Hi All,
I’m brand new to the forum, and have been casually perusing for a few days.
An abridged about me: I’m in my 2nd year of law school at a highly regarded state school. Even before I committed to law school I sort of suspected that lawyering wasn’t really what I wanted to do with my life (in fact I told my parents that I would like to try taking pre-med classes before I enrolled, but they pooled their efforts and effectively bullied me into going to law school). Anyway, that nagging feeling that medicine is where I want to go hasn’t subsided (I wish it would’ve). I’ve decided that when I graduate from law school I need to try and get into medical school. I fear if I don’t I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. Whew…
So, I feel like I should prepare a plan for making a seamless transition from JD to MD.
My vital stats:
I had OK grades as an undergrad (a believe a 3.35, but my g.p.a. was over 3.6 for my last 2.5 years). I’m in the top half of my law school class.
I plan on finishing law school. I think I owe that much to my parents. I will have a little debt when I graduate–in the neighborhood of $20k–but nothing unmanagable.
Here’s what I don’t know. How should I go about starting my pre-med classes, building my application for med-schools?
I will probably need to take some sort of a legal job after a graduate (I’ll only be 24), but I’m not opposed to doing pro bono work, maybe even something tangentially related to the medical field (like with an AIDS outreach project or something). Should I start taking pre-med classes immediately after I graduate? I could concievably take my Bio and Chem classes the first year and work part time to pay down my debt, but I wonder how that will look to a MD admissions committee. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m forever vacillating between between careers, incapable of committing to anything.
In essence, I just want to know what the most effective strategy would be for changing careers (albeit before I even start my first career).
Thanks in advance for any advice and responses.
Sam
I wonder if you will, no matter what, seem like you are “vacillating between careers”? I would say at this point do whatever moves, touches or inspires you. You will have to explain it some way or another, so do whatever you can handle and give it 110% whether it’s school, work, volunteer…My limited knowledge of the process is that you may be questioned on all decisions you have or haven’t made when applying to Med School. If it’s your heart’s desire, you will get accepted…somewhere.
I don’t know much about loans. However, I was under the same impression you were. I would call the lender directly and ask. That’s not one I would take anyone’s advice on.
You are one of those cases that if you do a good enough search of the forum someone has been in your shoes. Maybe a tad bit different story, but, still kinda the same. Don’t be sad, just do a search. You have some really busy people that stop by to give advice IF it’s a never-before-seen issue. Otherwise, if it’s been broached before, it takes a bit longer for people to reply. Always ask, someone will eventually reply. Cheerio 
Sam,
Good on ya that you want to follow through on your heart’s desire to go to med school. Don’t worry so much about “how it looks” to admissions committees and focus more on what is best for you. If you get good grades and MCAT scores, you’ll get in somewhere.
You mentioned that you “owe it” to your parents to complete law school. The only person you owe it to is yourself. If you feel it would improve your life to have your J.D. no matter whether you practice any law or not, then stick with it. Otherwise, you should seriously think about how much time and money you are wasting right now. That said, you are still young. You could graduate, practice law for 10 years, apply to med school and still be younger than a lot of the folks around here.
Lots of people switch from law to medicine. There’s some advantage to having a J.D. especially if you think you might do some public policy work or that sort of thing. But if you plan to be in the clinic seeing patients then the degree might be superfluous except as a nice sheepskin hanging on your office wall. Best of luck,