Hello to all!
Out of a determination to develop a plan for the future, I stumbled across this site. I am hoping you can help me develop a plan to make it into and complete medical school in as short a time frame as possible.
My collegiate career began at a community college simply because of lack of funds. Though bright, my unhappiness at attending such a low caliber school blinded me to see the benefits of maintaining great academic performance with the intention of transferring to better schools. Add that to immaturity and exposure to lazy, unmotivated students and here is what resulted:
Over the course of 9 semesters (including summer) 122 credit hours attempted with only 72 earned; a 1.82 GPA. Many of the attempted hours were repeat courses (many sciences) where I failed to improve the grades in comparison to my former attempts. So. I lost hope. And did not graduate. Not even with an associates.
A year later, I applied to another community college. This time a technical one. And once again, without focus and only at the constant parental pressure.
6 semesters later (including summer) 71.66 hours attempted 49.66 earned and a 2.75 GPA
So.
Given this history and a new found focus and maturity, what steps can I take to secure completion of medical education right around age 30? (I’m currently 24).
I will consider ALL OPTIONS including international schooling. I just need to know what they are.
As an added note, I have full confidence that I can achieve a score of between a 35 and 45 on the MCAT if I attempt it within the year.
I’m in my first year of medical school right now (probably should be studying right now). First off, scoring between a 35 and 45 on the MCAT is not a walk in the park. If you haven’t taken the MCAT then don’t make assumptions about how high you think you can perform. Its a beast. If you can do well on the MCAT there are a couple of things you can do to still do to get accepted despite your poor grades in undergrad. One option is to do a post-bach program. Do really well in a post-bach program and it basically proves that you are now serious and ready to perform well in medical school. Secondly, it helps if you form a relationship with at least one person in a program that you want to get into and have them right a letter of recommendation. I just wrote one for a friend of mine and he got into the school I’m going to.
If this is really what you want to do (be sure of it) then don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t get in. Keep working for it. Medical school is awful but you learn incredible things!
Thank you for the response.
Believe me, I have no delusions and understand that that a 35+ on the MCAT is no walk in the park.
I’m planning my first attempt in early September.
You recommend that I complete a post-bacc program. My understanding is that I would have to have already acquired a bachelor’s of some sort before being eligible for that.
Despite the fact that I have taken many classes, I have not actually completed a degree of any kind since graduating high school.
To follow the plan you recommend would mean first completing a bachelor’s, then going back to complete the post-bac before applying to med school. By virtue of my GPA, my chances of being admitted into any school for completing the first bachelor’s are extremely low. This means I’d have to go back to the school I attended (community college), take a number of courses and get nothing but A’s in order to raise my GPA to a level decent enough to apply for admission to a 4 year institution to complete a bachelor’s.
That alone will take 2-3 years. Completing the first bachelor’s would take 1-2 years. The post-bac will be another two years meaning I’d spend 5-7 years gearing up for med school, 4 years in med school, and 2-3 years of residency.
In summary, to be a licensed practicing physician, it would take me 11-14 years.
Is there a shorter path?
Dear Whiz, Welcome to OPM. I have to say that I don’t think there is any shorter path to becoming a physician. To be competitive it is going to be crucial for you to get your bachelor’s and get the best grades you can, then prep for the MCAT like your life depends on it, get lots of experiences on the way that show you are dedicated and know what medicine is like (volunteering, shadowing, etc) and just put everything you got into your dream. There are no shortcuts (that I know of) to achieving this dream. I am applying to med school this year. I intend to enter med school in 2014. 4 years of med school, plus a bare minimum of 3 years residency (3-5 more likely) is 7 years alone. Tack on the last 3 years I’ve already spent working on my Bachelors (I, too, did not get degree my first go around in college in my 20’s) and this last year finishing it, and, yep, no way around it that’s 11 years. I’m 36 right now, and I reasonably expect to be 46 if I end up in 5 year residency before I am a “full on” physician. That means I’m looking at 10 more years building this career of my dreams, but that is the way it goes, and this is what I want, so I will do what is necessary. I would not want to shortcut anything, either. This is a career where people’s lives are in your hands, so it will take a major time commitment no matter what to get the level of training one needs.
