I dont even have a bachelors degree

Surgery and now Ortho Surgery, I’ve decided that I want to be a physician, I want to be like the men and women that I have assisted and worked with over the years but here’s my dilemma. I am a soon to be 33 year old guy with absolutely 0 college coursework. I tried college right after highschool thinking I wanted to work with computers but was completely uninterested in the coursework and ended up dropping out of all of my classes. So to make a long story short, I am 33 years old starting over wanting to get a bachelors so I can apply to medical school which would put me (if all goes well) at 37 or 38. Do medical schools take guys like me serious because i’m a little discouraged hearing from other writers when they talk about the undergrad degree they already have and how they study for the MCAT I can’t help but sit here and think to myself " Man if I only thought about this 10 years ago" But in all seriousness should I pursue other things …I would be graduating medical school at 41-42 years old. I can’t help but feel like I’m a day late and dollar short. Any advice or opinions would be much appreciated

Also I’d like to add I am a single guy with no kids or any real financial burden (mortgage or anything). I could write A LOT more on what led me to wanting to be a physician over years but I don’t want to make things too long.

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You have a long road ahead of you, but nothing is impossible. I started my postbac in my late thirties and it took me two and a half years while working. I ended up getting accepted to medical school. It is a very long and difficult process, but there is no real cap on age. You can attend medical school in your 40s, 50s, 60s. If you get into medical school at 38-40 you will finish your residency 46-48. Depending on your specialty, there is no reason why you cannot work well into older age.

I do know that surgery/ortho is competitive and a the work has a very grueling schedule. You may want to ask yourself if this is something you want to do if at the end that is not a specialty you are competitive for or that your body can handle.

Hi! Don’t let your age be what deters you from pursuing this if it’s what you want to do. I’m 35 and back in school. I already have a master’s degree, but it’s completely unrelated so I needed 2 years worth of science pre-requisites. I’ll be starting medical school at 37/38 as well. I am married with 3 young kids, so this change was very difficult for our family, but I’m still thankful I took the leap. If you are determined and focused, you will do just fine.

Im realizing now that there is like 3 paragraphs that are missing from my post lol, Thanks for the insight though! it is always nice to hear from people that have “been there done that” that are around my age. As far as specialties go for a long time I wanted to do pathology and further forensic-pathology. That all got flipped upside down when one of the Vascular surgeons I worked for let me come into the OR and watch an entire carotid endarterectomy and I got like …Surgery high from just witnessing that, so it has crossed my mind but again Im not sure I would be able to keep up with a bunch of 20-30 year olds at 46 in a surgical residency. Just out of curiosity what are you guys wanting to specialize in?

I am an M1 so I am keeping my options open. Many of my classmates are gunning for competitive specialties and want to do research right away in those fields. I am not really interested in being at the top of my class or competing for a difficult specialty to get into like dermatology. I want to be the best doctor I can be without having zero work/life balance. My initial thoughts are internal medicine (can move from here in many different pathways - even surg), psychiatry, or forensic pathology. However, after going through the various histology sections of the first block I am less inclined to do pathology as I don’t find it all that interesting.