Withdrawing applications for PeaceCorps?

[chicken adobo]

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My gap year job in the nonprofit sector is steadily convicting me to serve in the PeaceCorps. I still want to be a doctor, but I feel PeaceCorps is something I want to do first. I’m willing to delay medical school for 3 years or more and I know I’ll need to retake the MCAT given the PeaceCorps timeline. This is fine and I have some idea of how I want to approach all this.

The problem is I’ve already applied to several schools. If I withdraw before I receive any acceptances, will it negatively affect my reapplication 3-4 years from now?

 

[bluepeony]

My gap year job in the nonprofit sector is steadily convicting me to serve in the PeaceCorps. I still want to be a doctor, but I feel PeaceCorps is something I want to do first. I’m willing to delay medical school for 3 years or more and I know I’ll need to retake the MCAT given the PeaceCorps timeline. This is fine and I have some idea of how I want to approach all this.

The problem is I’ve already applied to several schools. If I withdraw before I receive any acceptances, will it negatively affect my reapplication 3-4 years from now?

I'm not sure why you would withdraw your app before receiving any acceptances?

 

[LizzyM]

Looking at your post history, you have a very good chance of being an M1 student by this time next year. Are you getting cold feet? Are you regretting the road you won't travel if you take this path?

Did you know that as a senior physician, you could serve with the Peace Corps? The program is called Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP).

Training the next generation of doctors and nurses

The central hospital where I serve as a Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP) Volunteer in Malawi serves as a referral center for a large part of the country.

www.peacecorps.gov

Being a pre-med, a medical student, and a resident on the road to being a practicing physician means many years of delayed gratification. If you look at the opportunity to serve abroad as one more gratification to be delayed, you may see this desire to serve not as something that must be done now, before the opportunity passes by, but as an opportunity that will be there 10 or 20 or even 30 years from now (and you won't be too old 30 years from now) and that will be worth the wait.

 

[chicken adobo]

Looking at your post history, you have a very good chance of being an M1 student by this time next year. Are you getting cold feet? Are you regretting the road you won't travel if you take this path?

Did you know that as a senior physician, you could serve with the Peace Corps? The program is called Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP).

Training the next generation of doctors and nurses

The central hospital where I serve as a Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP) Volunteer in Malawi serves as a referral center for a large part of the country.

www.peacecorps.gov

Being a pre-med, a medical student, and a resident on the road to being a practicing physician means many years of delayed gratification. If you look at the opportunity to serve abroad as one more gratification to be delayed, you may see this desire to serve not as something that must be done now, before the opportunity passes by, but as an opportunity that will be there 10 or 20 or even 30 years from now (and you won't be too old 30 years from now) and that will be worth the wait.

“Regretting the road you won't travel if you take this path” sounds about right. I feel like the future, especially 10-30 years down the line, is so uncertain. What if I have to prioritize my family? What if I have to prioritize building my career? Right now, I’m still young and don’t have anything holding back. I have a long-term significant other of 5 years who is committed to applying to PeaceCorps with me through the couples process. My commitment to my current job ends perfectly in time for the departure of the project I’m looking at. I feel like I have so much freedom now that I won’t have decades from now.

I’m sure if I really wanted to make it work out in the future, I could do so... but with significantly more sacrifice and complications. However, I see where you’re coming from. It may very well be worth waiting. I still have a lot to consider and I really appreciate you taking the time to lend some advice.

It still remains a question for me if withdrawing would be a huge detriment in reapplying. Ultimately, I would rather have a shot of being a doctor than do PeaceCorps.

 

[deleted996731]

“Regretting the road you won't travel if you take this path” sounds about right. I feel like the future, especially 10-30 years down the line, is so uncertain. What if I have to prioritize my family? What if I have to prioritize building my career? Right now, I’m still young and don’t have anything holding back. I have a long-term significant other of 5 years who is committed to applying to PeaceCorps with me through the couples process. My commitment to my current job ends perfectly in time for the departure of the project I’m looking at. I feel like I have so much freedom now that I won’t have decades from now.

I’m sure if I really wanted to make it work out in the future, I could do so... but with significantly more sacrifice and complications. However, I see where you’re coming from. It may very well be worth waiting. I still have a lot to consider and I really appreciate you taking the time to lend some advice.

It still remains a question for me if withdrawing would be a huge detriment in reapplying. Ultimately, I would rather have a shot of being a doctor than do PeaceCorps.

Imagine this as well. Doing something as amazing as peace corps but from a more impactful position. You love medicine and you love helping the underserved why not combine them into one experience. You will see that as a doctor you’ll be able to help way more

 

[LizzyM]

You can't be sure that you'll return from Peace Corps with good health and a good MCAT retake. Either of those could be a roadblock to proceeding to medical school 3 years from now. Do you want to let go of the almost certain prospect of medical school in 2020 for the risks you'll take of applying years later with an interesting experience but a real question of why you retook a 518 MCAT and did Peace Corps rather than going into medicine 3 years earlier.

It is hard to look ahead with all its uncertainty but even if you have your kids at 33-35, they'll be out of the house and independent by the time you are 60 and you'll have years of productivity left with the idea that you could do something very radical at that point. I've also known physician couples who went abroad for 12 month medical missions and took their grade-school aged kids with them. Didn't harm the kids who have grown to be productive adults.

