Scared and nervous

Hi all,


I am going back to school in January in hopes to become a doctor. I am really nervous because I am 36 and a single parent to two wonderful children. By the time I get into med school, my daughter should be in her first year of college and my son will be a sophmore in HS. I feel excited and sad at the same time bcause I really wish I had started this when I was younger. I always wanted to go back to school and I tried to enroll in nursing school at one point in my life but I had to be at school by 6am and had no one to take my children to school for me and my mother refused to take them so I had to put that on the back burner. It was just very hard being a single parent with no support. Now that my kids are older, I worked out a school schedule that will allow me to get to school after I see them off to school and be home by the time they get out. If I am accepted into medical school, my son and daughter will be be old enough to drive themselves back and forth to school. I have been out of school for almost 20 years and hope I can get my brain back into the books. I am happy that my children support me and they are proud of me. Anyway, I just wanted to be able to talk to others that felt the way I feel and understand what I am going through

Good luck and -


1). Don’t try to fast track everything and ‘get done’ with the pre-reqs, try to learn the material and the good grades will follow. Your academic performance in the pre-reqs is very important.


2). Don’t forget to smell the roses along the way…i.e. cherish the victories no matter how small.


3). Don’t burn yourself out…did I just say that…well it’s worth repeating. Take a long deep breath and focus on the larger picture.


4). LEARN the ‘whys’ of your organic chemistry don’t memorize it. It’s easier to learn it than it seems at first.


5). THINK through the ‘hows’ of your physics and it will make sense.


6). Sorry…don’t have one for biology, perhaps why I got a B in it!


7). You just signed up for a marathon, NOT a 100m dash.


Again, good luck and bon voyage!

Welcome to the party… I don’t really have much else to add to the simple eloquent advise above; Only such encouragement as may come from knowing others have been there before and survived to tell about it.


I likewise had kids in college while doing this. One unexpected surprise was that, with me in Med school and being dirt poor at least on paper, the kids qualified for great financial aid. I hope this helps you worry a little less about their future as you go forward with theirs.