New guy here with TONS of questions....

Hello Everyone…
I am new to the board (having been a member for a whole 10 minutes ) and I am a 32 year old nontraditional applicant.
I have a long resume…which unfortunately includes a history of poor undergrad and post grad grads…willing to explain, but in the interest of not boring everyone, I am trying to keep this short.
In a nutshell, after my poor grads, I workd as an EMT for about 1 year, then I moved into chiropractic. My grades at DC school were not the best, but later in the program, I realized that I love health care and strived to do better. After much work and extensive interviewing, I was accepted into a postgraduate residency for diagnostic imaging…after those 3 years and having passed a rigourous board exam, I have been working in private practice for 3 more years. I am in a multidisciplinary clinic, with MD, DO and DC. I am in charge of all imaging and have private contarcts with 12 MRI centers to read the MRIs for all their DC referrals. While life is good, I am not completely satisfied. I want to broaden my scope of practice, which would require more school. I am VERY interested in attending osteopathic school…but I fear my grads are going to make it impossible…:frowning:
I have tons of experience i health care and can get many glowing letters of recommendation, from MDs, DOS and chiros that I work with. I have never taken the MCAT, I am expecting ( and more than willing to retake all the prerequisite classes)…is this enough? Obviously a kick-butt MCAT score is also needed…
Does anyone have any advice…ideas…etc.? I have a positive attitude, a willingness to work…just need direction I guess.
Sorry about the rambling, but I wanted to get as much info in an effort to get the best advice possible. I am in the Chicago area…if anyone has advice on good post-bacc programs…
Thanks all so much…Mike

Hi and welcome to OPM





As to your direction…I think you need to sit down with an admissions director with all your school records and ECs and see what they would suggest. Most schools are willing to talk to you. Chicago has both DO and MD schools so you should probably be able to find some admissions dean willing to talk with you.





Have you taken all the required courses needed to apply to med school? Here are a few links that I found to be quite helpful.


http://www.studentdoctor.net/guide/index.html





http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~ericwang/Curriculum/curric.html





http://www.aamc.org/students/start.htm





http://www.studentdoctor.net/do/index.asp





Good luck and welcome again.


Amy B

I am not going to lie to you, it will be a very tough road. Do-able but very tough. You will need to prove yourself to the admissions people that both the UG and Grad performances were a thing of the past.
Again, not out of the question, but it will be a tough road.
Feel free to ask as many questions as needed to help you get through it.

Mickey,
You have kind of an unusual situation here, with poor grades but later an advanced degree and an existing medical career. I’d suggest talking to the pre-health advisor at a campus near you, or even to a dean or director of admissions at one or more of the many medical schools in the Chicago area. This can give you a good picture of what your record looks like from the outside and give you a clear direction in regards to what to do to show that you can be successful in medical school.

Mickey,
Welcome to OPM. I think you will find what you are looking for here!! As for your situation, it is rather unique, and you would be ahead to check with the schools you wish to attend and explain your situation to them and see what they suggest. If you have up to date pre-reqs, then you may be ready for an MCAT prep course, but you sound as though you realize that a post-bacc course is going to be needed to show a record of achievement. At 32, you are still very young (I’ll start in January, at age 42). When you DO take more classes, do your very best! Kicking butt on the MCAT is a given. If you feel you need help in figuring out how to shine on the application, let me add a shameless plug for our resident admissions advisor, Judy Colwell. She is a paid admissions consultant and has helped other students with their applications tremendously. Her information is located on this website. I wish you every success in your pursuit.
Kathy