Hello everyone. I have recently found this website, and am very glad I did. It’s nice to find a place where you can talk to folks who are in similar situations, with similar dreams. I can tell you, it can feel like a lonely place out there if you’re the ONLY one from your region trying to get into med school. I’m a 26 year old recently graduated RN with all of the med school pre reqs done. I plan on taking the MCAT in April, and applying to one MD school and two DO schools (UMKC, KCOM, OSU).
My GPA sucks, although there is a pretty strong upward trend in the last year and my Master’s degree course work.
Here’s what happened to me: I fumbled through the first couple of years of college when I was 18-19 years old, and had no clue what I was doing. I dropped out (thinking I was TOO smart for college ha!) and had a few different jobs for a couple of years. Then, I went to a chiropractic college (which is where I received all my prereqs in an accelerated science program) and realized quickly that DC wasn’t for me. I then moved to AZ to try to get into the U of AZ med school. While I was trying to finish a BS, I came home to visit (missouri) and stopped by a friend of mine’s office (an MD). He said to me, “This is your last chance… don’t go to med school.” He told me if he had it to do over again, he’d go to nurse practitioner school. So, I was young, and he was a DOCTOR, so I did what he suggested. I went backwards in my undergrad so I could get a Bachelor’s in Nursing. Then, I convinced UMKC to let me in to the Master’s in Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner program right out of college (I was the first to do this). After a semester of this, I realized it wasn’t going to substitute for my dream of being a physician. (Although I had a great deal with my doctor friend to work for him as a nurse practitioner.)
Now, I’m stuck in purgatory practicing nursing in a rural SW MO hospital watching ER doctors and family practice doctors do every day what I feel like I should be doing.
I know my GPA sucks, but I know the coursework will not be too difficult for me. Yes, it may be challenging, but so was getting an A in O chem II in an accelerated 8 week course.
I think I’ll be granted an interview to at least one of the schools I’m applying to. If I get an interview, I think I have a great chance of being accepted if they listen to me and believe that I am sincere.
I’ve thought of several ways to approach interviewers, and I’ve heard everyone say “know yourself” and “be honest and sincere” and blah blah blah… (I only patronize those statements because I can’t imagine going to a med school interview without those things in mind.) I think they’ll ask me about nursing, and I’ll tell them my story. I hope they don’t think that nursing is a back-up career for medicine. I’ve heard several people say it’s a good idea to have a back-up career, but I don’t want one. If I don’t have medicine, I don’t have anything (career-wise). I will continue to serve my sentence as a nurse, and hopefully it will end next year.
What are your thoughts to this situation, and what would you do?
If you’re gonna ask me “well, chris, that’s a lot of information, but I never actually saw why you really want to be a doctor…” I’ll go ahead and get that one out of the way. I love to help people, I love challenges, I love life-long education, I love responsibility, … Is there anything else I haven’t covered? The point is, I know what a doctor is, I know what they do, I know who they are, and I want to be one. Period.
Hi there,
Gee, I am really reading BURNOUT (in all caps) as I read your introduction and I also get frustration in between the lines too. I know that “burnout” and “frustration” are not going to enter the interview room with you when you get that interview, Right? 
That being said, you know the GPA requirements and MCAT scores, blah, blah etc for medical school so I am going to refrain from rehashing them here. Your starting point looks something like: What makes a good physician and why do you think you would make one? What do you think you can accomplish in medicine that you cannot accomplish as a nurse practictioner? Where do you see yourself in ten years? Twenty years? (Really, I got this question from at least five interviewers and I was 45-years old). Well, I see myself 65 years old and having the time of my life learning new things, meeting new people and discovering new truths same as I have been doing the past twenty years. I am pretty consistant with life; not with vocation. 
Plot a good strategy for getting some great scores on the MCAT. (Your GPA can’t be too terrible as you have completed a masters program.) Try to articulate some area specific to medicine that you would not be able to accomplish as a nurse practictioner and that grabs your interest (perform heart transplants, county medical examiner, laparoscopic surgeon etc.). Have a good answer and upbeat answer for what you would do if you do not get accepted to medical school (I always loved this favorite question from interviewers). Remember that many of the medical school interviewers are either basic science professors or academic medical practictioners. Try to anticipate what would pique their interests as you have been in the “trenches” of rural medicine over the past few years.
Finally, enjoy the journey and let us know how you are doing with the MCAT studying. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the journey and still enjoy the challenges thought the stakes have been raised a bit after I picked up that MD.
Nat
Just to clarify… I haven’t completed the master’s program, because after the first semester, I knew it NP wasn’t a substitution for MD/DO. And, my GPA is 3.050 undergrad, 3.75 in the Master’s program (albeit only 4 classes).
I do have great LOCs (one from an alumni of the same MD school). A childhood friend is currently a med student at the MD school. The master’s in nursing FNP program I was in was at the same school as the MD program.
Also, you may have caught some “burnout”, but I don’t know if someone can actually be burnt out of something they never liked in the first place. Yes, it is frustrating being a nurse when you want to be a doctor. The only reason I got a degree in nursing was to get the FNP.
I don’t intend on bringing frustration with me to the interview, because just getting an interview will relieve much of the frustration. I truly think I’ll get accepted if I get an interview. If they just give me that chance to talk to them.
I always hated that question, “where do you see yourself in 10 years” When I think back 10 years ago, I had absolutely no clue what I’d be doing, and I sure wouldn’t have thought I’d be a RN now. I’ll answer it just like anyone else would, but I really don’t think that’s a good question. “Well, I hope to be practicing medicine in an underserved area, helping the community to establish and maintain optimal physical and mental health. I also anticipate an even stronger drive to gain knowledge, as medicine is an ever-expanding field, and I invite the life-long continuing educational challenge.” You know what a truthful answer to the question is??? “I dunno” or “Wull see”
Hey nat, did you get my email? I emailed you using the link on this website.
As for an answer to the question, what will you do if you don’t get accepted… “I will go back to what I was doing before, and I’ll be back here next year to talk to you” There’s no such thing as a back up or substitution for someone who wants to be a doctor as badly as I do. So saying no, you can’t have a seat this year will be nothing short of adding another year to my nursing prison sentence.
I’m so excited about applying to medical school, I have to keep myself calm when I think about it. I just hope when I go into the room to begin the interview, I don’t kick and scream and run over to the interviewers and start frantically hugging and kissing them. (although at least it would stand out among the applicants!) 