once you get in, but showing that you care about teaching and educating others is great as an appt physician. Since you've been doing it for so long, I'd assume you're good at it, which means you've picked up a lot of "soft skills" like clear communication, patience, persistence, creativity, etc. which are all important traits of a physician. Like others have said, it's not too hard to make it relevant to your app.

 

[seanm028]

I was told by my premed advisor that I would be flat out told to go become a teacher by adcoms...

I wrote off my undergrad premed office when they started charging students $25/visit. I'm sure that there are some phenomenal premed advisors out there, but I have yet to meet one. Take everything they say with a (very large) grain of salt.

 

[907914]

I wrote off my undergrad premed office when they started charging students $25/visit. I'm sure that there are some phenomenal premed advisors out there, but I have yet to meet one. Take everything they say with a (very large) grain of salt.

Advisors charging per visit? That seems just a tad unethical...

I am somewhat glad my school doesn’t really have the framework to have any formal premed advisors. This has led to SDN basically being my premed advisor, but it is what it is.

 

[seanm028]

Advisors charging per visit? That seems just a tad unethical...

I am somewhat glad my school doesn’t really have the framework to have any formal premed advisors. This has led to SDN basically being my premed advisor, but it is what it is.

I know man, blew my mind. And this was at a very large school (top 5 nationwide in terms of enrollment), so it's not like it was some fly-by-night deal. They had a whole office full of dedicated, premed advisors but they stated that demand was simply too high for their staff, so they took the free market approach and started charging. There was some deal where people who had already been working with them got grandfathered in, and I think new students had a certain number of free visits or something like that. I don't know the exact details because I steered a wide berth around that office.

Bottom line for the OP: apply the common sense test to any advice you receive from anyone, including your premed advisors and SDN. And when in doubt you can always get a second opinion from SDN.

 

[907914]

I know man, blew my mind. And this was at a very large school (top 5 nationwide in terms of enrollment), so it's not like it was some fly-by-night deal. They had a whole office full of dedicated, premed advisors but they stated that demand was simply too high for their staff, so they took the free market approach and started charging. There was some deal where people who had already been working with them got grandfathered in, and I think new students had a certain number of free visits or something like that. I don't know the exact details because I steered a wide berth around that office.

Bottom line for the OP: apply the common sense test to any advice you receive from anyone, including your premed advisors and SDN. And when in doubt you can always get a second opinion from SDN.

And If advisor advice is in stark contrast with SDN advice, one of them is wrong and you need to find out which one.

 

[Goro]

Is there such a thing as too much teaching on a med school application? I have 175 hours (100/75 hours respectively) to two separate underserved groups (African American special needs kids/inmates) I’m about to start become an organic chemistry TA, as well as tutoring organic chemistry in my school’s learning center for money (alongside service job so I could pay the bills). One of my goals is to join the Peace Corps and I’ll most likely become a teacher. Once I’m there, I’ll probably volunteer in other places. I’ve also volunteered at a soup kitchen and will most likely volunteer with patients that have delirium at a hospital next semester. My main goal was to work with as many diverse groups as possible so I can prepare myself for working with the underserved when I’m an attending. Is this way too much teaching?

Sorry for the grammar; I’m at work.

Take two of these: