From pre-law to pre-med.... Is it too late??

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

Hi!!

I am a junior at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and my major is Political Science (Pre-law). However, I changed my mind and really want to go to medical school. I am thinking about double majoring in Chemistry, so I could have a better chance when applying to medical schools. Do you think I have to switch from pre-law to pre-med and would I have to undeclare my Political Science major and only declare Chemistry?

Any advice for me? Everyone has been discouraging me, and I know that I should have realized sooner or decided sooner.

What do you guys think? Am I going to have trouble when applying to medical schools?

I always knew I wanted to go medical school, but I was pressured by everyone around me. They said that I couldn’t do it, so I decided to take Political science instead. I am interested in Political Science don’t get me wrong, but I don’t see myself doing anything with it. I want to become a surgeon I always did.

Please help!! Any advice for me? What should I do?

(If you don’t have anything nice to say please don’t say it). Thank you in advance for all your help!! I greatly appreciate it.

2

There is no true pre-law or pre-med major. You can go to law school with a chem degree or med school with a polisci degree. As you should know, there are absolutely no prereqs for law school. Med school, however, there are some prereqs, and you have to have certain knowledge for the MCAT. You don’t necessarily have to change your major, but you should talk to a guidance couselor to see what classes you need to take to be considered for med school.

3

It’s not too late, but you may not be able to apply next year as a senior. You need to take the academic prerequisites necessary for medical school, and you will also need the necessary activities ( leadership, shadowing etc). You will eventually have to take the mcats. This is a lot to do in 3 semesters.

A family member was an education major. After working as a teacher he decided that he wanted to attend medical school. He went back to school for a masters and was allowed to use these classes to complete the prerequisites that he still needed. He is now in medical school.

Yes… what you are asking to do is possible. You may not be able to accomplish everything in your remaining time in undergrad and it may get very expensive ( without considering the cost of med school), but it can be done. I would talk to a medical school advisor.

It is common now to take 1-2 gap years prior to applying. Students can do whatever they want during these gap years… volunteer… work in another field… but at the end of the day they have to be able to answer the question “Why do you want to go into medicine?” And the answer has to be genuine and passionate. Medical schools want people who want to be there for the right reasons ( not saying you don’t). Good luck!

4

It’s not too late, but as @twogirls ls said, you won’t be applying next year. D1 only decided her senior year of college she wanted to try for med school. She’s now a physician, but it took her 3 years after her college graduation to get her pre-reqs & ECs done before she applied.

You don’t need to change your major. (D1 & D2 both went to med school. They had classmates with majors that include forestry, music performance, theology, Spanish and business, as well as the more typical science/engineering majors.)

However, med schools do have a defined set of required coursework you must take to be considered for admission:
2 semester biology w/lab
2 semesters general chem w/ labs
2 semesters organic chem w/ labs
1 semester biochem
2 semesters physics w/labs
2 semesters college-level math, one of which needs to be statistics or biostatistics
2 semesters college composition
1 semester psychology (required at some schools, tested on the MCAT)
1 semester sociology (required at some schools, tested on the MCAT)

Generally speaking, med school admission committees strongly prefer that pre-reqs be taken at a 4 year college, not at a CC. (Although osteopathic med schools are more lenient about this.)

You could delay your graduation and take your pre-reqs at your current college or you could graduate and do a post-bacc program for career-changers. Post baccs range a great deal in price and vary from very structured to a piecemeal do-it-yourself option. Formal post-bacc tend to be very expensive ($60K or more). There is no financial aid available except for loans to pay for a post-bacc program.

Here is a searchable database of post-bacc programs: https://apps.aamc.org/postbac/
Select career changer as the type.

Besides having the right coursework, med schools are looking for people who know what they’re getting into and have demonstrated the qualities they find necessary to be successful doctor. There are numerous expected ECs that successful med school applicants have-- community service with vulnerable and underserved populations; clinical volunteering; physician shadowing; demonstrated leadership; and for some schools (particularly at highly ranked, research oriented schools) significant bench or clinical research.

