Thoughts for me?

Hey Everyone!


I’m new to this Pre-Med world. I decided to completely change my directions this June after graduating college in May with a BFA… yes. a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts. I majored in Industrial Design, which is engineering based design and I thought I wanted to design Medical Products but I realized the Medicine was all I really cared about not the design part of my work. I graduated with a 3.2 at a solid University. I have no science reqs besides Psychology. I have a a bunch of C’s. I’m not doing a Post Bac program because I decided too late to do this. This world seems very unforgiving and difficult thus far haha.


From my research, I can’t believe the young Pre-Meds that are out there and how crazy their stats are! I feel 3 inches tall compared to these kids. I know my science GPA isn’t set in stone and neither is my MCAT but how do I feel confident in my decision to do this when I probably don’t have a chance to get in? Do admissions consider us different than the conventional Pre-Med?


Let’s Be friends cause this is really hard alone

Adcoms review applicants based on a big picture view based on grades, courses, experiences/“unique” experiences, leadership, blah blah blah, and understanding/exposure of the field. Traditional premeds check all of the same boxes because it is what they wrap their souls around early in their undergrad years. Take the neurotic posts with a grain of salt and know there are many ways to reach the same end goal.


Rooting around these forums for individual stories may help you find a comparison to your own situation. You’re still molding your path. I would say taking a full load of prereqs and doing well on them will help your case. It sounds like your cumulative gpa may be a little lower than average with your many Cs or whatever, but upward trends look good. Applications are all about how you sell yourself, telling your story of what experiences you’ve had, what you’ve learned about yourself, life, and medicine, and how all that has shaped you and your desire to be a doc. A 4.0/45 could be rejected because they can’t sell themselves as a human with normal human characteristics.


My advice would be to either jump in fully or get your feet wet to see if this is what you really want/is achievable based on prereq grades. By no means would I tell you to abandon all hope at this early of a stage.

Hi there and welcome!!


I lurk a lot but I wanted to chime in and say hello because I have a BFA (theatre) as well and I just wanted to assure you that there are a good number of us who have made the transition from arts to medicine. (I started MS1 this week aaaaaaaaccckkkkk!!!)


Personally, I did a ‘formal’ post-bacc after taking a few CC classes and that was really helpful for me but as many here will tell you you’ll have to find the program/school situation that works best for you.


Re: your GPA whoopsies… The PLUS side is the fact that you probably haven’t had any science classes so you will have the opportunity to start fresh with your science GPA and hopefully raise your overall GPA in the process


Also, I wholeheartedly agree with kennymac re: taking the experiences of some of the more traditional students with a grain of salt!! That kind of stress just seems counter productive to me! I think a lot of med schools value the unique experiences that we non-traditional students bring to the class. As you go through this process I’d say its worth thinking about the things that will make you a standout applicant and try to highlight them. Be ready to speak to the value of your art education (and I firmly believe mine was valuable!) in interviews and on the app. You might even want to consider some volunteer work that encompasses your art skills. (Ex: I taught theatre class to kids with DS)


I hope this helps, or at least makes you feel like it’s doable (trust me… It IS) Don’t forget to enjoy the process along the way!!


Mal

I want to second (or third?) the comments above. My original undergraduate degree was in journalism - not exactly heavy on the science either. I was a writer/editor for many years. From my extensive work experience, I was able to get some great letters of recommendation. I also had a lot to write about in my extracurricular experiences section. Not to mention, I had many more life experiences to draw upon during my interviews. I did get in to medical school (although deferring a year), so it’s quite possible!


A word of caution - non-traditional students aren’t really considered differently than traditional students, from my experience. You’re expected to have good grades, good MCAT, LORs, extracurriculars, volunteer and shadowing experience, etc. just like everyone else. That said, as kennymac mentioned, admissions committee members do consider upward grade trends. So keep that in mind.


Hope this helps!