My name is Ben and I feel like right at home. I’m turning 35 this year and after 2 years of science prerequisites I’m applying for 2014. I’m a bit scared of the other student having such a perfect profile, specially those I’ve seen in SDN. I feel that people over there like to discourage students that have not been exemplary in their past education. I’ve been working in my career as a Sr. Systems Engineer for the past 13 years and have finally decided to go back into health care(used to be Combat Medic in the Army after high school). I’m not quite a perfect candidate since I’ve had issues with my grades the first time I went to college about 17 years ago when I was younger. About 5 years ago, I lost my fiance from a rare spinal cord and brain cancer and have provided me the motivation to switch career. Being a single father, work, school, and life, I can only assume others in the same boat feel how I feel about the long journey ahead.
My first attempt on the MCAT was horrendous. I scored way below the average because of how intimidating the wealth of knowledge you have to know and memorize when you take it. I am due for another retake this September, hoping to get at least past the average. With my current MCAT score I forced my self to quit my job which was very hard since I was comfortable with my salary as a Systems Engineer.
Anyway good luck to all. What a journey will this be for all of us who are quite past the age of a regular traditional student.
Quite the contrary actually… a perfect candidate is the one that stands out and your “imperfect” past can help you stand out. I am pretty sure your PS has a level of depth many traditional students’ PS simply cannot have. Study hard and do well on your retake. Do well on your pre-reqs & mcat and most adcoms will not give you hard time about your grades from 15+ yrs ago (and yours can’t possibly be worse than mine!). I will be pulling for you.
Thank you tayelord39.
I agree - you should be able to have an awesome personal statement and I think a background as a combat medic in the past is particularly impressive (thank you for your service!).
You may have a bit of an issue due to not having scores back before October which is quite late in the application cycle. Better to have application and scores out in June/July. But hang in there! I think we would be fortunate to have you in the profession 
Kate
Thanks Kate, I was hoping that retaking it this coming September will still give me a chance for some schools. I am applying to at least 30 schools including both MD and DO. I have my application almost completed just waiting for a few more LOR’s, MCAT score and a redo on my PS.
Hi Ben, glad you found the site! OPM has been extremely helpful and a welcome change from SDN. See you in class:)