Medical school - taking the dive

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

Hi everyone,


I ran into this website/forum by random chance but am excited to see how great of a resource it is!


I graduated from Virginia Tech as a finance major in December 2006 and have taken almost a year off now, trying to hit it big as a professional poker player. Although I’ve made a decent income, I do not see myself doing this as a career. I can either go get a job as financial analyst working for a corporate machine or pursue a career in medicine and target that coveted MD.


I’m leaning towards going for the MD as I’ve always fantasized of being a doctor but thought it was just way too much work and suffering. But with the right motivation, I know I can do it. A couple of roadblocks exist for me though:

  1. As a finance major, I had taken very little science courses - General Biology w/ no lab and Intro to Chemistry (which I don’t think even counts as General Chemistry). I know postbaccalaureate programs with a medical school emphasis exist but none of the schools in my area (I live in Nashville, TN) have them. I think I’ll have to attend a local university and manually plan out a course cirriculum to fulfill medical school admissions requirements. I’m trying to get enrolled by this January. Do I apply as non-degree student when I do this?

  2. I’m still young and dumb. My biggest fear is that I’ll actually get into medical school and in the middle of it, realize that this isn’t for me. That would just be a huge waste of time and LIFE! Those of you who are MDs already or are almost there and loving it, how did you guys know that being a doctor was what you wanted? Is there some sort of personality test that can help? I’ve been volunteering at Vanderbilt Hospital for about 4 months now but can’t really say that’s helped too much as my duties consist of refilling the coffee and soft drinks. They might let me observe a surgery or two in the near future. Hopefully this will help.


    Hmm, I know I have a bunch more questions but my brain is starting to shut-down as it is pretty late. I’d really appreciate any help, advice, tips, etc!
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First of all, welcome, minwoo!

  • minwoo Said:
1. As a finance major, I had taken very little science courses - General Biology w/ no lab and Intro to Chemistry (which I don't think even counts as General Chemistry). I know postbaccalaureate programs with a medical school emphasis exist but none of the schools in my area (I live in Nashville, TN) have them. I think I'll have to attend a local university and manually plan out a course cirriculum to fulfill medical school admissions requirements. I'm trying to get enrolled by this January. Do I apply as non-degree student when I do this?



There is nothing wrong with the "do-it-yourself" post-bacc option. As for how to apply - well, it depends. Some people enroll as degree-seeking students (it doesn't matter that you have no intentions of finishing the degree), some people enroll as non-degree students. It may depend on what you need for financial aid and which way you need to be classified in order to be able to schedule the courses you need.

First, let me explain the financial aid issue. If you enroll as a non-degree student, you are eligible for 12 CONSECUTIVE months of financial aid in order to take classes required for admittance into a professional degree program. This can be a problem, as it is virtually impossible to take all of the pre-reqs in 12 months. I chose to pay for my part-time quarters out-of-pocket and then use my 12 months of FA for when I was going full time. If you enroll as a degree-seeking student, your loan eligibility will depend on how much money you have previously borrowed and how many total hours you have accumulated. You will have to talk to a financial aid person to see how many credit hours you are still eligible to receive loans for. Both of these options refer to borrowing federal loans. If you don't need to borrow money and/or prefer to go the private loan route, this may not be a factor.

Next - enrolling for classes. Find out how registration is done at the school you will be attending. At some schools, non-degree students are given the lowest priority for scheduling classes. Since the pre-req classes often fill up very quickly, this can make it virtually impossible to register for the courses you need. Typically, if you enroll as a degree-seeking student, you will usually have fairly high registration priority because they will usually count your previous degree hours and give you advanced standing. This isn't always the case, though, so it is important to ask how scheduling priority is determined. Some schools also give priority based on part-time/full-time status.

  • Quote:
2. I'm still young and dumb. My biggest fear is that I'll actually get into medical school and in the middle of it, realize that this isn't for me. That would just be a huge waste of time and LIFE! Those of you who are MDs already or are almost there and loving it, how did you guys know that being a doctor was what you wanted? Is there some sort of personality test that can help? I've been volunteering at Vanderbilt Hospital for about 4 months now but can't really say that's helped too much as my duties consist of refilling the coffee and soft drinks. They might let me observe a surgery or two in the near future. Hopefully this will help.



It's good that you are trying to determine if this is really what you want. The opportunity to observe surgeries is great. See if you can parlay your volunteer connections into some connections for talking to and shadowing physicians in different settings. You've only been there for four months, so it may be awhile before you have that opportunity.

You could consider looking into volunteering opportunities that give you more of an opportunity for patient care, as well. Nursing homes and working with the disabled may offer those opportunities with minimal training. Hospice organizations also often have patient-care volunteers. This may not help so much with whether or not you want to be a physician, but it will give you an opportunity to experience some patient care roles.

Good luck!