Consultant to MD... (+all the stuff in between)

Hi everyone! I wanted to introduce myself to this board - as in the past weeks I have been grappling with the difficult choice of changing careers and the 10+ years commitment that will be required to be a physician.


I obtained a Bachelors in Business Admin in 2003 and have worked in Technology (the fancy word for IT ) Consulting for 2.5 years. As of late, I feel no satisfaction from the work that I do, and have considered heading back to school to pursue my alternate career choice. Let’s just say that pending my discussion with a premed advisor… my mind is about 85% made up that I want to pursue this track.


I was wondering if there was anyone else who made the jump from some sort of corporate function (ie accounting, finance, consulting, etc) to medicine, and whether or not anyone who has successfully done so has advice in the matter.


Also, I will have to fulfill most of my bio , chem and physics undergrad requirements since in the past I was pretty focused in business, so these got neglected a bit… is it possible that the undergrad premed requirements can be fulfilled in under 2 years ?


Well, apologies for the lengthy introduction Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I think it’s hard to do all the science classes in less than two years simply because they build on one another. For example, in most places you’re expected to do your two semesters of gen-chem before you do your two semesters of o-chem… while it is possible to do an entire year of gen-chem in a summer session, most people would find that a tough start especially since you will need to do very well in all your prereq classes.


I did mine like this:


year 1, part-time while working:


Fall semester: gen-chem I


Spring semester: gen-chem II, cell biology


year 2, full-time, quit work:


Fall semester: physics I, o-chem I, microbiology


Spring semester: physics II, o-chem II, audited animal biology and prepped for MCAT.


Note I continued my full-time job as Mom during that time, so although this doesn’t look like THAT many courses or credits, it was plenty for me.


When I first tried mapping out my coursework, I tried every imaginable angle to condense this schedule. In the end, I concluded it wasn’t worth it. I was going back to school after a loooong time away, so was a little leery of the re-entry hurdles I’d have to vault… I concluded it was better to go a little slower and be DAMN SURE I was doing well.


I got a 4.0 in the abovementioned classes so I guess my plan worked OK.


Good luck!


Mary

I have also found spreading out my classes to be beneficial. Of course, I also tried to jam everything in to as little time as possible when first trying to plan my path (doesn’t everyone)? But there are a number of reasons why I don’t think it’s a great idea, necessarily.


I have an English degree and IT experience, and I’ve been working in Loan Operations at a commercial bank for 4 years. I started back to school just taking gen chem for the 1st year (still working full time). I had to re-learn how to study. I had to learn to write labs. I think it’s good to give yourself a little time to get back into the swing of things. For me, it was a struggle, and though I got A’s - there’s no guarantee I would have if I had overloaded myself with coursework. Now I am more confident and I have my study skills back, so I’ll be taking Bio and Calculus next semester, and probably Bio II and Orgo I the semester after that. (I can’t quit my job to go full time, unfortunately).


The other reason is that there are other things besides coursework you should do. You should volunteer, maybe do some shadowing, try to get some clinical experience. There’s no reason to jam all your prereqs into one year when you really should be getting the experience you need for your application as well. You also will need to give yourself some time to study for the MCAT. A few months, I hear, though I haven’t tackled the beast yet myself.


The bottom line for me is - what’s one more year? This is a decade-long process. One year doesn’t make a difference. Better to take it slowly and do it right - a theme you will hear over and over again on this board if you stick around. Which I hope you will -it’s a big help.

Thanks for the prompt feedback. Yea… it does seem that less then 2 years will be a slight stretch - and realistically 2 years + some change is more manageable and strategically superior choice.


I have started making plans already to get things rolling for Winter 2007 term… can’t wait !

Getting all of the classes done in 2 years is do-able, but you also want time to prepare for and take the mcat, which should be done after you finish the pre-reqs.


I did all pre-meds and finished a BS in 2 years, but it was tough to keep all A’s. First year Gen Chem, physics, and Gen bio


Second year, Ochem, Biochem, and whatever you need to finish up from the first year, maybe a math/calculus or statistics class is helpful. (the second year is when I took the mcat and did my 2 year major in 1. I only did this due to funding constraints)


Also, you mentioned being 85% convinced, depending upon what your advisor says. While I agree that you should at times listen to the advisor, you also need to assess for yourself, and take responsibility to improve any aspect that may prompt them to discourage you. At my school, the advisors were negative, and I decided to go for it anyway, and focused on what they pointed out were my weak spots. If this IS what you want ot do, you can if you work hard enough.


