Chance me! Non-traditional student

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>I'm a non-traditional student, intending to apply after taking the prerequisites over the next couple of years. </p>

<p>Given the following, where would I rank in terms of schools to apply to?</p>

<ul>
<li>top Ivy undergrad (Harvard/Yale/etc.) degrees in economics and computer science - 3.8 GPA</li>
<li>currently finishing an Oxford PhD in social science (on a fellowship - but not the Rhodes)</li>
<li>community college/post bacc pre-med courses (assume 3.5 - 3.8ish GPA?)</li>
<li>decent MCAT -- I tend to test well and I think the verbal and writing sample would be easy for me; I'm weak on physical sciences, but probably because I haven't taken any courses since high school!</li>
<li>non-traditional older student</li>
<li>female, minority ethnicity</li>
</ul>

<p>Where would I fit in as far as admissions? Top schools? Mid-range state schools? Lower tier schools? Would I be able to pick a part of the country in which I'd like to live? Does finishing the PhD make a difference to this?</p>

2

<p>That is a lot to assume, missing an MCAT and BCPM gpa fulfilling the pre-med prereqs.</p>

<p>Have you had any of the pre-reqs? Bio with labs, physics with labs, gen chem with labs, orgo with labs, math (calc or stats), genetics, micro, biochem?? I’m assuming the english pre-req has been met and probably the social sciences…</p>

<p>There is a new MCAT and med schools are looking to changine their pre-reqs to reflect this. Some are wanting more biochem, genetics, micro, phys and anatomy…and social sciences. You need the gen chem before orgo so some of it is sequential…bio before the biochem and micro and genetics.</p>

<p>My middle son also graduated from a top ivy with a degree in econ, with decent MCATs and many years of medical research. Lots of hours of volunteering and medically related ECs, and a senior thesis focused on health care. He had completed his pre-reqs while as an undergrad and took a glide year after his ivy grad to complete another degree in STEM and to continue his research.</p>

<p>He was successful in gaining admittance to med school and is an MS2. He had several schools to pick from but did apply to numerous schools and widely. He was happy with his final choices.</p>

<p>I think before anyone could chance you which for med school is almost impossible, you would need MCAT scores, more pre-reqs completed generating a BCPM and a more comprehensive list of medically related ECs.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

3

<p>Writing section is being discontinued Jan 2013. </p>

<p>cGPA is fine, but it’s impossible to predict what tier of schools would be in your range without a MCAT score or sGPA*. Med schools admission screening is very numbers driven.</p>

<p>*sGPA is a GPA derived from ALL biology, chemistry, math and physics courses you’ve ever taken at the college level, including high school co-enrollment classes.</p>

<p>A PhD in an unrelated field will not necessarily enhance your application if your MCAT/sGPA is weak.</p>

<p>Take a look at these charts to get a sense of what kind of numbers you will need to be competitive for any US med school.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Thanks so much for your help!</p>

<p>Do you all think it matters if I do my prerequisites at a cc or a 4-year-college at this point? And how prestigious the 4-year college? I’d prefer a cc for financial reasons, but will do a 4-year if necessary.</p>

<p>Also, I don’t know if I’m in as excellent a situation as your son, katwkittens. I’m a bit older and don’t have any specific medical research on my CV at this point.</p>

5

<p>Since you will ONLY have your math/science pre-reqs when applying (and not upper level science classes taken elsewhere), I’d be hesitant to recommend that you take your pre-reqs at a CC. Med school adcoms want to see how you stack up against the [perceived] tougher competition at 4 year schools. Particularly with your other academic achievements attending a CC may look like a step backwards… And if you’re seriously interested in “name” and top tier med schools, then CC science credits without higher level science classes at a 4 year will not do.</p>

<p>Also CCs do not offer some of new recommended courses like genetics, biochem, molecular bio.</p>

