Ok, I know this is jumping the gun a little but it is a topic that is important to me so I thought I would float it out there. Hopefully the medical students and graduates monitor the premed forum.
Commuting to school. My wife owns a company in Atlanta and is unable to move. So when the time comes I will obviously be pursing the local schools hard. One problem is that I don’t have a lot of options locally. I have GAPCOM which I love but otherwise have Emory(not friendly to nontrad-low gpa I think) and Morehouse (prefer minority canidates I believe). If I extend the drive a little I have Mercer at 2 hours out and UAB and MCG at three hours out. There are a few more at four hours like LMU.
So how many of you had to commute or move away from your family. My kid is young and I have been his primary caretaker. It will definitely be a difficult transition to medical school but I don’t think I can move away full-time. Have any of you had situations where you are on campus part-time and at home part-time? How did it work out? I am really hoping for the local schools but I know that in my situation I have to try to apply somewhat broadly. Thanks for the feedback.
- jjcnbg Said:
Commuting to school. My wife owns a company in Atlanta and is unable to move. So when the time comes I will obviously be pursing the local schools hard. One problem is that I don't have a lot of options locally. I have GAPCOM which I love but otherwise have Emory(not friendly to nontrad-low gpa I think) and Morehouse (prefer minority canidates I believe). If I extend the drive a little I have Mercer at 2 hours out and UAB and MCG at three hours out. There are a few more at four hours like LMU.
So how many of you had to commute or move away from your family. My kid is young and I have been his primary caretaker. It will definitely be a difficult transition to medical school but I don't think I can move away full-time. Have any of you had situations where you are on campus part-time and at home part-time? How did it work out? I am really hoping for the local schools but I know that in my situation I have to try to apply somewhat broadly. Thanks for the feedback.
I'm in a similar position. My husband is self-employed, and as an electrical contractor, he's kind of gotta stay where his client base is. I am within 30 minutes of the state med school and one DO school. I am not really interested in the DO route ($$$). The weekend commuter option just isn't worth it for me.
For you, I would say start making contacts at GAPCOM and try to become their model candidate. I AM lucky in the sense that most nontrads have a their best shot at their state school, and my state school is reasonably nontrad-friendly. I also have a fairly good GPA at this point. But, since your closest choice is DO, then you also have a good chance since you can have the grade replacement option and they tend to have lower MCAT scores anyway.
PS - I don't think it's putting the cart before the horse. . .I've even based my decision to pursue this path somewhat on what local residencies are available and if I think I can get one. It's definitely not as ideal as being able to apply to 30 different schools, but when you are part of a family it's not all about you (even though I forget that sometimes!)
I would especially concentrate on GAPCOM by initiating contact and getting to know the people and the school. Attend an open house; arrange a visit; something to get your foot in the door. I would also try to visit Emory and Morehouse.
Then, next year, try to attend the OPM conference where you have a chance to meet a lot of people and make some networking opportunities that might help you out along the way.
Best of luck.
Don’t discount certain schools because you’ve heard or have the impression that they aren’t non-trad friendly or that they prefer x or y type of student. Even if it seems to be true based on FACTUAL data, that doesn’t mean that they NEVER accept anyone who doesn’t fit their typical student profile.
There were two schools that I applied to where I didn’t think my chances were very good because I didn’t think I fit their typical profile or that they weren’t non-trad friendly. One was NEOUCOM, which takes most of its students via a BS/MD combined program right out of high school. They admit 30 or so people each year directly into the MD program, but the vast majority of their students are younger than at your average med school. Not only was I accepted there, they made it very clear to me that they actively pursued older/non-trad students to add some diversity to their class. The other school was Ohio State - I (based on no good factual data) had this idea that I wasn’t a strong candidate there because I was a non-trad, had a weak original undergrad GPA, and had no research experience. As you can tell by my signature line, I obviously got accepted there. Although non-trads aren’t a huge portion of the class by any stretch of the imagination, there are several of us non-trads around in different classes and there are a few of us who had less than 3.0 ugrad GPAs.
So - I guess my message would be don’t discount any school. Do whatever you need to do to be as competitive of a candidate as you can, apply, and see where the chips fall. I hate to see people not apply to certain schools because they don’t think they have a chance. Obviously, you shouldn’t make every school you apply to a reach school, but I think it’s perfectly reasonable to apply to a few. Don’t limit yourself based on your own perception of not being a good enough candidate.