Hi!
Interesting thought process going on here for me. I’ve got three young kids, stay-at-home, and I used to be a practicing veterinarian. I absolutely don’t want to go back to doing that, but I’m thinking along the lines of med school, again. I haven’t practiced in 8 years. I just turned 40. I haven’t taken the MCAT, but I did very well on the VCAT years ago. Anyone have any thoughts on the transition at this stage with this background?
- crcdvm Said:
Hi!
Interesting thought process going on here for me. I've got three young kids, stay-at-home, and I used to be a practicing veterinarian. I absolutely don't want to go back to doing that, but I'm thinking along the lines of med school, again. I haven't practiced in 8 years. I just turned 40. I haven't taken the MCAT, but I did very well on the VCAT years ago. Anyone have any thoughts on the transition at this stage with this background?
Interesting thought process going on here for me. I've got three young kids, stay-at-home, and I used to be a practicing veterinarian. I absolutely don't want to go back to doing that, but I'm thinking along the lines of med school, again. I haven't practiced in 8 years. I just turned 40. I haven't taken the MCAT, but I did very well on the VCAT years ago. Anyone have any thoughts on the transition at this stage with this background?
Interesting question: Thinking out loud (read speculating), using the starting point that you haven't practiced in 8 years, means that you started DVM school at least 12 years ago, lets say 15, and that would mean you started college 20 years ago. Some med schools may question pre-req courses that old.
Since you did well on VCAT, made it thru DVM, you probably had good to excellent undergrad record.
You haven't been in full-time school for a decade. To show that you can still do well in school, getting up to date on the changes in biology in genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, possibly redo old pre-reqs, and to make sure your student study and exam skills are up to par, some intensive course work would be indicated
You do need to prep and do well on the MCAT
Assuming that all the academic challenges can be overcome (and being DVM means you likely have the ability to do that) the more important question the adcoms will ask is why the switch to people medicine. Additionally you would likely need significant exposure to medicine via volunteering in medical settings, shadowing doctors, etc, to support your motivation, intensity and commitment to people medicine.
That is my quick analysis and social "model" of possible transition. gives you a place to start.
BTW, for those who read this and have any additional thoughts, please share. This is definitely not a common transition, there are few, if any "standards" to do such a transition, and is a great example of being non-traditional. There are no experts for such a thing so lets all think out of the box and brainstorm. Much of what gets posted on OPM is not the definitive answer but rather creative paths and ways to think thru a non-traditional situation.