 

[Engrailed]

Also, even as a doctor you can do incredible global service work thru organizations like Doctors without Borders! Medicins sans frontiers

Or also WHO as well
I interned there once as there were MDs who traveled a lot doing humanitarian work or even admin/policywork

 

[vrazzles]

Ok, so I just came back from the Peace Corps 20 days ago and am currently in the cycle.

I would advise that you really take a deep look at yourself and your motivations for joining if you choose to do this. It is not for everyone and while the work can be absolutely amazing, be aware that stress, burnout, and isolation are very real problems that have caused many of my good friends and fellow volunteers a lot of mental health issues. Of course this will depend on where you go and what you do.

Feel free to PM me - I am always happy to see someone interested in serving.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

Would not advise given that you already committed to this cycle while also having taken your mcat. I think it would’ve been way different if you did this right out of college, but I think admissions will see this as cold feet if you reapply

 

[907914]

stress, burnout, and isolation are very real problems

You can say that again x100 man...

OP, I would take him up on this offer for conversation. He has a lot to say...

 

[Sephirakra]

Do you want to let go of the almost certain prospect of medical school in 2020 for the risks you'll take of applying years later with an interesting experience but a real question of why you retook a 518 MCAT and did Peace Corps rather than going into medicine 3 years earlier.

Assuming OP retook the MCAT and did comparably well in three years, would adcoms really look sideways at their decision to be a Peace Corps volunteer instead of going straight into medical school?

 

[LizzyM]

Assuming OP retook the MCAT and did comparably well in three years, would adcoms really look sideways at their decision to be a Peace Corps volunteer instead of going straight into medical school?

It can be seen as cold feet, wishy-washy on medicine, maybe someone who was uncertain about medicine in 2019 and who aborted what would have been a successful season... also, a 27 month service commitment at this point would be Nov 2019 to January 2022?? at the earliest. That means applying to begin classes in 2023. It would be something adcoms would want to talk about with the candidate.

 

[Sephirakra]

It can be seen as cold feet, wishy-washy on medicine, maybe someone who was uncertain about medicine in 2019 and who aborted what would have been a successful season... also, a 27 month service commitment at this point would be Nov 2019 to January 2022?? at the earliest. That means applying to begin classes in 2023. It would be something adcoms would want to talk about with the candidate.

Fair enough. I wouldn't have thought of it that way. Thank you!

 

[star-lily]

It can be seen as cold feet, wishy-washy on medicine, maybe someone who was uncertain about medicine in 2019 and who aborted what would have been a successful season... also, a 27 month service commitment at this point would be Nov 2019 to January 2022?? at the earliest. That means applying to begin classes in 2023. It would be something adcoms would want to talk about with the candidate.

Sorry for bumping up this old thread, but what about a hypothetical scenario in which someone's a good applicant, somehow ends up with no acceptances, goes ahead and does Peace Corps, retakes the MCAT with another high score, and reapplies?

 

[vrazzles]

It would depend on the reason as to why they had no acceptances. Doing Peace Corps won't necessarily help poor writing ability/interpersonal skills. However, my Peace Corps service has been brought up in every interview and it seems to have been seen universally positively by those I have interviewed with. The higher MCAT score won't hurt either.

 

[bluepeony]

Sorry for bumping up this old thread, but what about a hypothetical scenario in which someone's a good applicant, somehow ends up with no acceptances, goes ahead and does Peace Corps, retakes the MCAT with another high score, and reapplies?

Peace corps is a 2 year commitment though and it would be hard to travel back (distance, time, financially) to the US for interviews. Just something to think about.

 

[chicken adobo]

Hi I wanted to thank everyone who took the time to respond to this thread! It's been a stressful few months going back and forth between PeaceCorps and medical school and also wondering if I would even have an acceptance at the end of the cycle. I just wanted to update yall - I unexpectedly received an acceptance to one of my top choice schools, so I'm counting it as both a blessing and a sign! So excited to start medical school next fall

 

[meepdog]

Looking at your post history, you have a very good chance of being an M1 student by this time next year. Are you getting cold feet? Are you regretting the road you won't travel if you take this path?

Did you know that as a senior physician, you could serve with the Peace Corps? The program is called Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP).

Training the next generation of doctors and nurses

The central hospital where I serve as a Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP) Volunteer in Malawi serves as a referral center for a large part of the country.

www.peacecorps.gov

Being a pre-med, a medical student, and a resident on the road to being a practicing physician means many years of delayed gratification. If you look at the opportunity to serve abroad as one more gratification to be delayed, you may see this desire to serve not as something that must be done now, before the opportunity passes by, but as an opportunity that will be there 10 or 20 or even 30 years from now (and you won't be too old 30 years from now) and that will be worth the wait.

GHSP is a fantastic program but is undergoing significant cuts. Don't count on it still being around by the time you're an attending, just FYI

 

[LizzyM]

GHSP is a fantastic program but is undergoing significant cuts. Don't count on it still being around by the time you're an attending, just FYI

Even if GHSP is not in the cards by the time OP is an attending, there will certainly be other opportunities such as MSF/DWB or other humanitarian relief programs that make it possible to live abroad for an extended period of time in an area with tremendous need.

 

[meepdog]

Even if GHSP is not in the cards by the time OP is an attending, there will certainly be other opportunities such as MSF/DWB or other humanitarian relief programs that make it possible to live abroad for an extended period of time in an area with tremendous need.

Of course this is true. There are just some people who want to do PC specifically, and I wanted OP to know about this because it was originally part of my plan as well but as of now I don't know if it will be possible