Hello, all.
I am a 33 year-old who has recently gotten back into the medical field. At the moment, I’ve taken a pause in my Back to School quest in order to appraise some ideas. I’ve done a good bit of research, but definitely lack the hands-on experience with the process to be able to figure out for myself (With any confidence) the best route to take from here.
I have a bit to overcome – Back in ‘92 I was a free ride pre-med student at the University of New Mexico. Inasmuch as I had the decision-making ability of a particularly headstrong eighteen year old, I decided to focus all of my energies on my music career. In short, I allowed my grades to tank and I dropped out.
Fast forward about ten music career years later (Wasn’t a total wash. Got one album out, got some regional success, and, let’s face it, it was fun. I wouldn’t have had nearly as interesting Life Stories to relay had I not taken that little detour, heh!).
I was stuck in a dead-end and boringly mindless state government job, bad relationship, the whole ‘General Rut’ scenario.
Found myself with the opportunity to quit the job and relocate to go back to school. Worked a couple of full-time jobs with a full-time class load (Occasionally living on my boss’ couch while doing it, trying to get back on top of financial issues resulting when one quits a job and goes back to school), so I became no stranger to “challenging circumstances”.
Anyway, I picked up my second associate’s degree in respiratory therapy and became an RRT. Moved down to San Antonio and got a great job working in a Pedi Intensive Care Unit. It really rekindled the original wish to become a physician.
Now. I’m basically trying to work out which would be the best way to go. Even if my grades were where I wanted them, I would need to retake the prereqs, as it’s been almost fifteen years. I have one associate’s degree in Liberal Arts, which will at least provide for some transfer electives.
I graduated with honors for my respiratory degree, but I know Allied Health credits won’t do me much good trying to get a BS in, say, Biology.
I was considering a couple courses of action.
My credits would carry over, and I would get a good bit of bonus credit for being a working registry RT. This is could use to fairly swiftly get a BS in Respiratory Care. I understand that I would definitely have to take a post-bac program in order to fill in the prereqs.
OR, I could use my liberal arts AA to give me a boost at a four-year University and go for the BS in something else. I’d likely take and retake the relevant coursework during that process.
My question is: Which seems like the better route? Will a BSRT qualify me for a post-bac program? Would a Uni BS do more to offset my early academic problems? Considering how many courses I would need to retake, which would end up keeping me in school longer? With the BSRT I could potentially move up with my current career and make more money to pay for the post-bac program, but would THAT look worse for getting into a program later?
Any relevant advisement greatly appreciated, thanks!
I can’t advise you on the specifics of one path or the other. I just wanted to say welcome, and let you know that it definitely sounds like you’ve thought this through and are ready to pursue your path. Good luck with it!
- Travtex Said:
I am a 33 year-old who has recently gotten back into the medical field. At the moment, I've taken a pause in my Back to School quest in order to appraise some ideas. I've done a good bit of research, but definitely lack the hands-on experience with the process to be able to figure out for myself (With any confidence) the best route to take from here.
I have a bit to overcome -- Back in '92 I was a free ride pre-med student at the University of New Mexico. Inasmuch as I had the decision-making ability of a particularly headstrong eighteen year old, I decided to focus all of my energies on my music career. In short, I allowed my grades to tank and I dropped out.
Fast forward about ten music career years later (Wasn't a total wash. Got one album out, got some regional success, and, let's face it, it was fun. I wouldn't have had nearly as interesting Life Stories to relay had I not taken that little detour, heh!).
I was stuck in a dead-end and boringly mindless state government job, bad relationship, the whole 'General Rut' scenario.
Found myself with the opportunity to quit the job and relocate to go back to school. Worked a couple of full-time jobs with a full-time class load (Occasionally living on my boss' couch while doing it, trying to get back on top of financial issues resulting when one quits a job and goes back to school), so I became no stranger to "challenging circumstances".
Anyway, I picked up my second associate's degree in respiratory therapy and became an RRT. Moved down to San Antonio and got a great job working in a Pedi Intensive Care Unit. It really rekindled the original wish to become a physician.
Now. I'm basically trying to work out which would be the best way to go. Even if my grades were where I wanted them, I would need to retake the prereqs, as it's been almost fifteen years. I have one associate's degree in Liberal Arts, which will at least provide for some transfer electives.
I graduated with honors for my respiratory degree, but I know Allied Health credits won't do me much good trying to get a BS in, say, Biology.
I was considering a couple courses of action.
My credits would carry over, and I would get a good bit of bonus credit for being a working registry RT. This is could use to fairly swiftly get a BS in Respiratory Care. I understand that I would definitely have to take a post-bac program in order to fill in the prereqs.
OR, I could use my liberal arts AA to give me a boost at a four-year University and go for the BS in something else. I'd likely take and retake the relevant coursework during that process.
My question is: Which seems like the better route? Will a BSRT qualify me for a post-bac program? Would a Uni BS do more to offset my early academic problems? Considering how many courses I would need to retake, which would end up keeping me in school longer? With the BSRT I could potentially move up with my current career and make more money to pay for the post-bac program, but would THAT look worse for getting into a program later?
Any relevant advisement greatly appreciated, thanks!
Wow, I'm definitely impressed by everything you've been able to accomplish since that rut! Honestly, I'm not sure if getting another degree is really necessary...most people do a post-bacc or a SMP, they don't do another full-fledged degree. I don't think anyone will be able to offer you that informed of an answer, however, without specific GPA and numbers since the extent of the damage does determine the corrective action.
I wish you the best of luck though!
Travtex,
Do you already have Bachelor’s degree, or do you have two AA and no Bachelor’s?
If you have a bachelor’s degree you do not need to get another degree… prereqs would be enough (providing that it would be enough to bring your GPA up to at least 3.0, or even higher. You can take prereqs either as a non-degree student, by enrolling to your local 4-year college, or you can choose more formal way in the form of Special Master Program or Post-Bac; such programs are usually very rigorous and if you do well, they will make your application look great.
You you don’t have a bachelor’s degree yet, you would have to get one no matter what. You should do whatever interests you most -which I think would be RT. After you get your BS you would only have to retake missing prereqs - for which you do not need to enroll in a formal post-bac program.
I’m not sure if it all makes sense.
Good luck.
Kasia
No BA/BS, just the AA and the AAS. There are a couple of programs I’m looking into that bridge my RRT/CoARC degree into a BS in Respiratory Care. With my other degree to pick from, I can finish either program in, say 32-48 credit hours.
As far as the Post-Bac goes, I’ll have to see where my cumulative GPA lies. I went through all of the AAS and graduated around 3.3 (Considering the two jobs allowed roughly zero hours of study time, I’ll take it. heh).
Figure if I can keep it over 3.0 without having time to study, having that luxury now should certainly help.
Technically, I have the Bio, Chem, Math, Statistics, Psych requirements filled. On paper, the only classes I lack (Once having the BS completed) are organic chem and a year of physics.
However, I am wanting to retake whatever Bio/Chem classes I need, as they’re over ten years in the past and in the B or C range from my slacker years.
I was mainly eyeballing post-bac programs because they seemed pretty inclusive of the classes I’d want/need once I met the BS requirement. Kind of a combination grade boost/requirement completion/brain refresher course.