I have four walls and a roof now;

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

Hello you beautiful people,

After making account after account and writing a wall of text and deleting it soon after, I think I’m ready to ask for help. I think we’re suppose to start with a quick backstory right? Well here it is.

Im a 29yo male currently attending a CC and transferring to a four-year in the fall. This my 2nd attempt at college since the first one led me to dropping out after only one semester. And that’s really where my story gets funky. I dropped out at the height of the recession because work had dried up. My parents lost their jobs and the house soon after. At 50 and 60 years old, they were unsuccessful in finding new positions. With no income and homelessness rapidly approaching, I felt a responsibility to help my parents the best I can. I landed 3 part-time jobs and worked till I wanted to cry and then I kept working. In the morning I would work in retail, the afternoon commission based sales, and in the evening and night I cleaned sewage overflows in crawlspaces. All the money I made went to make sure my parents had a roof over their head and food in their belly. I traded my luxuries like housing and food for peace of mind. I chose the homeless life for six years and going weeks with only a few “meals” throughout. I love my parents so I would probably do it again in a heartbeat.

The moment I got a roof over my head and time to attend classes I signed up for community college. Unfortunately fate has a sense of humor and gave both my parents terminal cancer six moths apart. My mother lives in a assisted living facility and my father in a home in Mexico. My dad hides his suffering and lies to me thinking he’s shielding what I already know is coming our way. My mom can’t hide her pain.

I’m not sure if any of that was appropriate to post but now you are the only ones who know my story.

I work full-time and go to school full-time. I have one day off from everything and I use it to study a bit and go visit mom and dad. My Cg.p.a. is at a 3.44 and Sg.p.a. at a 3.50. I have no EC’s under my belt and no shadowing. I plan to quit work when I transfer and start my clinical experience and volunteer work there. I want to become a physician because I feel that too many hispanics (am hispanic) have a distrust of the U.S. health industry and had my parents placed more trust in our doctors and nurses, they could have possibly found these issues early on and helping me fill out my retirement plans instead of end of life options. I want to help grow trust in minority communities and really change that trend.

My question. Will the interview process be understanding of my story and the lack of EC’s and low GPA or should I really change things up here to increase my odds. I’ll let you know that I am kinda over sleeping in parking lots and stairways so quitting work is not an option I want to entertain.

Also I was told by a med school advisor from the local university that I wouldn’t be taken seriously with my Gen. Chem. and Calc classes taken at a CC. Is that true?

Thanks for any advice and any direction.

Love you all,

J.

2

Let me start by saying I am also a premed so I don’t have all the answers, but here is my 2 cents.

Your GPA is fine. How many classes do you have left? I think as long as you keep that GPA or improve it from here on out you don’t need to worry about that too much. Remember that trends are important.

I would be more concerned about your ECs. Do you really have nothing other than employment? The thing with ECs is it doesn’t take a huge time commitment. Just a few hours a week (1-3). I think your disadvantaged status will definitely help, but it will not make up for zero clinical experience of any kind and zero shadowing. Maybe look into getting clinical employment?

On the bright side you will likely have a killer personal statement! A very hard story, but a very good one. It is your story! Remember that

3

Hey thanks for your response. I have plenty of classes left. All my bio, ochem, and physics. Yeah I have zero ECs and zero shadowing. I keep an eye open for clinical employment but lack the basic medical background and terminology that’s required. I always thought that volunteer work at a clinical setting would require a full shift. I really haven’t attempted it yet. Were could I go volunteer and get the clinical experience as well?
Thanks again!

4

A common thing that people do for clinical employment is to be a scribe. You don’t need previous experience for that and it kind of kills two birds with one stone (no need to shadow because your job is basically a shadow). If that is an option for you that might be the best option, although it doesn’t pay super well.

I am currently volunteering in a children’s hospital. It’s awesome. I just hold babies and play with kids for a few hours on fridays and because they are patients it is clinical. I’ve also seen people do volunteering in the emergency department. There are a lot of options really. You could even probably volunteer where your parents currently are. Have you looked into that?

5

I would love to get some experience in scribing but the only scribe jobs that I’ve seen pop up require a good grasp on medical terminology. Working with kids sounds fantastic too! How’d you go about it? Who did you talk to? Would I be able to choose when I come in?

I’m about 2.5 hours away from my parents so the logistics would kill me. There are plenty of Urgent Care facilities around my area, would that be an appropriate place to volunteer?