Confused and seeking advice

Pre-Med & Medical School High School Student Topics
1

<p>Hello, I am new to these forums, and I am seeking a bit of advice regarding a possible career in medicine. I will provide an explanation of my situation.</p>

<p>I have just graduated from high school earlier this month. I've been considering a career in medicine for a while now, but it wasn't until a couple of days after my graduation that I made the decision that medicine is definitely what I want to do with the rest of my life. I have never felt so impassioned about any other profession, and I know that this is the best thing that I can do with my life.</p>

<p>Saying that, I have a few concerns about getting to where I want to be. As difficult as it may be to believe about an aspiring premed student, I am not yet enrolled in any college or university. In fact, I've never even applied to one. The question that often springs to mind is, "Why?"</p>

<p>That in itself is a rather intricate little issue. The problem for me really began at the onset of high school. In ninth grade, my parents, for whatever reason, felt that it would be better if I were home schooled, and for the next two years, that's how it went. After going through that experience, I can say with absolute certainly that ninth and tenth grade were the two most wasteful years of my life. No disrespect intended towards my parents, as they only thought that home school would somehow be beneficial towards me, but they are simply not cut out to be teachers. At the end of tenth grade, I implored my parents to allow me to return to public school, and they finally relented.</p>

<p>Returning to public school for 11th grade, I quickly saw how far behind I had really gotten. Most of my classmates were in courses far more difficult than I had to be placed into, and it wasn't uncommon for me to the be the only junior in a class filled with freshmen and sophomores. For the next two years, I worked as best as I could to catch up. Even still, I remained fairly far behind my own class.</p>

<p>These were my core classes this past year as a senior: AP English 12, Problems of Democracy, Chemistry, Geometry, Algebra II, and French II.</p>

<p>Obviously, these classes are far below mediocre for somebody who desires to go into premed. However, that still doesn't quite answer the question as to why I never bothered applying to any colleges (sorry to drag this out). Because of the relatively low level of my classes, I never felt fully prepared to take any of the standardized tests (and I wasn't going to apply to any colleges if I didn't have the tests to send to them). I had an SAT Prep. course in my junior year, and it really helped to show me how much I was unready for the test. My chief concern was not so much English (though concern was still there) as it was Math.</p>

<p>My teachers consistently pushed me to take the SAT my junior year, but without having even gotten to Algebra II let alone Geometry, I didn't feel that it would be much use to take it. I wanted to wait at least until I had covered a few basics in Geometry before I wanted to even consider taking the test. I ended up doing much the same thing during my senior year, as I continuously pushed back the date that I was going to take the test as I tried to cram as much Algebra II and Geometry knowledge into my brain that I could. That all leads up till now.</p>

<p>As I've mentioned, I graduated earlier this month. I still have not taken the SAT or ACT, nor have I applied to any colleges. Now that I have made the decision that medicine is definitely the path that I want to follow, I am anxious to begin with the right start. It suffices to say that I am a bit lost on what I should do next. I'm not even sure what my options are at this point.</p>

<p>I was considering the possibility of going to community college for a year. This would offer me the opportunity to catch up a bit more in the areas where I lack while not requiring me to immediately take the SAT/ACT. After I've brushed up on certain areas (mathematics especially) for a few months, I could take either the SAT or ACT and begin applying to actual universities, hopefully in time for consideration.</p>

<p>I was also unsure if I necessarily had to take credit courses at community college. Instead of going for a year, garnering some credits, and then transferring to a university as a sophomore, I thought that it might be better to simply catch up for a year and then begin anew as a freshman at a university, without transferring any credits from the community college at all. I realize that this will cost me a year, but I've heard that medical schools strongly deplore community colleges, and I do not want to risk my acceptance. Besides that, I also believe that if I entered university as a sophomore, I would still be quite too far behind to take the necessary courses and do well in them. In any event, I feel that community college, one way or another, is my only real option for this coming year, as it's obviously far too late to apply anywhere else.</p>

<p>I understand that my situation is quite abnormal, but I truly do believe that I have the will and determination to succeed in the medical field, if only I can manage to surmount these few obstacles standing in my way. I've always done well academically; the problem lies not in my ability to complete the coursework or to complete it well, but rather in the situation that I've outlined above. Surely being a year or two behind can't preclude me from the opportunity to serve in the medical field, right?</p>

<p>I'm not sure which route to take, nor do I yet completely understand all that I have to do in order to maximize my potential for success. I would really appreciate any comments or advice that this community could provide for me. I would also like to apologize for the length of my post, but I wanted to ensure that I made my situation as clear as possible. Thanks for taking the time to read it, and please offer me any insight that you can. I'm extremely grateful.</p>

