I apologize for the long post but I could really use some advice…
Hello everyone! I’m new to this site and was excited to see so many helpful people with similar backgrounds and situations as mine.
I’m 28 years old with a BA in Chemistry from an accredited state university (GPA 2.1) 
and a MBA from a executive program of a private college (GPA 3.0) 
.
I’ve always wanted to be a doctor for several reasons such as job satisfaction, respect of the profession, and of course earning potential. But due to my poor GPA (resulting from lack of focus, seriousness and laziness), I didn’t think I stood a chance at the time. I worked in sales for a couple of years and went back to get an MBA which helped me get a better job. My experience is in technology sales and I’ve been layed off a couple of times due to companies going out of business, mergers, etc.
I recently started having this crazy 
idea of going back to school. Uhmmmm, MED school. Although an exciting idea, it comes with lots of reservations. Here are some of my questions/concerns…
-How badly will my past GPA impact my admission process? I have improved my grades in graduate school, but these were business courses. If I retake some of the fundamental courses such as BioChem, Immunology, etc, and score well will this help?
-I’m an intelligent guy but lazy at times. I know I will have to committ to med school 100%. Really how hard is med school?
-I know I’m still young, but by the time I retake some courses, the MCAT, and go through the application process I’m looking at age 30 to 32 when I get in. Add another 8-10 years for med school and residency (depending on specialty) and I’m ready to practice at age 40+. Isn’t this a little on the late side to be thinking about such a long road to travel?
-I’m in a serious relationship with a professional woman (financial analyst) that is supportive of this idea. I will not have to worry about living expenses, but how easy is it to get loans to pay for tuition? Also, how will her life be affected as a spouse of a full time med student?
-Luckily my childhood friend (also exactly the same age) has recently had the same idea - going to med school. But fortunately for him, he is currently a PharmD (working retail as a pharmacy manager) and graduated with a 3.92 GPA. He will have no problems getting into med school assuming he does reasonably well on the MCAT. We have agreed that if we decide to do this we will attend the same med school. What are the chances of both of us getting into the same program? Also, is it the same when applying for residency?
-Speaking of MCAT, what is considered a good score?
I thank you for reading this long post. I hope your responses will help me make this tough decision.
V - hopefully Dr. V some day.
Hi, DrV.
I’m new here, too. Sorry, I can’t answer most of your questions. I’m going for a Masters (hopefully in Biochem) to combat my low undergrad GPA (2.92). In many spots there seems to be a calculation for post-bac grades, so that will also get you a new GPA. And, there is a separate science/math GPA, so if you didn’t take many of those you can boost that GPA as well with more undergrad classes.
Best of luck in your journey,
Catherine
Youll be 40 either way, so what would you like to be doing then? The choice is yours. Do it! Im 31 now and Ill be applying after the MCAT this spring.
Hey there DrV, well, you’ve asked for advice… those who’ve been on OPM for a long time will vouch for me: like those dreaded teachers of old, I guess I’d characterize myself as “tough but fair.” So here’s my two cents and then some:
Quote:
I’m 28 years old with a BA in Chemistry from an accredited state university (GPA 2.1)
For what you want to do next, just put these grades into the background and don’t think about them any more. You already know that neither of them is going to help you - as others have pointed out, you’re going to need stellar new grades to kind of push the undergrad grades in the background, and as you recognize, the business degree doesn’t mean a whole lot. (And I know it hurts to hear it, and I kinda wince to say it, but a B average in an MBA program is awfully, um, ordinary.)
Quote:
I’ve always wanted to be a doctor for several reasons such as job satisfaction, respect of the profession, and of course earning potential.
With the possible exception of job satisfaction, I don’t think any of these reasons are going to have much staying power. And there is just something about the way you say it that concerns me that your “job satisfaction” is wrapped up in “respect of the profession.” I don’t think doctors are in danger of becoming Rodney Dangerfields but we are NOT the Norman Rockwell doctors of old, and we’re not treated as such. And while there’s no question that we’ve got job security at a good living wage, it’s not the guaranteed megabucks that many imagine. As a family doc I can expect to earn $100-$125K once I’m in practice. Assuming that Medicare reimbursement isn’t cut even more. But where I live, in Fairfax County, Virginia, that puts me on a par with high school principals (who earned their advanced degrees during summers off, and got their tuition reimbursed) and some high-tech engineers a few years out of college. I am not at all bitter about this. I love what I do and am excited to think of being in private practice. But I ain’t gonna be rich. I’ll be paying back $150K in loans and hopefully earning enough to pay the mortgage (my husband has been the sole wage earner these past several years and is hoping to branch out into academic pursuits of his own, i.e., low pay).