If you have never done any clinical volunteering or physician shadowing, I would suggest doing both is a necessary first step before you invest your time, effort & money into becoming a pre-med. You need to know if you want to spend the next 10 years of your life preparing to become a physician.

One more thing you need to consider before committing to this path–
every year 60% of medical school applicants do not get an acceptance to medical school.

Make sure you have a Plan B.


ETA: If you only want to be surgeon and nothing else. please don't go become a pre-med. The vast majority of med students end up in one of the primary care specialties (family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN or psychiatry.)  While general surgery isn't especially competitive, there are zero guarantees that you will qualify for or match into a surgical residency.

Only consider med school if you are willing to go into it with an open mind.

Also, what is your current GPA? 

Med school admissions used GPA as a screener when considering applicants. Last year the average GPA for successful applicants was 3.7+ for allopathic med school applicants and 3.58 for osteopathic  med school applicants.
5

As everyone else up thread has said, its never too late for medical school.
I’d like to talk about the years needed for medical education, your aptitude in science and alternatives in medicine.

You do not need to major in chemistry to become a physician, actually med school prefer political science majors as they love diversity. However, you need to have a strong science aptitude to stay in medicine. To become a physician is a long haul, it is not a sprint. If you did not take any premed in your UG it might take another 13~16 years from now before you are a board certified physician. That is 2 years post bacc career changer, 1 year MCAT and med EC, 4 years med school(MD or DO), 3~4 years residency and 1-4 years fellowship.

You need to love life science, you need to be able to tolerate blood and flash in a surgery.

Your current GPA should be more than 3.7 before you take any pre-med courses as you will experience the weeding process in your attempt.

If you like chemistry, you could be a pharmacist. If you do not have a med school worthy GPA, there are other health related alternatives: PA, PT, OT and NP. All of those will get you into a job faster than Medical School.

6

“Everyone has been discouraging me, and I know that I should have realized sooner or decided sooner.”

Perhaps everyone has been discouraging you, except for the folks here on CC.

As others have said, this switch is possible. You would need take the required premed courses. It is entirely likely that you might not be able to squeeze these all in by the end of next year, so you might add a year to your undergrad. Also, you need to get ready for the MCAT. You will need to figure out a feasible schedule for the courses that you need to take.

I think that there are two 800-pound bears in the room that haven’t been mentioned yet. One is GPA. You need a high GPA to get into medical school. Have you had difficult science classes yet? How have you done so far both overall and in science and math classes? The other 800-pound bear in the room is the cost of all of this. If this requires an extra year of undergrad, can you afford that plus 4 years of medical school, and how bad would the debt be at the end of all of this?

Another issue is that to get into medical school it is useful to have a lot of volunteering hours in medical situations, such as in a hospital. Have you done any of this?

In terms of starting sooner: You are still young. I know plenty of people, including myself, who have had very successful careers but who did not take the quickest nor the most straightforward path to get there. An extra year or two is no big deal if you can get where you want to go.

7

What? Who says you can’t do it? Of course you can! In fact, statistics show that non premed majors have a better chance of getting in because your application stands out. Medical schools get tired of seeing biology and chemistry majors. Really all you have to do is take the necessary prerequisites. No need to do a whole major, just enough to be competitive.

8

^not quite. It takes a certain caliber of student to successfully complete the pre reqs AND an unrelated major. Medical schools want the best potential doctors and don’t care if they are all bio or chem majors.

One of my med school classmates was a practicing lawyer. It’s never too late to switch.

9

Seems like the expensive post-bac pre-med programs exist mainly because medical schools frown on taking pre-med courses at community colleges. Most pre-med courses (except biochemistry) are frosh/soph level courses that are often readily available inexpensively at community colleges.

10

For now lose the idea of becoming a surgeon as whether you get into a surgical (or any) residency post med school will be dependent solely on your med school performance. If you are determined to pursue an MD (or DO) degree, all you can do now are the things that can get you into med school as mentioned above. Good luck.

11

There are also plenty of 4 year schools that allow you take pre-med courses not part of a formal post-bacc. The community college versions of these courses are simply not on par with what the majority of medical students are taking as undergraduates.

I’d say the bigger reason they exist and charge what they charge is linkage agreements where certain admissions shortcuts/advantages exist between specific med schools and post-baccs.

