Hello -
I recently discovered this network. Very useful! Thank you all for sharing your info on this forum.
I’m 31 years old and have been waffling and whether or not to go back to medical school for the past six or seven years. I have been trying to find someone with a profile like mine to gauge my chances of getting into medical schools and then succeeding without ruining my family. Here goes: My bachelor’s degree is in neuroscience, from an ivy league school, GPA 3.5. I suffered from depression in college and my classes were hit or miss as a result - when I actually tried I got A’s but I have C’s on my record from classes where I just stopped showing up or turned everything in late… I didn’t really like my department in college, or its associated premed culture, which is partly responsible for my not pursuing medicine in the first place. I was a very jaded college student and found the herd mentality and brown nosing of the premeds very disappointing and incongruent with the thought that these people are our future doctors. Late in college I discovered a new major in the natural sciences and took almost enough classes in that to complete a double major in my senior year.
I did well enough in college to get into a PhD program in my new field at another top ivy, which I attended right after college and finished in 2009. Along the way I got married and had my first kid who is now 5. I had a love/hate (or maybe it was like/hate) relationship with grad school and almost quit a couple of times but my research has been very fruitful and has led to a bunch of publications, one of which is in a high profile journal. My grad school GPA (all science of course) was also about 3.5, for similar reasons as my undergrad.
I almost applied to med school after my PhD but decided to stick with academia and did a postdoc, albeit in a different field (molecular biology) at another ivy. My postdoc was not very productive - it was only 18 months, I taught a graduate course, and had another baby during that time. My husband is also a scientist and a year ago we both started new jobs at the university where we did our postdocs. He is an assistant professor and I am a research scientist in the field where I did my PhD. I run my own lab and I think my research is very cutting edge and interdisciplinary. I had interviews for faculty positions at three of the top schools in the country but I didn’t take the interviews for a number of reasons. Deep in my gut I probably knew that I don’t want a faculty position, but I also figured there wouldn’t be positions for both me and my husband. I was also pregnant and solo parenting for two months while my husband was working on another continent, which didn’t help my confidence!
So apart from the fact that I don’t have a tenure track position, on paper I appear to be pretty successful in my field, low-ish GPA notwithstanding. However I have never really found my work very fulfilling and I don’t have the passion for it that my colleagues have. I keep going back to the “what if” of medicine. I want to work with people, I have always had interests in health and social justice, and everyone tells me I would make a great doctor. So I’m trying to figure out if I should apply.
Because of my husband’s position, I wouldn’t be able to move, and we don’t live close to any medical schools, so I would be looking at a 1-2 hour commute depending on whether I drove or took trains. I still need to take orgo and haven’t started thinking about MCATs. I’ve been working as a scientist the past ten years, but I haven’t taken the prereqs since college or even high school since I placed out of a lot of them with APs. I have no idea how I would do on the MCATs. My SATs/GREs were really high (800M/740V) but I never took any subject tests. I have a little bit of shadowing experience from one of the times I considered “taking the plunge” during my PhD, but with a dual academic family with two small kids, I haven’t had any time to volunteer (though I will make time if I decide to pursue this). I also don’t know if medical school and residency is a totally insane thing to put my family through, since my husband is tenure track and can’t pick up too much slack around the house. And then there’s our mortgage and daycare payments…
Have any of you heard of non-traditional students coming in with PhDs? Does having a PhD and a successful research career help me get past silly things like GPA from ten years ago? Does having an ivy league pedigree count for much? Do I have a shot of getting into top ten MD programs, several of which are “close” to my place of residence? Am I crazy for giving up my career to start from scratch?
- mellem Said:
Have any of you heard of non-traditional students coming in with PhDs?
Yes, I have had several PhDs on the forums and at the conference over the years
- mellem Said:
Does having a PhD and a successful research career help me get past silly things like GPA from ten years ago?
Your GPA at 3.5 isnt that bad but I am guessing that your UG science GPA is low. And even with a PhD you may need to take several basic sciences over (I kid you not). Some schools wont take prereq over 10 years (which is more and more becoming standard). If for nothing else, you will need them for MCAT prep. So doc, you may need to be an undergrad again. I would think Gen Bio, Gen Chem, Organic, and Physics are in order
BTW, the biggest mistake I see PhDs who are considering medical school make is assuming that with grad education they are more than ready to take the MCAT and ace it. Several I know did poorly and/or blow it completely.
- mellem Said:
Does having an ivy league pedigree count for much?
It wont hurt but the "prestige" factor carries relatively minor weight in acceptances.
- mellem Said:
Do I have a shot of getting into top ten MD programs, several of which are "close" to my place of residence?
Actually, if you do well in the few UG courses, and do well on the MCAT, you have a reasonably good shot. What you do you do is have some clinical exposure and vounteering
- mellem Said:
Am I crazy for giving up my career to start from scratch?
Well that is an entirely different question. I suggest to most people that they should take the prep classes, take the MCAT, and apply. Along the way you may find your desire to become an MD to either grow or wane and you can discontinue or move forward. It is worth the time and investment to do that. Until you get the actual letter of acceptance in hand, you do not have to make an absolute commitment.
Here’s my 2 cents…
- In reply to:
Have any of you heard of non-traditional students coming in with PhDs?
Yes. Infact some med schools even address this on their websites (e.g. UCLA).
- In reply to:
Does having a PhD and a successful research career help me get past silly things like GPA from ten years ago?
I don't know about an old GPA but it certainly doesn't help you get past the pre-reqs. I did my B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Genetics in the UK and am having to take college level classes for Maths, Physics and Chemistry.
- In reply to:
Does having an ivy league pedigree count for much?
I don't think it helps much to get an interview but I think it could help once you're in an interview. My Ph.D. is Oxbridge (=Ivy League) and I'm not counting on it at all.
- In reply to:
Do I have a shot of getting into top ten MD programs, several of which are "close" to my place of residence?
I think so, especially with a good MCAT score and personal statement etc.
- In reply to:
Am I crazy for giving up my career to start from scratch?
Nope. Not as far as I see it. I'm 39, married, tied to one city (thankfully we have two great med schools here and a plethora around the state), have a science Ph.D. and gave up an academic career to pursue med school - see the resemblance between us?
I always wanted to go to med school but was told that I wasn't smart enough to get in and I believed my high school teachers. I followed the academic path but never felt fulfilled or a passion either. It was always "what if.....". In my late 30s a relative said "how will you feel in 10 years if you don't try?" How would you respond to that question? I quit my job, have just spent a year shadowing Doctors in my chosen field, am taking evening classes for my pre-reqs and am doing a 9-5 job to pay bills. It's been hard (and will continue to be) and there's no guarantee that I'll even get in to med school but I've no regrets and feel good about being on this path.
Good luck!