I don’t hear you saying anything about the attraction of medicine from either a scientific or humanitarian viewpoint. I know you were trying to cram a lot of stuff into a small space and I wager that you’ve got some thoughts on this, but I didn’t hear them. As Larry said, you really need to be able to articulate what it is about working as a doctor that excites you and makes you contemplate doing something so stupid as going back to school, going into massive debt, becoming a full-time student just when you should be reaching your peak earning potential. I think those motivations are inside you. I’d love to hear them.
Quote:
But due to my poor GPA (resulting from lack of focus, seriousness and laziness), I didn’t think I stood a chance at the time. I worked in sales for a couple of years and went back to get an MBA which helped me get a better job. My experience is in technology sales and I’ve been layed off a couple of times due to companies going out of business, mergers, etc.
It’s not too early to think of how you’ll spin these experiences when it comes time to write your personal statement for med school applications, or how you’ll discuss it at interviews. When you envisioned yourself a pre-med, what were you thinking? What dissuaded you? When you went into sales, what were the things you really liked about it? What drove you crazy? What gave you the most job satisfaction? What did you think you were best at, and how would all these viewpoints relate to working as a physician?
Quote:
I recently started having this crazy
-How badly will my past GPA impact my admission process? I have improved my grades in graduate school, but these were business courses. If I retake some of the fundamental courses such as BioChem, Immunology, etc, and score well will this help?
You’re right, you’ve got a significant impediment of Bad Old Grades to overcome. Given that your undergrad degree is in a basic science, I would think you’ll probably need a combination of prerequisite courses and upper-level courses to make a strong impression. You MUST do very, very well - preferably ALL A’s - to make it clear that you’ve renounced your undergrad ways. Going back to school is your “do-over” and you’ll only get this one. So spend a lot of time thinking through your plan before you actually jump in, because you’ll need to excel from the get-go.
Something else to consider: even though it’s been ten years or more since you took, for example, Gen-Chem, if you take it again and get an A, someone is going to say, “Well, sure he got an A in it, the guy MAJORED in chemistry the first time around, whaddaya expect?” If your chemistry grades were OK (say, B’s), I would not repeat the prerequisites in chemistry - unless you want to apply to schools which have an “age limit” for prereqs - but would instead concentrate on new coursework.
Quote:
-I’m an intelligent guy but lazy at times. I know I will have to committ to med school 100%. Really how hard is med school?
Med school, and for that matter, being a really serious pre-med adult student, is not for the lazy. You are not going to be able to pick up courses here and there and get B+s. You need to be determined that you are going to be the most kick-a$$ student in the class and that you are going to know things inside and out. It’s a really different mind set. I know I was plenty lazy my first time around through undergrad, but that was because I wasn’t clear on my goal. When I went back, with the sole purpose of getting into med school, my goal was so clear and well-defined that I was a changed person - didn’t procrastinate, didn’t put off studying til the last minute, didn’t do my lab reports the night before (well, I finished them the night before, but worked on them all week). This was a huge change for me, and it’s definitely possible to be a different kind of student if you know where you want to end up.
Quote:
-I know I’m still young, but by the time I retake some courses, the MCAT, and go through the application process I’m looking at age 30 to 32 when I get in. Add another 8-10 years for med school and residency (depending on specialty) and I’m ready to practice at age 40+. Isn’t this a little on the late side to be thinking about such a long road to travel?
I’ll be 50 in two weeks. So, my perspective on your question is: nope, it’s not too late.
Quote:
-I’m in a serious relationship with a professional woman (financial analyst) that is supportive of this idea. I will not have to worry about living expenses, but how easy is it to get loans to pay for tuition? Also, how will her life be affected as a spouse of a fu
ll time med student?
Every medical student at a U.S. medical school can get loans to pay for school. That’s not a problem. You should think about whether you anticipate starting a family, what other financial stresses might come into play, how much portability she’s got in her job, etc. Life as the spouse of a med student isn’t too great according to my husband, but it is not awful. I was home enough of the time that we still went out, did things together, took vacations from time to time. You have to budget your time pretty carefully but it’s do-able.
Quote:
-Luckily my childhood friend (also exactly the same age) has recently had the same idea - going to med school. But fortunately for him, he is currently a PharmD (working retail as a pharmacy manager) and graduated with a 3.92 GPA. He will have no problems getting into med school assuming he does reasonably well on the MCAT. We have agreed that if we decide to do this we will attend the same med school. What are the chances of both of us getting into the same program? Also, is it the same when applying for residency?
