Will previously working as a health practitioner be of advantage?

[mac_kin]

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3wsx

 

[Frozen]

Experience can almost never hurt, I think most people in my class have experience in some form or another in the allied health care fields. Nurses, Rad techs, Med tech, Lots of EMTs, ER techs (no PT that I know of though) etc...

Bottom line, experience helps, but is no substitute for good grades and good MCAT coupled to coming off as a decent human being at the interview.

Research requirements seemed pretty variable across schools, some couldn't care less, others find it important.

 

[gravitywave]

Experience can almost never hurt, I think most people in my class have experience in some form or another in the allied health care fields. Nurses, Rad techs, Med tech, Lots of EMTs, ER techs (no PT that I know of though) etc...

Bottom line, experience helps, but is no substitute for good grades and good MCAT coupled to coming off as a decent human being at the interview.

Research requirements seemed pretty variable across schools, some couldn't care less, others find it important.

what this poster said 👍

i do think that if you have a huge amount of clinical experience (ie years of fulltime work that qualify you as a career-changer) then that can make up for some other deficiencies in an application. applicants with less life experience are essentially asking adcoms to take them on the basis of their test scores and transcripts, since they have no significant work experience. med school is a job as much as any other, and in a way that undergrad is not.

research versus clinical time is a false economy. which schools will like you depends more on what they think is a good fit, but nobody needs you to have years and years of both.

 

[Dwindlin]

Bottom line, experience helps, but is no substitute for good grades and good MCAT coupled to coming off as a decent human being at the interview.

This 👍

I was a Fire/Medic for ~6 years before applying to school. Out of 5 interviews only one school even brought it up and asked me a significant amount of questions about it (i.e. more than a "oh that's nice").

 

[willen101383]

I worked as a clinical lab technologist (blood bank/heme/chem) for about 5 years prior to my matriculation. While what others said regarding MCAT and grades is 100 percent true; I found my clinical lab experience to be a HUGE thing in getting me accepted. In addition its been a HUGE help in my classes too (knowing why labs are run/ref ranges and just hearing of diseases and knowing basically what they are). Most of my interviewers were all over it during interviews!

 

[Frozen]

I worked as a clinical lab technologist (blood bank/heme/chem) for about 5 years prior to my matriculation. While what others said regarding MCAT and grades is 100 percent true; I found my clinical lab experience to be a HUGE thing in getting me accepted. In addition its been a HUGE help in my classes too (knowing why labs are run/ref ranges and just hearing of diseases and knowing basically what they are). Most of my interviewers were all over it during interviews!

I was a med tech too. I agree, huge help in all years so far...

 

[apoptosisisfun]

I worked as a clinical lab technologist (blood bank/heme/chem) for about 5 years prior to my matriculation. While what others said regarding MCAT and grades is 100 percent true; I found my clinical lab experience to be a HUGE thing in getting me accepted. In addition its been a HUGE help in my classes too (knowing why labs are run/ref ranges and just hearing of diseases and knowing basically what they are). Most of my interviewers were all over it during interviews!

Agreed with this. Some interview committees will be more receptive to experience than others. It's your job to sell yourself to them, so if they don't bring it up, let them know how your experience makes you a better candidate in medicine.

 

[reedman]

it can't hurt, but i don't see it helping all that much either. sure, it might make you look good on the wards for a short time, but your classmates are very smart and will catch up with quickly.

having prior experience does prove your commitment to medicine, and i think admissions committees like that.