I’m actually not looking to apply to medical school any time soon but rather in about 4 years because I have a lot of work to do before I can get there. I have put about a years worth of thought into this and definitely want to pursue it before it becomes financially inadvisable.
I’m 28 years old, work as an IT Consultant, make a decent living, able to save $1500-2000 cash money a month after all my standard 401k, food, bills, etc.
Been single for a year or so, no real GF just sort of dating casually
Bout 20k in student loan debt, should be paid off within a year
Got about 3 years worth of undergrad credits with a GPA of only 2.86 (first in family to go to college, went to expensive undergrad because I didn’t know better, could’t secure enough loans to graduate)
Work about 50 hours a week
No volunteer work yet but am looking into it at a nearby hospital
Community College science classes are available after working hours but not 4 year classes
Need to secure US citizenship (just paperwork, no real barriers to get it)
Wondering where you guys think I should start? I’d want to get accepted by the time I turn 32…
First of all, welcome to OPM. Next, it is not a good idea to give yourself a time limit. By saying that you want to Apply in 4 years, gives you a lot of stress if one thing or another pops up and pushes your deadline back. You start getting discouraged. The best thing to do is come up with a plan where you take your prerequisites and do well in them.
So to answer your question of where to start, it would be to start with your basic pre-requisite courses and do well. The rest will fall into place. Judging from your GPA, you have a big hole to dig out of and nothing you plan for will be worth it if you do not do well in those classes and show that you can do the work.
I second the opinion of not setting definitive “deadlines” until after you’ve earned the grades and MCAT scores to be competitive for admission to med school, and had some experiences shadowing Docs. So much can change in 4 years, and I’m definitely proof of that! :lol:
My advice for someone starting on this path is to be sure that it’s something you really want to do. Go spend some time shadowing and volunteering in a clinical setting right now. Get an idea of what a physician does on a day-to-day basis. Be sure you’re going into this with eyes wide open. After you’ve done that step, then start to plan out the other aspects of schooling, MCAT, etc.
I’ll also add that it will be imperative for you to go and complete a 4-year degree prior to matriculating. So, that needs to factor into your plans. Plus, if you’re planning on working full-time while going down this path, it will take a good while longer to get all your coursework completed. The prereqs alone will take 3-4 semesters of full-time study to complete typically.
My advice for someone starting on this path is to be sure that it’s something you really want to do. Go spend some time shadowing and volunteering in a clinical setting right now. Get an idea of what a physician does on a day-to-day basis. Be sure you’re going into this with eyes wide open. After you’ve done that step, then start to plan out the other aspects of schooling, MCAT, etc.
I’ll also add that it will be imperative for you to go and complete a 4-year degree prior to matriculating. So, that needs to factor into your plans. Plus, if you’re planning on working full-time while going down this path, it will take a good while longer to get all your coursework completed. The prereqs alone will take 3-4 semesters of full-time study to complete typically.
My advice for someone starting on this path is to be sure that it’s something you really want to do. Go spend some time shadowing and volunteering in a clinical setting right now. Get an idea of what a physician does on a day-to-day basis. Be sure you’re going into this with eyes wide open. After you’ve done that step, then start to plan out the other aspects of schooling, MCAT, etc.
I’ll also add that it will be imperative for you to go and complete a 4-year degree prior to matriculating. So, that needs to factor into your plans. Plus, if you’re planning on working full-time while going down this path, it will take a good while longer to get all your coursework completed. The prereqs alone will take 3-4 semesters of full-time study to complete typically.
First of all, welcome to OPM. Next, it is not a good idea to give yourself a time limit. By saying that you want to Apply in 4 years, gives you a lot of stress if one thing or another pops up and pushes your deadline back. You start getting discouraged. The best thing to do is come up with a plan where you take your prerequisites and do well in them.
So to answer your question of where to start, it would be to start with your basic pre-requisite courses and do well. The rest will fall into place. Judging from your GPA, you have a big hole to dig out of and nothing you plan for will be worth it if you do not do well in those classes and show that you can do the work.
Good luck and keep us posted
Thanks, I am working with a 4 year school to finish my degree taking 2 classes a week, 4 a semester. They are made for adult students and they fit very well into what I had already studied in school/work now. I need 1.5 semesters worth to get a BSBA. After that, I need to get science classes and make sure I do very well, but the only ones that I can get fit into my schedule are from Community College, so I am not sure how I feel about that. If I make straight A’s in my classes I believe to get a 3.4 overall GPA and a 3.8 science (have a B in Bio which I would retake anyways since it’s 10 years old).
As for volunteering, I don’t know where to begin. Right now I am saving money to pay off my loans and pay for college. I was thinking about taking a 2nd job until I have enough $$ but I can also volunteer instead.
I was planning on also taking an overseas trip to help underprivledged ones with medical attention: http://www.fimrc.org but that would be down the line, it seems like a good idea and something I would want to do regardless of adding it to a medical school application…
Congrats on starting down this path! The application process is grueling but worth it once you get in. I echo what others have said above. I do caution you about taking science classes at a 2-year school. Although I know you can get an excellent education there some med schools do not look favorable on science courses outside of 4-year schools…and definitely NO online science classes. If you keep your eye on the prize and work hard you will be fine. You need to prove that you can handle the course load in medical school. That means A’s from now on and a good MCAT score. You have to show that you aren’t the student you were before. (The last three sentences are pretty much a quote from the Dean of Admissions at my current medical school…so it’s doable.) Good luck!
You should do a search on the forums to get some pros/cons of online classes if nothing else is available in your area. I don’t know what would be “better,” CC classes in person or university online classes. I took a few online and it worked out for me, but our situations are pretty different.
I recommend finding the school you want to go to and see if the Dean of Admissions will sit down with you and look at your situation. That is a great relationship to build and can give you some great guidance.
Welcome! You said in your OP that you were thinking about going on an international mission because you wanted to, not because you think it would look good on paper. That’s the right attitude to have and is really how you should approach all your EC’s. Do’n’t get stuck in the rut thinking that you have to do volunteer work that’s somehow clinical. If you like working at a soup kitchen, or habitat for humanity, or whatever else you enjoy, do that. You’re going to get clinical exposure by shadowing anyway so find something you’re passionate about and do it. When you get to interviews you’ll find that conversations are much easier and you will get the interviewer excited to talk to you about your activities. This is something that applicants tend to get bogged down in making sure they “check all the boxes”. You can grow your CV, productively doing activities that you care about and the pay off will be in enjoying yourself during the time spent, as well as having a better interview experience. Also as stated above, reach out to people. You never know who knows someone important that can have an impact in your career. There’s a lot of focus on merit (test scores, grades, and so on) but making good connections with people is just as important, maybe more so. Good luck to you in your journey!