12

@DadTwoGirls, @artloversplus @vhsdad, @iwannabe_Brown, @coolguy40, @twogirls, @WayOutWestMom, Thank you all so much for your replies. I recently found out that i will be able to finish all the prerequisites before I graduate. If you dont mind could you please give me your opinions on the fact that i am thinking about applying this admission cycle?

Here are my stats:

3.7 overall gpa
3.9 science gpa
MCAT range: 523-526

130 hours volunteering in ER
80 hours of shadowing different doctors
1000+ hours as a crisis counselor
200 hours providing free therapy and counseling

I will be doing research my senior year (next year) but I heard that I will not be able to include this in my application due to the fact that AAMC do not allow you to include future positions. Also, I will be taking an EMT class this summer to get an EMT licence and hopefully start working my senior year as well.

I speak a few languages and have helped or tutored my peers (nothing official) for about I would say 50 hours. I also tutored chemistry, biology, and physics for about 50 hours as well. I will be tutoring officially in the learning center next year.

In terms of leadership position, my sophomore year of high school, 3 years ago, I organized and ran a world culture celebration (should I include that or not?)

Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate any and all opinions/thoughts!!!

13

Right now your stats look rock solid, especially your MCAT scores! They should be very competitive for a med school application. Being an outside major can still be very tricky in the application process. Every medical school has different prerequisites, so spend a lot of time making sure your classes match their prerequisites. That’s going to take a lot of research! Some schools are flexible, others aren’t. For instance, Texas Tech and UT Medical-San Antonio are equally ranked, but their prerequisites are very different. If you throw Baylor in the mix, it can be a real headache. You’ll need to cast a wide net and probably build a spreadsheet to keep track. Otherwise you risk your chances of med school diminished on a technicality.

14

@ywanderluster

You can include anticipated activities on your AMCAS primary, but don’t expect adcomms to place any weight on things that haven’t happened yet. They know anticipated activities often fall thru.

The EMT class & license is basically worthless unless you actually have EMT work/volunteer experience to go along with it. (Not to mention that 10 zillion other pre med hopefuls have taken EMT training too.) Don’t list it on your AMCAS unless you have a job already lined up at the time you’re filling out your primary.

High school leadership activities–that’s reaching and only highlights the fact that you don’t any more recent leadership positions. I wouldn’t list it.

RE: therapy. Are you a licensed therapist? If not, don’t use the word “therapy” in your description of an activity. You could be viewed as practicing medicine/therapy without a license and that’s a no-no.

BTW–is the MCAT range you list your actual score or your predicted score?

15

On CC, we are only concerned with the actual numbers and events, not predicted outcomes. So when you site your scores/stats you need to give us uptodate information. What are the prereqs you have to complete in your 4th year? Have you done org chem yet? If you did not, do not give a projected 3.9 sgpa.

Since you have not completed all the prereqs, you will not be able to take the MCAT, the best you can do right now is to take a gap year after you have completed all the prereqs to prepare for Mcat and you’d hope you will get your projected score. Until you do, we cannot comment what are your chances on med school application.

Based on what you presented, you should be in a good position for med school. But too many unknown for us to make a prediction. Adding a chem minor will not increase your chances to apply for med school, getting all As will.

16

If “MCAT range: 523-526” are your actual scores, you must be kidding…never heard of anyone crazy enough retaking a 520+ MCAT. The closest one I knew was someone retook a 515 and scored 522 (but she dropped 1 pt in one section).

17

The MCAT score is one total number with 4 section scores, not a range of scores unless you have taken it multiple times. How many science courses have you taken as a Poly Sci major to give you a 3.9 SGPA?

18

“I speak a few languages”

This is going to be quite useful in the medical field.

19

Useful, but not an admissions advantage. It’s much easier to teach a great future doctor multiple languages than it is to teach someone who speaks multiple languages to be a great future doctor.

20

Well, the assumption here is ‘everyhing else being equal speaking another language than English spoken in the US is a positive at interview.’ lots of people could make great doctors yet you have to choose a variety of them based on many factors, if I remember your other thread.