What else should I do?

[neembo]

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Hey All,

I posted something a while back (2 yrs ago?), and I'm not sure where to ask this question so I'll ask it here.

I graduated from Rutgers w/ a degree in ECE (cum gpa about 3.3, sigh.) about 2 years ago, and decided pretty quickly that I would like to shift to a career in medicine. After some researching, I found a post bacc program at Penn State Brandywine that allows you to take the courses online part time (classes at night, labs every other weekend). We just finished our first quarter (A's in bio and chem yay!).

About a month after I started the program, I got laid off from work. Unemployment/savings should keep me going for a while, so I think this is a golden opportunity for me to make my resume much stronger, so my question is what should I do?

Typically how many hours of volunteering in a clinical setting would make for a strong candidate? (> 100 hours?) Should I try to shadow a doc (how do you do this, just call someone up and ask them if you can follow them?) I recently talked to a professor who does biomechanics research and was interested in working for him. Should I pursue one or the other or both? I'm kinda worried about time commitments as research takes a very long time. And my gpa is quite low, but I know I can pull all A's in the Post Bacc courses so hopefully that will save me, as well as my MCAT score, tbd of course.

Any help/suggestions would be great!

 

[CookDeRosa]

Hey All,

I posted something a while back (2 yrs ago?), and I'm not sure where to ask this question so I'll ask it here.

I graduated from Rutgers w/ a degree in ECE (cum gpa about 3.3, sigh.) about 2 years ago, and decided pretty quickly that I would like to shift to a career in medicine. After some researching, I found a post bacc program at Penn State Brandywine that allows you to take the courses online part time (classes at night, labs every other weekend). We just finished our first quarter (A's in bio and chem yay!).

About a month after I started the program, I got laid off from work. Unemployment/savings should keep me going for a while, so I think this is a golden opportunity for me to make my resume much stronger, so my question is what should I do?

Typically how many hours of volunteering in a clinical setting would make for a strong candidate? (> 100 hours?) Should I try to shadow a doc (how do you do this, just call someone up and ask them if you can follow them?) I recently talked to a professor who does biomechanics research and was interested in working for him. Should I pursue one or the other or both? I'm kinda worried about time commitments as research takes a very long time. And my gpa is quite low, but I know I can pull all A's in the Post Bacc courses so hopefully that will save me, as well as my MCAT score, tbd of course.

Any help/suggestions would be great!

>>

Are you thinking about a part time job? If so, you should be able to locate 4-5 certificate type programs in your area that you can do in about a semester, many through a simple continuing ed program. I did one as a nursing assistant- I'll be working in a hospital, others do EMT. It's paid experience, entry level, but think about it as setting up a network. I'll be in contact with a lot of doctors, and so I hope to be able to shadow them in the future (as well as get some LORs!). It's not going to replace a full time income, but think about it as getting paid to volunteer 🙂