Quarter life crisis and post bac options

Pre-Med & Medical School Careers in Medicine
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<p>Ok, so here's the predicament: I'm a college senior, anthropology and cinema and media studies double major. I loved my majors and I feel like they gave me a great perspective on the world. However, while taking a human biology class this semester (to fulfill a distribution requirement) I started to question my choice to pursue a PhD in anthro... I accidentally fell in love with the class and the lab and it has made me start to consider a career in medicine. A little late, I know.</p>

<p>However, I had a very rough start to my undergraduate career. I barely passed my first year and a half due mostly to roommate problems and a very intense athletic schedule among other things. Coming back from that absolutely abysmal GPA was hard. By the time I graduate, I should have a 3.3 which is nothing to write home about, but I improved DRASTICALLY over time. And I go to an elite college that uses grade deflation, so our grading scale is a little skewed.</p>

<p>I took a chemistry class my first semester, and while I found the subject matter interesting and absolutely loved lab, I fell behind mid semester and ended up with a C-. I found out later that my professor was notoriously difficult, which makes sense given my A in lab from another professor. Anyway, I got intimidated and let this discourage me from pursuing any other premed science classes. However, looking back, I took a quite a few other science related classes that I loved and did fairly well in (neuroscience, biological anthro, forensic anthro, psych of language, and now human bio).</p>

<p>I have a lot more free time next semester and this summer so I was planning on trying to volunteer some and shadow some doctors to make sure this is something I want to pursue. There are several medical fields that I know I have strong interests in at the moment.</p>

<p>So has anyone in a similar situation had success with post-bac programs? Which programs would you recommend? How difficult are they to get into? Despite the god awful first two years on my transcript, I have a pretty stellar ACT score, a very strong GRE score, and people I know would bend over backwards to write me letters of rec. </p>

<p>I've heard the Harvard Extension School program is good. Opinions? Would I be better off working and just taking a couple science classes at a time at a state school? I am fully aware of how difficult this path will be, but I don't want to not try and wish I had years from now. I'm already regretting my decision not to pursue the sciences in college. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any input!</p>

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<p>1) stop making excuses for your grades. Med school adcomms won’t care. Medicine as a profession very much has a “suck it up” attitude–no excuses. Also the ‘brand name’ of your undergrad really won’t help you out much, if at all, when it comes to applying to med school. (First round of application screening is done by a computer program at most schools.)</p>

<p>2) D1 was a career changer who did a do it yourself post-bacc at a local college while working 2 or more part-time jobs to support herself. She’s now a MS4 and will graduate from med school in May. A friend of D2’s is doing a formal post-bacc for career changers at a top post-bacc program and has already been offered early admission to med school. There is no one path and everyone’s journey will be different. </p>

<p>3) Before you commit yourself to medicine, make sure that’s what you want. Do shadowing (though shadowing tends to be more ‘glamorous’ than the actual career) and at least 6 months of hands-on clinical volunteering before you decide this is the path for you. </p>

<p>4) Any science/math classes with a grade less than C are considered as failing for med school admission purposes. This means you must re-take gen chem. For allopathic medical schools the C- will always be included in your GPA/sGPA calculations; for osteopathic med schools, only the newer grade will be considered. Osteopathic med schools also tend to be more forgiving about uGPAs than allopathic med schools.</p>

<p>5) Harvard Extension is a fine program, but so is your state U. Choose a program based on convenience and cost. (Very little non loan FA for med school, you want to minimize your debt going in.)</p>

<p>6) The MCAT isn’t like the ACT or GRE. You can’t use either to predict your performance on the MCAT. Beside, even a stellar MCAT won’t fully compensate for a poor uGPA for med school admission purposes. (A mismatched MCAT-GPA makes you a high risk applicant in the eyes of adcomms officers.)</p>

<p>7) Have a Plan B. Med school isn’t a sure thing for anybody. Every year 60% of applicants get rejected from every single med school they apply to. Even applicants with 4.0 GPAs and 40 MCATs get rejected or those with stellar ECs and LORs from Nobel Prize winners.</p>

<p>tl;dr – It’s not too late to change your mind and pursue medicine, but you have a long road and much work to do.</p>

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<p>I started writing a post but Wayoutwestmom put it as well as anyone. Second the above.</p>