Hello,
I’ve been following this forum for a while now, and it has been so encouraging and informative. I hope I’ll be able to get some advice from the community too! My interest in the medical field has been reoccurring through out my life for me, but until recently I’ve always felt not good enough to pursue a career in medicine.
I’m 23 and recently graduated from college with a 3.2gpa (BA in English, minor in Bio), so obviously pretty low for M.D. schools. I also haven’t finished all my pre-reqs for med school. I was originally a Bio major, so I have taken Intro. Bio, Gen Chem, and Calc, but I have some pretty undesirable grades in there. (C- in Gen Chem II and C+ in Calc)
I just got a job with a Americorps/Healthcorps program, so my plan is to finish that year, which will hopefully give me more clinical experience and opportunities to shadow doctors. Then I plan on coming home and doing all my pre-reqs in a DIY post-bacc at a state school, including the ones that I have already completed. My logic for re-doing everything is that I’d like to have all the information fresh in my mind for the MCATs as well as for when I [hopefully] enter medical school. Does this seem like a solid plan?
I really enjoy this forum and I really appreciate some input on what I can do to make myself as competitive as possible for M.D. schools.
Sasha
P.S. My mom just forwarded me this NY Times article that I thought was interesting. It might give some of us non-trad students a better shot!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/health/pol icy/11…
Welcome to OPM, Sasha! I’m glad you have found this site to be encouraging to far, and I hope you continue to find it so.
If you have any questions, comments, etc., be sure to post! And keep us updated on your progress.
My younger sister is also doing the Healthcorps program this year, in Nashville. So I know a bit about the program, and it sounds like a great opportunity to get some clinical experience. Definitely let us know how that goes! 
Thanks for the reply 
I’ll definitely give some updates as to how my year is going, and how things go beyond that. btw I really enjoy your blog!
that is a nice article. Welcome and thanks for sharing. A lot of our younger cohorts, do not have the emotional intelligence that gets developed as you mature and as you are in the workforce. That is why non traditional applicants tend to do better in these situations.