So I am 26 and have been teaching Latin at a high school for about 3 years now. I am also a father of two children 2y/7m and my wife is a stay at home mom. Last semester I got a bad itch to go into medicine.
So since I was a Classics major I had the liberty to avoid the sciences and so really have to go through all of the pre-reqs for med school.
My questions are:
Would it hurt me to take one class a semester to get the pre-reqs out of the way? That would take me about 5 years just to get those out of the way.
Are there enough classes offered after 3:00 so that I would be able to teach and go to school at the same time?
Is there anyway for me to go back and live mostly off of loans?
I think the question is what prompted you to get the “itch to go into medicine”? I would thoroughly test it out (if you haven’t already done so) before committing yourself to taking classes. Get some clinical experience by volunteering at a hospital or other site in your area. Make sure switching careers is really what you want to do before spending money on classes. Once you have that fully confirmed you can figure out the rest, one step at a time.
Thanks for the reply and you bring up a great point. It is easy to think about this stuff all day but how do I really know that I want to do it? I have started the process of signing up as a volunteer at my local hospital. Would that even give me an idea about what the profession is like? How do you go about getting someone to shadow? Do I just ask my primary care doctor?
Still I like planning a little further down the road at the same time while all of that is working out
I just started volunteering at one of our local hospitals in the trauma intensive care unit. No matter how many times you might see it on TV - such as the “real life” trauma shows - there is no comparison to actually being there and being around it. My opinion only, but I think volunteering is a great way to see if this road is for you. I would try very hard to get into an area like trauma where you would be around physicians and nurses who are trying to help people who are truly in a life or death situation. Don’t opt for radiology or something like that. Nothing against radiology at all, but to me that would be more like dipping your toes in the water rather than just taking the plunge and seeing whether or not you can swim.
Sorry I hit post before I realized that I had not tried to offer some advice, limited as it might be, on your questions:
1]I would take at least 2 classes a semester. I know from experience that this can be a lot when you have a full time job and a family. My advisor told me that med schools are going to be looking to see whether or not you can handle a course load. Taking just one class might not show that you can… that’s just my opinion. I think 2 classes and labs, when you can also explain you work full time and have a family, and volunteer, etc. is showing that you can handle the work - granted that you do very well in the classes also.
2]Check with whatever school you are interested taking your prereqs from, find out what is offered at what times. All of my prereqs were and are offered at night which is when I have and am taking them.
3] My wife and I both work full time. It takes both of our incomes to put a roof over our heads (a very modest home) and just pay the bills. There is no way I could afford to not work - right now - but your lifestyle and family situtaion might be different. If you can get enough $ to not have to work IMO you need to be taking a full course load. Im trying to pay off most of our debt and put a little $ back so that if and when I get into med school we wont have to worry about the bills.
