New to the forum

Hello all,


I found this forum when searching for non-traditional curricula at med schools… I knew I was a non-trad student as well.


Quick intro - After job hopping for several years and taking time out to establish my family, I was convinced by my DH to look into medicine. I hadn’t ever considered it before, but everything I read sounded awesome! That was over a year ago. Now I’m back in school taking my pre-reqs, which I’ll be done with next semester thanks to taking lots of science courses the first time I was in school. I verified my desire to be a doctor by volunteering at the children’s hospital in Memphis (LOVE IT!).


Now I’m in the delightfully stressful but rewarding study phase (actually, I ought to be studying Orgo right now…) and looking at med schools all over the country to see where I want to apply next year.


I look forward to getting to know you all! Anyone else from Memphis? (I’m not from here originally, but live here now)

Welcome . Glad you’re having fun with it!


How old are your original science courses? Many schools require that pre-reqs be completed within a few years of matriculation. I’m not sure if you know where you’d like to apply yet, but it may pay to look into their recency requirements.


You may be able to meet some of those by taking some upper-level bio courses, if you’ve already done the Bio I/II sequence. Look into your options :).

Hmm… all the schools I looked at did not have a time requirement on pre-reqs that I could find. I’m actually re-taking Physics I because I felt I needed better prep before taking the MCAT. But I taught biology in a high school for one year recently and worked as a biologist for 3 years so I didn’t want to re-take Bio. Hopefully it’s not a problem, but thanks for the heads-up.

Liz -


I would suggest that you actually call a few of the schools you are interested in. Most schools don’t have a hard and fast rule about the age of pre-reqs, but a “recommendation”. They do this to allow some wiggle room for exceptional candidates. Biology seems to be the subject area that they most want to be recent, however, your recent experience in the biology field may be enough for them, along with a strong biological sciences score on the MCAT.


Good luck!