Greetings all!
I wanted to introduce myself to the group and let you all know about my life long dream, that has been on the back burner for way way too long.
My name is Rob, and on May 25th I will be the ripe “old” age of 39. (I still cant believe that). Recently I been doing a great deal of soul searching on what will make my remaining time on this earth “Purposeful”.
I have a wonderful family which includes my wife of 13 years and 3 sons, but I have been floundering in finding a “love” of career, that I think has its roots in my closing the door on a possible career in health care while I was a Sophomore in college.
Tonight, I’m going to broach the subject about taking a leap of faith with my wife. I want to pursue that career in health care. I’m not fully sure the path that I will take to achieve this, but I want her to know about my desires.
I do have a degree from Northwestern University in Mechanical Engineering which I earned in June of 1992, but its been quite some time since my “core science” classes, and I dropped organic Chemistry way back in 1989 when I decided to change my major to mechanical engineering, abandoning my health care aspirations.
I would think that I will need to retake my PreMed Requirement courses again, so I have a fighting chance on the MCATs. I will need to work full time during the time of taking these classes, so It looks like the earliest i can apply to Med School will be when Im… Oh my 41ish
It seems like this at the outer rim of the age group. But I would like to know is the likely-hood of this dream coming to reality.
I have always been a good student. Especially in the Math and Sciences. Of the Core courses I have took while I was in college, I recieved a GPA of a 3.74. I flipped out in Organic Chemistry when I was having a hard time to keep a C+ and decided then that Medical school was not in “the cards” for me since Orgo was the “weed-out” course. So I dropped the course and decided to focus on Engineering.
How foolish of me… So many other options I could have done, but the misguided youth mind… Oh well. Water under the bridge.
Anyway… To cut this growing post, short. I would like to know if I should retake all my Pre-Med courses, since its been so long. And if so… When should I expect to apply to Med School.
I’m hoping to take 2 summer courses to knock off 6 of the 24 credits. And perhaps take 12 of the remaining credits over Fall and Spring 09/10 And finish up in Summer of 2010…
Any thoughts and guidance would be much appreciated!
Kindest Regards,
Rob
Welcome to the marathon Rob. Best of luck broaching the subject w/ your wife. She will be making a sacrifice as well with the extra work you are picking up.
My husband likes to remind me often of how much he does for me lol.
Hey Rob,
Good-luck on your journey. I also wish you the best of luck breaking the news to your wife. My husband was not quite on board in the beginning. Then when he saw that the subject just kept coming up and I couldn’t let it go, he came around. Now he is my biggest supporter. He just took the kids to soccer for me so that I could have some free time to study… and here I sit on OPM. LOL I guess what I am saying. Don’t be shocked if things don’t go as well as you hoped… I can imagine it seems like an off-the-wall kind of thing to a spouse in the beginning. Once she sees how important it is to you, I am sure she will come around. Who knows… maybe she will be all over it right away. GOOD-LUCK!
Anyway, welcome to the board. This place has TONS of information and terrific support… even for those of us that spend most of our time lurking 
Enjoy the ride!!!
Gina
So I broached the subject with my wife last night… And she was definatly questioning my sanity. I received probably the normal rebukes.
Won’t that take a long time?
How are we going to afford that?
Will we have to uproot the kids?
Does Med schools even accept people over the age of 40?
How will the Mortgage get paid! The market stinks right now and we will never get what we paid for our house anytime soon.
How can you fit in work and school in together! Isn’t one of the two going to suffer a lack of true commitment?
I’m sure she thinks I’m a little on the nuts side today. I see her points and her fears, for they are mine as well.
It’s a little daunting. But this is something I want to do. And would feel like I gave up if I don’t at least give it a try.