Don’t let anyone tell you you can not do it.

  • misscompassion Said:
Getting all of the classes done in 2 years is do-able, but you also want time to prepare for and take the mcat, which should be done after you finish the pre-reqs.

I did all pre-meds and finished a BS in 2 years, but it was tough to keep all A's. First year Gen Chem, physics, and Gen bio

Second year, Ochem, Biochem, and whatever you need to finish up from the first year, maybe a math/calculus or statistics class is helpful. (the second year is when I took the mcat and did my 2 year major in 1. I only did this due to funding constraints)

Also, you mentioned being 85% convinced, depending upon what your advisor says. While I agree that you should at times listen to the advisor, you also need to assess for yourself, and take responsibility to improve any aspect that may prompt them to discourage you. At my school, the advisors were negative, and I decided to go for it anyway, and focused on what they pointed out were my weak spots. If this IS what you want ot do, you can if you work hard enough.

Don't let anyone tell you you can not do it.



I totally agree, you can absolutely do it. I did mine in about 2 1/2 years, and got an EMT-B while doing it (that took a full semester by itself, but I took calc while doing it at least). I worked full-time (demanding job as senior software engineer - but usually no more than 45 hours per week max) and I have a family. I obviously went fulltime through summer as well. However, I didn't get orgo 2 until last summer, AFTER the MCAT (I took the spring semester off to prep for the April MCAT), and am taking orgo 2 lab now. It feels so nice to only take one small class instead of 13 - 18 hours.

I also got my 6 hours of English out of the way, during that time. Even though I have a pure liberal arts degree from about 15 years ago (and I mean pure... I have zero physical science classes from my first degree), I wanted even my English credits to be fresh.

It was definitely tough, and orgo 1 while taking physics 2 just about killed me... I was a basket case at the end of that semester, but I have a science GPA of around 3.7, and that's counting some neuro psych type classes from my first time through school, where I got mostly C's in those kinds of classes - but AMCAS and AACOMAS count some of those classes as science, so that drug my post-bacc science GPA down a little.

But technically, if you discount the EMT semester and the semester off for MCAT prep, I definitely did all that in 2 years.

Oh yeah, I wanted to add, that my math skills REALLY sucked when I started out (they still do, just not quite as bad). I had KLEP tested out of my only math requirement my first time through. So I had to take Algebra, then Trig, before attempting Calc. Also I took Statistics in there.


Just wanted to make the point that this can be done, even taking more classes than just the ones you might be thinking are the bare minimum.


Obviously, as has been said, you have to be realistic about what you can do, and what is just too much time to be worth it for you, but I just wanted to put in hopefully a word of encouragement. If you start out a little slow and assess what you can do, you should be able to ramp up to full speed for what you think is possible, by your second semester of study, imo.


Best of luck.

Hi guys, it’s me again Been busy with stuff so haven’t posted in a while. Hope everyone’s doing great!


First, thanks to all the ppl who replied to my thread, the advice was really great.


Second, I have gotten things moving… YES, I AM REALLY DOING THIS I am enrolled at University of MI Dearborn for Winter 2007 term starting January. Coincidentally, this will be a few days after my 26th birthday <_<.


Taking: General Chem, Bio (non-mole), English Comp II (bah, 1st time around my degree didn’t require full yr, so hopefully this is the last non BCM course to take). I was a bit confused about math requirements. I had previously taken Pre-Calc(B+), Calc1(A), Calc2(B+) my first time around… but the pre-med advisor stated that this should be sufficient. If someone can confirm this, it would be great. I might take a stats course down the road since I hear of all the math genres, it comes in most handy (more so then Calc apparently)


Lastly… anyone here from Michigan? It’d be cool if I could speak or meet in person with someone who is somewhat more “down the road” in this process then I am.



Hey there,


I’m an IT consultant right now doing my pre-reqs part-time. I’m in my first semester of Gen Chem now while working (and as you know, IT is very full-time). It’s definitely not easy, but I think I’m adjusting slowly to the lack of sleep and free time But, even in the most exhausted, stressful moments I’d tell you it’s worth it just to be finally doing this.


Best of luck to you getting the ball rolling!