Hello there,
What I’ve learned from perusing this forum is that my situation is not as unique as I thought when I started this journey toward medical school (7 years ago?! And I’m still not there…though I am somehow 36. Time flies.)
Long story short-er: I quit my job in higher education administration/student services 7 years ago because I felt I was selling myself short. I’d sort of fallen into the job after graduating with my BA and got a little too settled. So I formulated a DIY post-bacc and completed my pre-reqs in 2011. I did well enough though there were a few grades that could have been higher but each of those blips can be correlated to a stressful life event (grandmother was very ill, grandfather was ill, etc.) Anyway, I took the MCAT twice and was stone cold average both times. I decided to apply anyway and did so twice and was waitlisted both of those times but was ultimately not chosen.
Since then I have been hemming and hawing about reapplying. I’ve been doing everything I can to enhance my application (took a human anatomy course with cadaver lab, have been working in clinical research with extensive patient contact, will retake the MCAT given the changes this year.) I’m pretty committed to giving it one last shot but I haven’t pulled the trigger due to a crisis of confidence that only the medical school application process can generate.
I’ve done some networking and thought about enrolling in a graduate program in biomedical sciences or something but I need to work and I think the hands on experience I am getting is more valuable. I need to take a MCAT prep course as well since the self-study method has not panned out for me. I alternate daily between thinking I’m an idiot and should just stay in research to being unable to fathom not being a physician someday. The latter almost always seems to prevail.
I don’t have any real questions or need any advice, I just wanted to introduce myself a bit and say thanks for the virtual commiseration.
Happy holidays!
Welcome to OPM, you are among Kindred spirits here. Look around, take a gander at the diaries as I am sure that within those you will find answers to many questions that you may have