Do I have a chance at Med School

Hi All,
I wanted to know if I should even try to consider going to Medical School. I am not a traditional student at all. I started off college at my local community college, and I worked on classes there for a few years, and then I transferred to a university where my ugpa took a hard hit. I didn’t take college seriously with being so young but knowing that I wanted to go into medicine. I took courses and was put on academic probation shortly after I still didn’t take it seriously so I was excluded from the school with a 1.6 GPA. Now, I’ve gone back to CC and put everything into my grades and I’m in the surgical technology program where I am doing excellent. I want to be reinstated to my university hoping that they would see my upward trend and degree from the surgical technology program. I know that I would have to do a postbacc and an SMP? is trying to med school worth it in my situation?

Bad semesters happen, but you don’t have any more room for error if you’re trying to get into medical school. What worries me is that you got an associates in surgical tech. That’s not going to transfer to a 4 year university, so you lost a lot of credits doing that. You still need to re-take the classes you failed, find a major, then get a bachelors degree. It’s anyone’s guess whether they’ll let you back in.

The idea behind a bachelors degree is to show academic versatility. Not to discourage…but if you get dismissed, then go to community college and excel in a trade school, it actually proves the opposite. If it’s a selective university, they probably won’t readmit you. If it’s less selective, you would be fine, but I would go to the financial aid dept and make sure there’s enough aid to finish your degree. There’s limits on student loans.

Never say never.

But you have a great deal of GPA repair ahead of you. Years of coursework to get to a place where you will be taken seriously as an med school applicant.

I can’t tell you if it’s worth it. Only you can decide that.

Are you OK with spending the next 4-10 years of your life and several thousands (or hundred of thousands) of $$ trying to get into med school–all with no guarantee it will actually happen?

Are you OK with postponing a lot of things your peers will be able to do (like buying a house or starting family) for 10 to 15 years?

Does it make financial sense for you to postponing starting career for another 12-18 years? (4 years undergrad, 4 years med school, 3-10 years residency before you’ll be earning any real income, plus you will have substantial debt–think $350K or more-- when you do start earning)

I suggest that you start with small steps–

–finish your surgical tech program and work for at least a year in that job. Get some direct medical experience and some exposure to what really goes on in a hospital.

–pursue re-admission to your undergrad college.

If it happens, great. If not, then start over at your CC. Re-take and classes where you earned D or F grades–even in things like writing skills, basic math, psychology, sociology, foreign languages. You need to prove to college admission offices that you have turned over a new leaf and that you have the self-discipline to succeed now.

– once you’ve finished your surgical tech program begin taking your intro sciences at the CC–bio gen chem, physics, calculus. Aceing these will help you get back into 4 year college and will help you build a strong science/math foundation you’ll need to become a creditable applicant for med school.

Thank you both so much for your comments. I appreciate the transparency that’s you’ve written. I definitely have a great deal of work ahead of me, but I want this so I’m going to do it. I rather say that I tried and not gave up because I wasn’t academically strong enough.

I agree with the previous posters that you have no chance to be a physician at this point. However, there are plenty of success stories if you become a medical school applicant in the “non-traditional” category. Search SDN for that subject and you will find those who are successful.

Medical schools will reconsider a candidate AFTER the applicant is out of the school for more than 5 years. If you have a passion, you can be successful.

One of my neighbors is a 90 years old physician, after he graduated from college, he had been in sales for more than 10 years, but his heart was in medicine, he went for it and was accepted by med school.