I am 24 and debating what to do with my life. I graduated from a top 25 university and, the following year, completed a masters degree in finance. I was pre-med as an undergraduate and did not apply myself to my studies. I cruised in most of my non pre-med classes but my poor performance (mostly due to lack of effort) in my science studies weighed down my GPA (3.1 overall, 2.7 science). I was very involved outside of the classroom and had a slew of good extra curriculars on my resume (not like they matter now).
Currently, I am working for a consulting firm that specializes in the pharma and biotech industries. It’s a good job, but I find myself drawn back to medicine. I take every chance I get to listen to med school lectures and read about the day-to-day life of physicians. Throughout my life I have always wanted to be a doctor and I would hate to see that dream fall by the wayside because of my bad choices in college.
My first question to the community is: should I give up on the dream of practicing medicine and focus on furthering my career in business, or, should I persist? I don’t want to devote 3-4 years of my life studying for the MCAT, re-taking course work, and applying if in the end I will be faced with nothing but rejection letters.
Second question: if I choose medicine what is the best route to take? It seems as though I would have to retake most of my pre-med course work via a post-bacc program or some sort of masters degree. The problem is that, from what I have read, when reviewing applications, admissions committees will take the average of your undergrad course grades and any post-bacc/graduate work you complete and I don’t know if straight As in all of my post-bacc courses will be enough to offset the Bs and Cs I obtained as an undergrad. I’m confident that I would do well on the MCAT if I took significant time to study (not a guarantee, but I have always been good at standardized tests like the SAT and the GMAT). Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I’m feeling rather lost.
1st question: depending on how much free time you’re willing to sacrifice, you can do both if you find the right program. The gamble of giving up one for the other is a question only you can answer. I’ve always been a fan of pursuing what makes you happy. If you can see yourself happy with what you’re doing, by all means continue. If you can’t escape the bug, claw your way back yo a competitive med school app. It’s not going to be a walk in the park and may take a bit of time, but it’s possible. A formal post bacc or SMP may help you, but I’m not the best guy to give you a recommendation for either.
2nd question: AMCAS (MD) counts all credit hours into your GPAs. AACOMAS (DO) allows grade replacement for retakes. For both, all of your classes will still have to be reported. Undergrad courses factor into your cHPA and sGPA. Graduate credits are differentiated into a graduate GPA. Undergrad is what will get you through the initial screens. Humans looking at your academic record will weigh your full record however they see fit.
Don’t underestimate the beast that is the MCAT. It’s a totally different level than the SAT, ACT, and GRE (I never took the GMAT).