Hi Everyone

I am applying to medical school this spring and I have some concerns...

I am a nontraditional student, I'm 22, and I have a four year old and work full time as a government contractor. The first three years of my undergraduate I did not have to work. I worked for a year (sophmore year) in a research lab doing gene therapy research. My junior year I moved out, and got married, during which time I was able to do some volunteer work (like 5 hours a month at a free clinic) and some doctor shadowing (about 30 hours) in addition to my coursework. I got a divorce about a year ago, and since have gotten a full time job, and had to switch my course load to part time. I am taking my MCAT this spring, and applying to medical school. I am concerned about my volunteering background though because it is not very strong. I have some extracurricular activites in school like serving on the Dean's Board, and winning research scholarships etc... However, I do not at this moment have the time to do volunteer work. My days go from 7am-6pm every day, and the time I am able to be home and not studying I try to spend with my preschooler, which to me, I think is more important then volunteering. Does anyone have any opinions or experience on how this is going to look on my application? (My GPA is a 3.8) Any advice would be really great

Your application sounds very strong - 3.8 is a fabulous GPA, and between the year of research, some volunteer work, and physician shadowing, I think you'll be fine. The fact that you are working while in school and still maintaining a strong GPA speaks well of you. You are also getting some fantastic honors with the research scholarships, etc. If you think you could find just a little bit of time to continue volunteering, that couldn't hurt, but I agree with you that time with your little one is precious (and will become far more scarce once med school begins), so don't beat yourself up for taking it! I think if you continue to pull that kind of GPA and get good MCAT scores, you will be in a good position for your applications. I would be very careful talking about being a young parent, though - some schools would unfortunately hold that against you. Just a thought. I'm sure others will chime in with their advice, too. Good luck!

I have heard that before, and is another thing I am concerned about, mentioning that I am a parent. I can understand how they can take that as a negative aspect to my application, but on the other hand, I think it also says a lot about how much I was able to juggle. So, for instance, if I did not mention I had a son that they knew about, then I feel like, just with working and school, I should have been able to get some volunteer activities in. I am not really sure, I was going to include something about his on my entrance essay, since he has been the biggest thing to push me forward but I just do not know if I should or not.

Hmm. That's a tough one. I remember when applying to med school being advised to keep personal stuff out, especially anything that might indicate to admissions committees that I might start a family (i.e. that I was married). On the other hand, I am now applying for residency and mentioned my daughter in my personal statement and talk about being a mom at my interviews, and I agree, I think it shows that I am very capable since I have continued to accomplish a lot.

I suppose it might depend on where you want to apply. If you are interested in super high tier, ultra competitive programs, I would be very cautious about mentioning motherhood. On the other hand, I think there are a number of programs out there that value diversity and life experience in their student body and would appreciate the qualities you possess, as evidenced by all you have accomplished despite all the challenges.

So I don't really know what to tell you. I would say that if you do mention your son in your PS, it should be brief and used just to highlight qualities you want to emphasize to the adcoms.

I hope someone else chimes in with an opinion as well!

I would not include it, for exactly the reason nbp brings up. The schools get thousands of apps for a very select few slots- I wouldn't give them a reason to not interview you. Your letter writers may bring it up, and then it becomes a piece of the puzzle in a positive light while you have emphasized the academic/volunteer piece in your application.

You will be asked how you plan to do med school as a single parent- that is something you will want to have extremely planned out.

That being said, you are going to want to feel out the schools as far as being family friendly. So make sure to ask about no traditional students when you go on interviews!

Hi there. I am in the middle of interviewing right now. I gave birth 2 months ago to my first child and I've been to 4 interviews in the past month.

I talked about my pregnancy in my personal statement (and therefore all schools know that I have a baby). I debated this for a while before I went ahead and did it. At the end, I decided to include it because motherhood will be a big part of medical school life and also, I figured I don't want to go to a school that doesn't value who I am (i.e. medical school student/mom).

So far, I have one acceptance and one wait list. I applied to 16 schools. I have 5 interviews and 1 rejection so far. I have to say, I haven't heard back from some schools I was kind of expecting to hear back from... maybe it's because being a mom is a big flag to them... The interview invites I received are a mix of mid to top tier schools.

For me personally, for something like this, I decided I didn't want purposefully leave out the fact that I will be a mom while being a student. In fact, I decided that I wanted to include it. My personal advice is to be tastefully honest about who you are and what matters most to you.

Best of luck!!

My take on mentioning being a parent boils down to one thing: stereotypes of certain racial groups in America.

If you're White and you're a Mom, you're assumed to be a wife.

If you're Black and you're a Mom, you're assumed to be a "baby Mama".

Besides the fact that I had an interest in medicine long before I became a Mom, I didn't mention it in my PS when I was accepted before. And I'm NOT going to mention in when I apply in the next couple years. Maybe if being a Mom was part of my desire to become a Doc, I would consider it. Otherwise NO way.

I agree with Path on this one. I don't think I'm going to mention being a mother in my personal statement for residency. It's also not an "extracurricular" even though it takes up a jillion hours of my time. It's just part of being who I am. I'm also not going to mention that I'm heterosexual though clearly I prefer the male sex.