I am not sure how old you are or what your situation is, but if this is something that you really want, you will find yourself willing to put in the time and efforts required to get to where you need to be. As for doing a post-Bacc, it should not be necessary if you succeed at getting your Bachelor’s and get good grades from here on out. Med school’s do look at the overall gpa, but they also look for an upward trend. If your low gpa was all from classes early on, but then you go back now and excel from here on out, they will see that. They look at the whole picture for the most part. Just be able to explain your lower grades. Lots of us have done poorly in earlier years for many reasons so just be able to tell a med school what changed in you, and more importantly show them what changed in you by getting excellent grades, showing the commitment (getting your Bachelor’s will show that as will taking part in volunteering experiences and other activities), and maturity. If this is what you really want in life, go for it, but as far as I know, there is not a shorter path to get there. Best of luck to you!
- Whiz Said:
I'm planning my first attempt in early September.
I'm a bit confused. You say you're planning your first MCAT attempt in early September? Do you mean practice test, or the real thing?
IMHO, you shouldn't be thinking about the MCAT at ALL at this point. You need to get your bachelor's degree. Retake the science classes. THEN worry about the MCAT. I think you are putting the cart before the horse, as they say, and in doing so would be wasting valuable time and energy that could be put toward earning your degree and doing a bang-up job at it. Given your academic background, you seriously need to kick some butt in every single class you take from here on out.
I want to add one more thing. But a very important one. You say you are 24, and that you want to have completed medical school by age 30 (please correct me if I misunderstood this). This means you would need to start medical school in 2 years. It takes 2 years to complete the science pre-requisites (alone), because of the gen chem - organic chem sequence (unless you take one of them over the summer, which isn't recommended). Then you apply. Then you have a gap year in between applying and starting. That alone is 3 years. And that's assuming a smooth ride, getting in immediately to take classes, etc.
This takes TIME. It's a long haul. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
“attending such a low caliber school blinded me to see the benefits of maintaining great academic performance with the intention of transferring to better schools. Add that to immaturity and exposure to lazy, unmotivated students and here is what resulted”.
I’d revise your narrative a bit, and own the mistakes. I got a 2.95 undergrad, but a 3.83 PostBac a decade later. When I speak to advisers, I’ll occasionally joke about learning the concept of “studying” later than some of my peers, but I never bring up the school, fellow students or any other circumstance other than my 18-21 year old lack of maturity/direction. Work on the narrative, and make them see why you’ve changed, and are capable of rising to the Rogers of medical school.
There are no short cuts. Even with a great MCAT score you will still need pre-reqs with high grades. If you think the path is too long shadow some Doctor’s in your chosen specialty and then see if a 7+ year commitment is worth it to you.
- james s Said:
I'd revise your narrative a bit, and own the mistakes. I got a 2.95 undergrad, but a 3.83 PostBac a decade later. When I speak to advisers, I'll occasionally joke about learning the concept of "studying" later than some of my peers, but I never bring up the school, fellow students or any other circumstance other than my 18-21 year old lack of maturity/direction. Work on the narrative, and make them see why you've changed, and are capable of rising to the Rogers of medical school.
agreed 100% here.
I also agree with Lorien. The cart is before the horse here. I'd make an appt with an advisor, and create a plan to start tackling the bachelor's. The good news is that there are plenty of electives which will help reinforce your knowledge in the biological sciences, and give you an opportunity to show schools that you really can handle the material.
I'd also say this, I think it's great that you have the confidence to say you can achieve such a great MCAT score. You'll need that when you hit rough patches during the process. Without knowing anything other about you than what has been said here, I'd be cautious about running to take the MCAT(aside from the timing issue previously mentioned). You've already retaken some of the sciences classes, and if for some reason you don't pull off the home run on the MCAT, you'll be taking that over again as well. That will make for a fairly lengthy application, with a lot of questions.
Take one thing at a time....slow and steady wins the race.