By way of background, I am 32 and have practiced law with a major firm here in NYC for the past 6 years. I graduated from college in 1997 as a pre-med English major, and from law school in 2001. I did very well in college, and fulfilled all of my prerequisites at that time. I took the MCAT this past August and scored a 37 (13 Bio, 12 Phys., 12 VR).
I have noticed that a few schools either require, or strongly urge, applicants to have taken their science prerequisites within 7 - 10 years of applying to medical school. Has anyone else had a problem with this? I am worried that other schools will be concerned with the fact that I have not taken science classes in over ten years, though I’m hoping that my performance on the MCAT will help me out on that front. Is anyone else in the same boat? While I know that a lot of non-traditional applicants were not pre-med in college, there must be some who were and just waited!
Your MCAT is excellent but not having “any” recent science courses “may” be an issue with some medical schools. You need to contact ALL schools you will be applying to and ask about this. Some may be more lenient than others but there is NO guarantee.
Since you haven’t had any coursework at all in about six years, many (most?) med schools are going to want to see recent coursework of some kind. You might consider some upper division biology classes. Schools have no way of knowing that you can do advanced biology, taking multiple classes at a time as you will be doing in med school. Your MCAT score is excellent, but it doesn’t demonstrate that you can “handle the work.”
Cheers,
Judy
As an update, I have been accepted at 2 great schools so far, and am on the wait list at 5 others (I applied at the very end of the admissions cycle). While I’m sure some schools were reticent about my lack of recent schoolwork, many others had no problem with it.
Congrats, Colby! And thanks for the persepctive. It’s good to hear of a bit more flexibilty from adcoms than we might expect.
Congrats, Colby! Good to hear it worked out for you.
- colby24TN Said:
Sincerest Congratulations! As we demonstrate year after year, there is an almost infinite number of ways to skin the cat. Please take a minute to tell us where you are accepted & wait-listed. And, as importantly, how you crafter your application such that older-coursework was less of an issue than predicted. Lots of folks before you here have found that to be a large hurdle and your tactic might prove valuable to those who seek to follow you.