Good evening. Let me start by saying I am glad to have found this forum in that I am in need of some direction in my quest to get into medical school. I am a 43 year old man that graduated from undergraduate school in 1990. I majored in Psychology as well as took all the pre-req’s for med school. I took the MCAT for the first time in 1991 and scored horribly. I took some time off, took the Kaplan prep course and re-took the exam in 93, with better results, but not good enough to get me in anywhere. As you can imagine, the disouragement kicked in and I began to switch gears. I was a single father at that time and needed to get something going to generate some income, so I began teaching school. I subsequently got married, had another child, started my own realestate appraisal company and moved on with my “career”. I have always had the dream to go to medical school, but life kicked in after undergrad and here I am almost 20yrs later. I have since obtained my MBA, but have not taken any science courses for almost 10+ years, at which point I had taken an anatomy and physiology course and did very well. I need some direction in terms of where to start. I’m sure I need to re-take all the pre-req’s over, but can I limit what I take to: Biology, Chemistry, Org Chemistry and Physics? I dont need to retake any Stats or Math do I? Should I just take them at my leisure at one of the local 4yr Universities or should I focus on Post-Bac? I don’t mean to ramble, but I am very excited and ready to get started, but I just want to make sure I don’t make any mistakes along the way and do it right this last and final time.
Biology - 2 semesters
Inorganic Chem (gen chem for most) - 2 semesters
Organic Chem - 2 semesters
Physics - 2 semesters
Upper division science - 2 semesters at least (physiology, micro, biochem, genetics seem to be the top pics)
My own path started with just one class. Then scheduled out what I needed in increments. I’ve “left” my age behind because whether I’m 46 or 47 won’t matter if I don’t have stellar grades.
Last, unless you are in CA which seems to have a solid community college feeder system in place, I would take the classes at the very best university you can…
- csimpso1 Said:
I'm sure I need to re-take all the pre-req's over, but can I limit what I take to: Biology, Chemistry, Org Chemistry and Physics? I dont need to retake any Stats or Math do I? Should I just take them at my leisure at one of the local 4yr Universities or should I focus on Post-Bac?
You're correct on the re-taking front. From my experience the majority of med school do not accept pre-reqs from over 10 years ago so you will need to re-take the pre-med curriculum (as listed above).
I am not sure when you got your MBA but the calc and/or stats classes for that degree might still be valid.
Classes vs post-Bac depends on a lot of factors mostly relating to time and money. It's possible to work full time while going through a post-bac program but it wouldn't be easy (in my opinion).
Thanks for the advice. I am pressing on!!
Thanks for the advice. Pressing on!!