Professional Advising

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
1

Hi,


I saw one professional advising company on SDN and was wondering if there were others worth checking out. I’m wanting to call and discuss my options with someone skilled since I don’t have an adviser currently. I haven’t found others in searches.


Thanks

2

There are a few that hang out on the boards here. I’m sure you’ll get a few responses from them.

3

Send me a message for any questions or use this whole community as an advisor. I’m not a professional but have corrected two of my advisors giving old or inaccurate information.

4

It is always good before your start to run your plan, ideas, options, etc on here and you will certainly get the opinions and experiences of many others who have done or who are doing what you are planning.


As has been pointed out some academic advisors either through workload, inexperience and simply not used to dealing with nontrads will suggest incorrect ideas and inefficient strategies for older students.


Most of the professional private advisors.


typically wont take students until they actually submitting applications. If you do go for the expense of professional private, I would suggest someone who has a long-time real academic experience. While I certainly know several that I would recommend, I do want to mention two here by named.


Judy Colwell, has been both a premed advisor and admissions officer at Standford and long time supporter of OPM where she has presented at every conference since 2002. She is the “Grand Dame” of OPM. (http://www.judycolwell.com/)


Liza Thompson, past post-bacc director at Goucher and Johns Hopkins for a combined 20 years has been a very active member on the OPM forums for the last year presenting timely and accurate advice and info for students (http://www.thompsonadvising.com/)


Also AAMC.org, AACOM.org, and NAAHP.org are chock full free highly accurate information that students do not spend enough time in reading, especially the instruction manuals for the actual application as well as the MSAR and the AACOM CIB. (if you dont know these terms google them, burn them into your gray matter).


Lastly, be cautious when dealing with any advisor who has “guarantees” or a large flat upfront fee for everything. Ask around, check references, talk to them.



5

Hello, all. I’ve a question similar to those posed in this thread. In performing a(n admittedly) superficial search on advising, it seems like most of the consulting is related to the year that a person would take the MCATs and apply to medical school.


I’m a older non-trad that is starting the evaluation process (probably N-2 years before application). That is, I’ve been a nuclear engineer for 15 years, and am now thinking about what I’d need to do to apply to medical school, and am in need of advising. For example, given my professional and (distant) educational background, should I retake classes or self-study, take a fill patch classes, or go full post-bacc.


Any suggestions or thoughts on where I should search or inquire further? Are there folks who consult for people at my particular stage of the game, rather than those doing interviews?


Thanks in advance

  • Tom



6

Hi Tom, and welcome to this community. My situation is similar to yours, I got my bachelor’s in EE in 2002, which means that any of the classes that I have that would qualify would be in the neighborhood of 14-15 years old.


What I would first suggest is that you start talking with schools that you may be interested in and see what their policies are on prerequisites. Some schools want those courses completed within a few recent years, others will accept anything that qualifies.


For the school I’m targeting, they don’t have a requirement on when those courses have been completed, so I’ve been able to apply some of the courses I completed as an undergrad (Physics, English, Calculus, etc) for pre-reqs.


After figuring that out, I determined what other courses I would need to make up the rest of the pre-reqs (Organic Chemistry, Biology, Genetics). So, I ended up doing a DIY post-bach to fill in those courses that I needed (plus the necessary prereqs for those courses), while prepping for the MCAT.


If I can provide some more info, feel free to PM me and I’d be glad to speak with you further.

7
  • nontradpremed Said:
Send me a message for any questions or use this whole community as an advisor. I'm not a professional but have corrected two of my advisors giving old or inaccurate information.



Right now I'm just sticking to people I can speak with on the phone. Thanks
8
  • gonnif Said:
It is always good before your start to run your plan, ideas, options, etc on here and you will certainly get the opinions and experiences of many others who have done or who are doing what you are planning.



yes

  • Quote:


Judy Colwell, has been both a premed advisor and admissions officer at Standford and long time supporter of OPM where she has presented at every conference since 2002. She is the "Grand Dame" of OPM. (http://www.judycolwell.com/)

Liza Thompson, past post-bacc director at Goucher and Johns Hopkins for a combined 20 years has been a very active member on the OPM forums for the last year presenting timely and accurate advice and info for students (http://www.thompsonadvising.com/)

Also AAMC.org, AACOM.org, and NAAHP.org are chock full free highly accurate information



Yes! Exactly what I was looking for. My computer seems to have trouble loading the Judy Colwell page.

I think OPM's excellent for information and finding answers through others experience although in certain situations it helps to discuss options with someone directly. Prices aren't cheap but that's where I think reading the "fine print" is very necessary to understand where they're coming from and if their experience will help someone in a specific situation such as non-trad.
9
  • tluedeke Said:
Hello, all. I've a question similar to those posed in this thread. In performing a(n admittedly) superficial search on advising, it seems like most of the consulting is related to the year that a person would take the MCATs and apply to medical school.

I'm a older non-trad that is starting the evaluation process (probably N-2 years before application). That is, I've been a nuclear engineer for 15 years, and am now thinking about what I'd need to do to apply to medical school, and am in need of advising. For example, given my professional and (distant) educational background, should I retake classes or self-study, take a fill patch classes, or go full post-bacc.

Any suggestions or thoughts on where I should search or inquire further? Are there folks who consult for people at my particular stage of the game, rather than those doing interviews?

Thanks in advance

- Tom



Hi Tom, welcome to the forums. I remember seeing a post on here (else SDN) somewhere that stated a non-trad had emailed different medical schools they were interested in and most of them didn't care when the pre-reqs were completed surprisingly.

I like the idea of calling/emailing the specific schools your interested in aforementioned by Bennard.

I don't have many of the pre-reqs completed and am considering a DIY post-bac. I recommend talking to a post-bac admission adviser if you can. The woman I spoke with was friendly and very generously spoke with me for close to an hour about what would be best and we concluded that a DIY was probably a better option.

I wanted to throw in a friendly reminder also that although your questions are relevant to the post it might serve to start a new topic so the thread doesn't get too convoluted and more attention can be given to your questions.