Well, this would be a level of serendipity that would be quite extraordinary. Thinking as a member of an Admissions Committee, I will be honest with you and tell you that I’m not sure I’d react positively if you were to say, “I’d really like to attend X school with my best friend.” I would be concerned that you would be too insular, too dependent on a comfortable established relationship, and not open enough to the new relationships and experiences that being part of a med school class entails. If you all want to try and do this, great - there’s no question but that there have been lots of traditional-aged students who were friends in undergrad and found themselves at the same med school. But the odds are definitely against you.
As for residency, at this point even if you think you are sure of what specialty you’d like to go into, you really won’t be certain until you do your clinical rotations during third year of med school. It’s just too far off to think about right now, and unnecessarily complicates your thinking about how to plan for the somewhat shorter term.
Quote:
-Speaking of MCAT, what is considered a good score?
Depends on where you want to go; of course the higher the better. The conventional wisdom for M.D. schools is a 30 (10 on each section); for D.O. schools a little less but one should NOT assume that making a certain score assures one an admission somewhere. Med school admissions, even at high-volume places like my alma mater, is a very individualized process and every aspect of a candidate’s application is scrutinized. Someone with a 35 MCAT who comes off as an arrogant ass may very well get turned down by a school whose mean acceptance MCAT is, say, 29. In my experience on an AdCom, I can tell you that we turned down people with scores in the mid-30s and accepted people with scores in the mid-20s. It’s the whole package.
Quote:
I thank you for reading this long post. I hope your responses will help me make this tough decision.
V - hopefully Dr. V some day.
You’re very welcome, and I wish you the very best! Hope I haven’t ruffled your feathers too much but at the same time, I hope I’ve given you some things to chew on and mull over.
Best regards,
Mary
Mary,
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I appreciate your candid view points.
I’d also like to congratulate you on your accomplishments! You’re a brave lady!
Thank you Larry!
Welcome to OMP Catherine! And thanks for your response.
Great point, formerartist.
I agree with what Mary has said, I’m 41 (42 in feb) in my first year of Medschool so I don’t think it’s too late.
Compensation for being a Doc out of residency differs around the country but you can make way more in corporate America.
Medicine for me is my passion and I like the work ( love ) that’s so important. My loans will be around 180 to 200,000 when done. (so the cost of a house) I want to be (the lowest paid) a FP becuse I want rural medicine. Presitige is nice but I’m doing this becuase I wanted to do more for my patients and I can liv out in the country and help a community. You will need to come up with those deep down desires of why you want to do this for your personal statement. The Med student who say they are doing this “for the Money” Never said that on thier app and I’m very dissappionted of how they think now. Hey I’m all for more money but like I said thats not my focus.
Go back and do some Sci to get the sci GPA up and you will do great. Good luck. 
Thanks!
I’m actually thinking of volunteering at a hospital for a few hours a week so I can get to see the job from the inside. Is there a specific position that I should volunteer for that will give me the best perspective of a doctor’s life?
Does anyone know of a website or a resource for getting information on the medical profession (specifically doctors). I’d like to know how the industry change will, change the profession, what impact technology will have on the medical profession. I have seen many report about (for example) hospitals hiring doctors in Israel to work from there. Due to the advancement in our internet communication methods, hospitals are able to send information about patients to highly qualified doctors who reside in countries like Israel or India. This eliminates the needs for certain specilist to be in the hospital. Is this an upward trend in the medical field? If so, how will it affect the demand of physicians and specialist in this country and their pay rates.
Quote:
Thanks!
I’m actually thinking of volunteering at a hospital for a few hours a week so I can get to see the job from the inside. Is there a specific position that I should volunteer for that will give me the best perspective of a doctor’s life?
I would suggest getting a position in the ICU or the ER. Those are the places, in my experience where you get the most hands on experience. I volunteered in the surgical ICU for two years and it was definately an eye opener.
I would also suggest shadowing some doctors. I know people say it isn’t as important as volunteering, but it really gives you an idea of what practicing medicine is like. For me, it’s inspirational, because I think, wow, I’m going to be doing this someday.
In answer to your question about seeing what the medical profession is like as well as current events, Go to the American Medical Students Association’s website and sign up for their daily medical news email. It’s very helpful in staying up with current events in medicine.
Good luck!
Gina
Yes I would Volunteer in the ER. Thats a good place.