Technical to Medicine - How far am I going to travel?

Nontraditional Premed Discussion
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I’m sure newbie threads like this get rather repetitive around here, but this looks like a great site to get some questions answered.


I’ve been considering medical school for awhile, however I’ve been letting many things in life get in the way. After some serious soul-searching I’ve decided I’m going to go forward regardless of the obstacles, now I just need to define what the obstacles are so I can leap them.


Currently I’m a software engineer with a degree in Computer Science, and don’t let the science part fool you: Most of my degree is made up of math courses and a little bit of physics. I’m pretty much looking at taking all of my biology and chemistry requirements at night. So onto the questions:

  1. I graduated with a 3.31 GPA, how good or bad will that be for me? My math grades were very solid, so if I get As in my biology and chemistry courses will that help me out significantly?

  2. In terms of volunteering, I’m already a Red Cross volunteer working on the disaster side (i.e. not health related). I’ve been trying to become a volunteer CPR instructor as well (which is a bigger headache than it should be). I’ve read that things like this help out in the process, the question I have is how much?


    2a) Down that line, would volunteering at a Children’s hospital to help raise the spirits of the kids be useful? It sounds like a fun thing to do, though I’m concerned I should be looking for more “useful” volunteer positions since this would be more about reading and playing.

  3. I expect it will take at least a year for me to finish enough course work to consider applying. Is there anything else I should be doing in the meantime?

  4. I’m nearly 30 now, how much will being over the age of 29 effect me when I apply?
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  • Medipax Said:
1) I graduated with a 3.31 GPA, how good or bad will that be for me? My math grades were very solid, so if I get As in my biology and chemistry courses will that help me out significantly?



It's not a great GPA, but it's not a horrible one

either. Assuming you do well in your future course

work, your BCPM GPA stands to be very competitive with your very solid previous math grades.

  • In reply to:
2) In terms of volunteering, I'm already a Red Cross volunteer working on the disaster side (i.e. not health related). I've been trying to become a volunteer CPR instructor as well (which is a bigger headache than it should be). I've read that things like this help out in the process, the question I have is how much?



Volunteering is an important part of the application process. It is expected that med school applicants will have a decent amount of volunteering. However, I encourage you to volunteer for things because you are truly interested and not just because they will look good.

  • In reply to:
2a) Down that line, would volunteering at a Children's hospital to help raise the spirits of the kids be useful? It sounds like a fun thing to do, though I'm concerned I should be looking for more "useful" volunteer positions since this would be more about reading and playing.



Again, volunteer doing something you enjoy and are excited about. If the Children's hospital gig is something that really interests you, then go for it. Don't worry about whether or not it is "useful". Medical schools are looking to see that you have a spirit of altruism and give freely and willingly of your time to help people out. I don't think they are going to discount one experience over another based on perceived usefulness.

  • In reply to:
3) I expect it will take at least a year for me to finish enough course work to consider applying. Is there anything else I should be doing in the meantime?



If you haven't already done so, you should see if you can gain some kind of clinical/patient contact experience. The Children's hospital experience may help you out with that. At the very least, you should try and get enough physician shadowing experience that you can convince an adcom that you really understand what you're getting into. Finding physicians to shadow is getting more and more difficult, so it's never too early to start.

  • In reply to:
4) I'm nearly 30 now, how much will being over the age of 29 effect me when I apply?



Not as much as you might think. It's not going to be a significant disadvantage, nor is it necessarily going to give you any kind of advantage. The average age of matriculating medical students is inching upwards and there seem to be increasing amounts of older students both applying and being accepted to medical school. The one key thing that is expected of an older, career-changing applicant is that you have done your homework on becoming a doctor and can clearly articulate your reasons for wanting to head down this path NOW.

Hope this helps. Good luck!