<p>RST</p>

2

<p>Well, your situation is not so much desirable. Do you have good independent study skills?
Because if I were you, I would take a year off right now to study hard to prepare for university. During this year, I would try to gain as much experience in matters of doctor shadowing, volunteering at a hospital...
and catch up anything I missed in the past years.
Courage...</p>

3

<p>1)Med schools don't like community college courses without cause. You certainly have a very different situation in which I think going to a CC is not only advisable but a necessity. You need to get caught up with the math and the other things.</p>

<p>2) don't worry about the age gap. It's absolutely irrelevant at this point. You must realize that the average age for a first year medical student is 24 or 25. My medical school class has a number of people who are in their 30's, with plenty who were 26, 27, 28 when they started medical school.</p>

<p>3) Don't rule out other careers within medicine - pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Nutrition, Dentistry, or Physician's Assistant. Keep your options open before committing right away.</p>

<p>What I think you should do:</p>

<p>Go to the CC, and take the courses you feel you need at the Remedial level. These are less likely to transfer as credit to a four year university. Also - if you go to a 4 year university far away from home, the credits are less likely to transfer. Study hard for the ACT and SAT. Going through a review book will help you see that you are capable of doing well - I think that your confidence has been extremely shaken at this point. </p>

<p>When you do start applying for colleges, talk with the admissions officers at the schools you are looking at and explain the situation to them. See if you can't find a point person at each school to kind of handle your situation. It'll make it a lot easier for you if you don't have to repeat your story each time you need to ask a question. Be sure to see what they'll do with your transfer credits if you don't want them to transfer (I'd explicitly ask "can I not transfer any of these credits and start as a first time freshman?"). </p>

<p>Finally when it finally does come time to start applying to medical school or any of the other disciplines, be sure to explain what happened in your personal statement. Don't leave schools to their own devices trying to determine what your situation entailed. They will get your CC transcripts (and you must give them to the schools - not doing so would be unethical), so they'll see a very strange set of courses, and you need to set their minds at ease.</p>

4

<p>Thank you both very much for your replies.</p>

<p>

Would you suggest doing this? As you mentioned, medical schools will end up seeing the community college whether I withhold its credits or not. Obviously I do not want to spend any longer than necessary as an undergraduate, but at the same time I do not want a medical school to look upon me unfavorably because I did not spend a whole four years at a university.</p>

5

<p>I suggested that simply b/c you seemed to imply that you didn't want the credits to transfer. I know that at my alma mater, courses taken at the remedial level (ie below College Algebra) were not for credit anyways. You're likely to be dealing with a lot of different policies on that though, so that's why you need to be sure you know what's going on.</p>

<p>The thing about "not spending 4 years" in college isn't really that medical schools look down on it, just that having less than 4 years doesn't present as full of record of achievement. If you get done in three years, then you'll be applying after your second year. Everyone else getting done in 4 will be applying after their 3rd - a 50% increase over you. That's more time to build a good academic record, and perhaps more importantly, more time to build your resume with other accomplishments - research, campus involvement, volunteering, shadowing MDs, etc.</p>

<p>I think you have two options here - CC to get "caught up", taking mostly remedial classes in preparation for taking the SAT/ACT. So mainly math it seems plus whatever else (French?) you feel you need to get accepted to a college you like. This may be a year depending on what you feel you need to take.
Option two would be to enter a CC and go on to get your Associates Degree. So that'd be two years most likely, maybe three again dependent on your need to take remedial classes. Then you'd transfer like any other AA degree holder, and would need to look at how the credits transfer in your favor. During this time at CC, you could be doing the things like shadowing physicians and volunteer work, as well as getting involved on campus. We tend to suggest that you try to avoid as many pre-med science requirements while you are at a CC, simply b/c med schools would prefer to see you complete them at a 4 year university.</p>

<p>Of these two options I'm not sure which is better, or which you might prefer. I also don't know your parents' financial situation or of those other sorts of things that may make one scenario harder than the other.</p>

<p>The big thing I hope you realize is that you are smart enough to get through all this. I feel bad using "remedial" so often like you can't handle the work of normal classes, when I know that's not the case. You got put in a rough situation through no fault of your own and are simply having to play catch up. I feel for you.</p>

<p>Hope</p>

6

<p>Thank you for your reply. Your advice has been extremely helpful (not to mention encouraging), and I really appreciate it. I called the local community college, and I've scheduled an interview and tour for early next month. As much as I'd like to be headed off to university this upcoming year, it nevertheless feels good to finally get the ball rolling on my college career.</p>

<p>Once again, thanks for all your help and insight.</p>

7

<p>I think you can be able to do it, and I admire the fact that you perservere to be a doctor after all your setbacks: you're doing this for yourself, and not because of your parents like oh-so-many other people. You demonstrate much maturity in not holding anything against your parents (many people would hold a long grudge in that position). You'll probably have to explain your situation over and over again but through hard work you can succeed, and medical schools are open to accepting nontraditional applicants.</p>