<p>The prestige of the 4 year where you take your pre-reqs isn’t especially important. You can even take your pre-reqs ala carte as a non-degree student. But you will have to be pro-active about finding medical volunteering, physician shadowing and other community service opportunities.</p>

<p>I’m sure you’re not looking to take on any more debt, but you may want to consider a career-changers post bacc to assist you jumping thru all the necessary hoops. These are intensive 18 month long programs intended to prepare non-science grads for medical school application.</p>

<p>AMCAS has a searchable list of those programs here:</p>

<p><a href=“https://services.aamc.org/postbac/[/url]”>https://services.aamc.org/postbac/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Thank you so much, WayOutWestMom!</p>

<p>I’m still doing my PhD in England, so I’m deciding at this point if I should quit the PhD. (I have 1.5 to 2 years left, depending on how I do it.) If I could do my courses online (or in England for that matter), I could probably do at least some of them concurrently, as my PhD doesn’t require coursework. </p>

<p>If I do them through an organized post bacc, I would need to quit the PhD or wait until I finish it. I’m not really excited anymore about the PhD, but thought it would be good to finish it as it may help me at some point going forward.</p>

<p>If my ultimate goal is to get an MD, would it make sense to wait and do a post bacc or take a few online classes. If I can take a few online, which ones would make sense?</p>

7

<p>You cannot do your coursework online for 2 reasons:</p>

<p>1) all science-reqs have mandatory associated labs which cannot be done online.</p>

<p>2) all US med school will not accept online coursework for basic science coursework (see above)</p>

<p>Doing your science coursework online is also a terrible idea because you will need at least 2 LORs from SCIENCE profs as part of your application for med school. How are you going to establish a relationship with an online prof to get meaningful LOR?</p>

<p>You will also not be able to take any of your pre-reqs overseas. Every US medical school requires that applicants complete their science coursework at an accredited US or Canadian college or university. Foreign university coursework will not be accepted no matter how prestigious the foreign university. (Exception: an overseas branch of a American university. There is a list of acceptable American colleges overseas in the Instructions for Applicants 2012-13 on the AMCAS site.)</p>

<p>~~~</p>

<p>Let me offer some unsolicted advice.</p>

<p>Before you do anything drastic–like quit your doc program–please consider taking a leave of absence. Why? You’re at a point in your graduate studies where there is often a huge letdown. You’ve probably finished most of your coursework and now your research topic suddenly seems uninspiring. (Saw it happen all the time when Dh and I were in grad school.) </p>

<p>During your LOA, take some time to shadow several physicians in the US (since the British model of medical practice is quite different than the US model) and do some heavy-duty medical volunteering so you can get realistic view of what a medical career is actually involves. You also need to education yourself about the what the expectations are for a successful med school applicant. (HINT: they go waaayyy beyond merely academics. Med school applicants–even non-trads-- are expected to have significant physician shadowing, medical volunteering, community service, clinical or bench lab research, exceptional LORs from science and math profs.)</p>

<p>Also consider why you want to be physician. If you want to help people, consider that using your social science degree may actually have a greater beneficial effect on more people’s lives than a doctor will. </p>

<p>Also consider that if you have experienced kind treatment at the hands of medical personnel that the role of doctor and patient are immeasurably different. </p>

<p>Also consider that after 5+ years away from science you may have difficulting picking it up again. Are you willing to take refresher courses if needed? What will you do if you cannot be successful in bio, chem and physics classes? </p>

<p>~~~</p>

<p>Ok, all that said— if you decide that after shadowing and volunteering, you still want to be a physician the most efficient route will usually be a post-bacc.</p>

<p>However, the most successful post-bacc programs are typically quite expensive ($40,000) and there is little or no available financial aid for these programs.</p>

8

<p>What ethnic minority are you? </p>

<p>Where would you fit in?</p>

<p>Well, med schools aren’t like undergrad. You have to apply to a range and hope that you get into at least one. All admit a small %. All are very good. Even a lower tier med school is still very good.</p>