Working while in school..Overlooked?

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m1lkm4nn

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I have had a part time job through all 4 years of college, including the summers, averaging 15 hours per week while in school and 30-40 over the summers. Many of these have not been Medically or Academically related. It's not as if I was supporting myself, but this money made things a lot easier on my parents to support me. I also think my grades inevitably were a little lower and my experience more difficult than those who never worked during school. Is this type of work (pizza delivery, restaurant, jobs for money) considered when looking at someone's application, or would I have been better off taking out a small loan while in school? This is more of a just wondering after the fact question..but I do believe working and holding a job made me and anyone else a better person overall.

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It all depends on your final GPA when you are applying.
 
doesnt seem like they care. i worked 1 full time job during the week and a part time job during the weekends...dont seem like its made a difference in my app..who knows though.
 
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I have had a part time job through all 4 years of college, including the summers, averaging 15 hours per week while in school and 30-40 over the summers. Many of these have not been Medically or Academically related. It's not as if I was supporting myself, but this money made things a lot easier on my parents to support me. I also think my grades inevitably were a little lower and my experience more difficult than those who never worked during school. Is this type of work (pizza delivery, restaurant, jobs for money) considered when looking at someone's application, or would I have been better off taking out a small loan while in school? This is more of a just wondering after the fact question..but I do believe working and holding a job made me and anyone else a better person overall.

At one of my interviewers the guy asked me about working during undergrad and seemed to understand that putting in those hours will effect your GPA.

My advice, don't count on them looking at it, but if you have solid everything else they may take it into consideration at the interview level, as in probably not in deciding whether to give you an interview, but probably when deciding to accept you post interview.

Good luck!
 
I think that it is the other way around.... the person recommending you for interview may take into consideration the fact that you had to work during college (or you may be considered equal to others who had 12-15 hours of activities during the week -- yours might have been retail while someone else was in an club, frat, acting troupe, etc) but when it comes to the decision to admit it is your gpa/MCAT plus how well you impressed the interviewers that counts.

I'm sure it varies by school and even with individual interviewers.
 
Sure, you can put your work activities on your medical school application. I actually recommend that you do, and make it clear how much you worked. You shouldn't think that working will make up for a bad GPA though...it might make me understand why someone has a 3.55 and not a 3.75, but it won't excuse a 3.0 GPA with a bunch of C's in science classes. The adcom has to know that you can do the work of medical school, and that you are willing to commit the time necessary to studying. If working is affecting your grades much, you need to cut down your work hours and take out a loan. That doesn't mean you chain yourself to a desk to ensure a 3.9 and never do any job or extracurricular activity...it just means that you have to make school high priority if you want to prove you can do med school.
 
I doubt it. Until US News starts a category called "Students of Economically Disadvantaged Background" and rank schools with that in mind it won't matter. I worked 50+ hours a week while I was an undergraduate to not only support myself but to support my disabled veteran father and high-school dropout mother. When push comes to shove, an adcom will look at your numbers (3.4/30N in my case) and ignore everything else.

But hey, maybe I am wrong... but I don't think I am.
 
There is no excuse for your MCAT or grades (whatever they may be). Seriously, I worked in college almost full time . I knew another student who worked almost fulltime as well and maintained a 4.0 and got a 41 MCAT.

That said I think working does matter alot, its another EC. If it wasn't considered why would it be asked on AMCAS? Also many (at least half) of my interviewers asked questions concernting my work experience.
 
15 hours/week is not that much, not enough to be taken heavily into consideration anyway, IMO.
 
Sure they take how busy you are into consideration,time managment is a good skill to show. However, working is not the only way to show this.

I also agree with the above poser, working is not an excuse for lower grades/MCAT. I've generally worked over 40 hours a week through college, and I wouldn't go as far as to say that my experience has been more difficult than everyone who didn't. It's not like all the non-working folks just sit around all day, most people have some activity other than school that drains alot of time.
 
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