Hey all, I just wanted to say hello and thanks, you've all helped me square up to doing the med school thing. I come here for encouragement and hope…
Here are my stats: I did my prereqs 15 years ago (I'm 48 now), with very mixed results. A's in organic and upper level biology, but C's in physics and gen chem - need to retake those. Making an initial run at MCAT in April and then perhaps 1 year of re-do's to improve my scores, if needed (counting on that one). I've been nearly paralyzed by the age factor - ha! I was intimidated in my early 30s, go figure. You know what they say, in 5 years you'll still be 5 years older…what do you want to be doing?? Well, I never got over medicine. So here goes…
Dr. NJB, a special thank you for your postings. While I generally don't say so in real life (because people are apt to lift their eyebrows and try to steer me to a nice FP program) gen surg is where I'd like to be, and you rock!! NB: This is not to imply there is [/I]anything wrong with Family Practice!!
All the best to all of you!
Linni
I just blurted and hit post and realized later that I forgot to ask the important stuff, like:
I’m in Texas and considering the Academic Fresh Start option (it erases grades older than 10 years). It would leave me with about 60 credits, a GPA of 3.7 vs 3.2, and a year’s worth of classes to take (30 credits), which hopefully would bring the GPA up further. Sound reasonable or no? My early college attempts were embarrassing, so it does get rid of the “explain what happened here” scenario.
Is a practice run at the MCAT advisable, or should I leave it until after the redo classes? (I’ve got this unreasonable hope I’ll score high and could then forego some of those classes, and perhaps the AFS option.) I did see many acceptances on SDN with 3.2 GPA and variable MCAT scores, but lets face it, how many of these were in the over 50 set?!
I’ve moved to Texas from another state, do not know the medical folks here (am trying to break things so I may ask to shadow the docs, like Calvin, and it has worked once already), and trying to figure out how to land some LORs. With HIPPA, shadowing/volunteering has become very difficult, and local hospitals want certifications. Would non-MD/academic LORs work? I was thinking specifically of some volunteer work with my church doing stuff like feeding the local homeless folks, etc.
Any advice appreciated!
Welcome!!!
I'm in Texas and considering the Academic Fresh Start option (it erases grades older than 10 years). It would leave me with about 60 credits, a GPA of 3.7 vs 3.2, and a year's worth of classes to take (30 credits), which hopefully would bring the GPA up further. Sound reasonable or no?
Why not? So your classes would be gen chem, gen biol,organic, and physics plus what else?
I've not "been there and done that" yet but I would say no. At least not without taking a prep course. Maybe not even then since you didn't do so well in physics and gen chem. It seems like it would be good to have those fresh in your mind. What classes would you forego? With your pre-reqs 15+years old you might (probably) have to retake all of them. Check with your schools of interest to find out what is the oldest class that they will accept.
Seems like you will mainly need to have letters from former professors but an additional letter from a physician along with shadowing experience can only help. Not to clear on this though.
Theres some advice from one older premed to another. Remember that my advice is free and some people say that you get what you pay for.
Good Luck!
As you figured out I haven't quite got the quote thing down. Sorry!
thanks for your reply, and I couldn’t figure out italics, either…
Re: the MCAT, yes definitely was looking at review courses/tutoring, etc, before the test. I had thought I could avoid redoing o-chem and the biology courses, just taking those in which I did poorly and studying like mad for the rest. Still, now I’m thinking I should wait, you’re right - the prereqs are too old for most places anyway…I just got very excited about the prospect of applying earlier versus later. Also, redoing those classes provides academic LORs, so that’s another thing solved. I rather liked the idea of saintly church references, though 
All my post 10 year courses are in English lit, with a few in political science and anthropology (BA in Lit). I would lose my good scores in upper level sciences, but then, they’re moldy anyway.
Sigh. Its really helpful to examine these “out loud”, though a little uncomfortable.
Thanks for your input!
Best, Linni