I’m new here. My premed advisor pointed me towards this forum, and it looks like a great resource. I recently turned 40, and I’m interested in pursuing a medical career. A couple years ago, I began exploring health professions, starting with nursing and occupational therapy. Neither feels quite right, and an MD is making more and more sense (though I worry about the impact on my family if I pursue this path) though right now I’m keeping my options and mindset open. I finished undergrad in 1997 with degrees in biology and chemistry. My GPA was good; at the time I would have been competitive for medical school though I had no interest (absolutely zero) in medicine. It was completely off my radar. I’ve done graduate work in biology and worked as a lab tech for many years. I have a phone appointment with my in-state allopathic school this coming Tuesday to discuss what I need to do to prepare an application. Technically I’ve completed all their prerequisite coursework, but the courses are from nearly 20 years ago, and I worry I will be asked to repeat coursework if I’m to be competitive. The admissions office told me they prefer coursework within the last 10 years, at which point we set up an appt. I haven’t even begun to explore statute of limitations for other regional schools. I’m really hoping to avoid re-taking coursework so I can focus on studying for the MCAT, shadowing/volunteering, and taking other courses like immunology, anatomy, physiology, etc. and gather LORs. I’m curious to know if anyone has been in a similar situation.
Typically, the age of courses is 5 years BUT that does vary between schools.
- Look at the current MCAT and see if you can answer some of the questions
- Take the diagnostic MCAT on AAMC or Kaplan or … and see how comfortable you are with the material (recognize UP FRONT these tests are meant to be harder than the real thing to get you to buy the course)
- If you are okay with the gen chem, bio, physics, biochem that I would look at taking advanced courses like the ones you mentioned…
I bought the MSAR from AAMC to see what the reqs are from the various medical schools. You might want to as well.
If your grades are good, they don’t specify retaking the basic courses, AND you’re still comfortable enough with the MCAT testable material, I’d take the more advanced, health related courses that you mentioned. MCAT review courses can refresh you on the lower level stuff, though the feedback I’m seeing is that commercial courses haven’t quite adapted to the new test yet
I had prereqs as old as 13 years (completed undergrad in 04) and as recent as year of applying, with a decent MCAT. I was told by interviewers and one admissions director that having a solid track record with recent successes was a good thing. Theoretically, the MCAT shows you still have a mastery of the real basic sciences while your grades show how you are in an academic setting. Schools obviously want someone well represented in both areas.
Bottom line, I’d guess you’ll need to take some coursework to show recency in academic success but wouldn’t recommend retakes unless they tell you to or you just really want to. Let us know how the meeting goes. I’m sure you aren’t the only person who wants to hear a true admissions perspective on the situation.
@Adoc2be wrote:
Typically, the age of courses is 5 years BUT that does vary between schools.
- Look at the current MCAT and see if you can answer some of the questions
- Take the diagnostic MCAT on AAMC or Kaplan or … and see how comfortable you are with the material (recognize UP FRONT these tests are meant to be harder than the real thing to get you to buy the course)
- If you are okay with the gen chem, bio, physics, biochem that I would look at taking advanced courses like the ones you mentioned…
I bought the MSAR from AAMC to see what the reqs are from the various medical schools. You might want to as well.
Points 1 and 2 were recommended by my premed advisor as well! So yes, I’ll do that. I’ve been looking at various online MCAT Q’s of the day, but I have no idea where those stand with respect to “real” tests. I’ll look into the MSAR too. Thanks for the recommendation.
@Kennymac wrote:
If your grades are good, they don’t specify retaking the basic courses, AND you’re still comfortable enough with the MCAT testable material, I’d take the more advanced, health related courses that you mentioned. MCAT review courses can refresh you on the lower level stuff, though the feedback I’m seeing is that commercial courses haven’t quite adapted to the new test yet
I had prereqs as old as 13 years (completed undergrad in 04) and as recent as year of applying, with a decent MCAT. I was told by interviewers and one admissions director that having a solid track record with recent successes was a good thing. Theoretically, the MCAT shows you still have a mastery of the real basic sciences while your grades show how you are in an academic setting. Schools obviously want someone well represented in both areas.
Bottom line, I’d guess you’ll need to take some coursework to show recency in academic success but wouldn’t recommend retakes unless they tell you to or you just really want to. Let us know how the meeting goes. I’m sure you aren’t the only person who wants to hear a true admissions perspective on the situation.
This is encouraging. My UG overall GPA was 3.678, with a 3.763 for prerequisite coursework (though I haven’t calculated my BCPM GPA). I did graduate coursework from 2006-2008 leading to an MA in Biology (Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior) with an emphasis in genetics and developmental biology and an overall GPA of 3.393. I’ll see what the admissions rep says Tuesday and check back in.
Unfortunately, given the change from old MCAT format to the new, there are not many practice tests out there.
I would not use the Q of the day to give you an idea of how dense the MCAT is, how the structure of it is… I use Q of the Day for content review.
Take either the AAMC diagnostic or the Kaplan … Kaplan’s sucked the wind out of me for about 3 minutes, until I came here and remembered, “it’s meant to suck otherwise, Kaplan would not sell you the course…”
Of course, I’m now a Kaplan Cultist 
@Adoc2be wrote:
Take either the AAMC diagnostic or the Kaplan … Kaplan’s sucked the wind out of me for about 3 minutes, until I came here and remembered, “it’s meant to suck otherwise, Kaplan would not sell you the course…”
As someone that took all of the AAMC practice tests and all but one or two of Kaplan’s (for the old MCAT obviously) I thought the practice tests were far easier than the real thing. My average was 33 on the practice tests and I managed a 26 & 30 on the actual exam.
I do I highly recommend Kaplan’s course though, the MCAT is as much about strategy as it is the content. You can know everything about all the subjects and still do poorly if you haven’t figured out the timing. Kaplan teaches both, and while not all of their methods specifically worked for me, a lot of them did, and if nothing else the pile of practice tests they included was worth the price of admission IMO.