Reality check for non-traditional student

Pre-Med & Medical School
1

Situation : Currently sitting at a 2.6 GPA and 45 college credits, 1 science course and 1 math course. Two courses non-science related i did a grade replacement with, which means my GPA will be lower to med schools.

Question : Its been 8 years since ive been in college. Is it possible for me to go back to school and pull my GPA enough to be competitive for a DO or MD school assuming i pull a 505 + on the MCAT? Do i retake the same math/science course(C’s) since its been over 7 years to show improvement?

Is it considered acceptable to do online courses or should i only do live coursework for all science courses?

I have no real ECs other than starting and running businesses.

Thank you for your time.

2

Also, im not sure if it matters, but i am 29.

Thanks again.

3

One big question before you begin this whole re-invention process–
Why do you want to be a doctor?

You don’t need to answer in a public forum, but if you have no exposure to medical practice and no clinical experience, are you sure this is what you want to do?

Medicine is a tough gig. Long hours, a long training period at no or low pay, lots of debt. Lots of people think they want to be a doctor, but they really don’t know what being a doctor is like.

Before you start down this road, make sure this what you want to do for the rest of your life:

–shadow some doctors and other healthcare practitioners (nurses, PAs, NPs, therapists of various types) so you can understand the various different roles these providers all play in patient care.

–get some clinical exposure through volunteering at your local hospital, public clinic, nursing home, group home for the mentally or physically disabled or something similar. (Consider getting a CNA, MA or AEMT certification and use that to get some hands on experience with patients.)

– get involved in community service activities. Future doctors are expected to demonstrate compassion and altruism through their actions. Start now. Find a cause** you find worthy and start putting in some hours every month/every week.

**since doctors serve human beings, your service work should be with humans, not animals.

Now to your questions–

Yes, but it’s going to require. good deal of hard work and dedication on your part. You will probably need to go back to college full time for at least 2 full years to demonstrate your new dedication and academic discipline.

General rule of thumb–you need and equal or greater number of excellent grades (As) to counter-balance your less than desirable grades in order to develop a strong application to medical school. Consider earning a BS in biology biochem or chemistry to demonstrate your ability to handle the intense academics of med school.

BTW, a 505 on the MCAT is probably too low for most medical schools. The median MCAT for DO last year was 506. The median MCAT for MD was 512-13.

You can if you want, but if you passed those classes with a C+ or better you don’t need to. Take higher level coursework in the same dept and ace those classes. This is a better demonstration of your ability to handle tough academic classes than retaking old classes.

Medical schools do not accept online science classes as fulfilling admission requirements.

Additionally, some medical schools do not accept community college credits either.
I strongly recommend that you take the rest of your classwork at a 4 year college. (You will need a BA or BS degree before you can enroll in medical school anyway.) Many adcomms view CC coursework as less competitive and less rigorous than coursework taken at a 4 year college.You have a weak academic record thus far and you cannot afford any more blemishes.

Besides, you will need at least 2 letters of recommendations from science professors who have taught you in class to support a med school application. (You’ll also need a LOR from a non-science professor also.)

4

You asked almost the same question in June, 2015 http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1786299-reality-check.html#latest
Have you done anything between then and now that would get you closer to your goal of becoming a doctor? Have you worked in any medical field? shadowed doctors? volunteered in the medical arena? taken any classes? etc. Is medical school a path you are absolutely devoted to or an idea that pops into your head every few years?

5

No, it’s not too late. You can bring that up, but you’re going to have to work hard at it. Also, you can take a year of graduate school and that can help a lot.

6

When i asked in 2015 i had 20k worth of debt i had to pay off before going back to school, which has now been dealt with. I also had 2 companies that i could not simply walk away from but have decided that money and time freedom arent enough to make me happy in life.

I have 1.5 years working in a group home for mentally disabled and will be looking for additional opportunities around my community.

Regarding major: Is psychology a bad choice, compared to comp science, literature, or nursing etc, if my end goal is to become a psychiatrist? My only concern is having a non-valuable degree if my GPA is considered too low to get into med school at a 3.2-3.5.

Thanks again.

7

Answer this…do you want a bachelors degree…or not? There are NO guarantees you will get accepted to any medical school. Many applicants apply and don’t get a single acceptance. Not one.

There are tons of other health care related professions. Have you looked into any of these?

@WayOutWestMom could you provide the link to health professions?

8

[Explore Health Careers](https://explorehealthcareers.org/)

There is a searchable database of health professions with option to select for income ranges and years of education.

Psychology is not a pre-professional degree and how competitive you’ll be in the job market after graduation will depend on what you do during college to prepare yourself and develop marketable job skills.

If you want a college degree that has better job prospects than psych, consider mathematics/applied math, statistics/biostatistics, bio-informatics, and, of course, engineering and computer science.

Nursing is not a good choice for pre-meds because:

  1. adcomms will ask why medicine and not nursing? You will be expected to have actually have worked as a nurse for several years so that you have the real world experience needed answer to that question
  2. adcomms are often reluctant to admit nurses to medical school because they don’t want to poach from other healthcare professions that are already experiencing a shortage of personnel
  3. at many colleges, the science classes for nursing students have their own course sequence that does not meet the admission requirements for med school admission.

And I agree w/ @thumper1 that no hopeful pre-med should count on getting an acceptance to med school. It’s better to assume that you won’t and plan accordingly.

Although psychiatry is not an extremely competitive specialty (like say, orthopedics or neurosurgery), entry into psych has become much more competitive in the past 5 years. Every year psych applicants are going unmatched. (i.e. they don't get accepted into a psych residency.) 
**You cannot assume that you will qualify for/match into psychiatry.**

Do NOT go to med school unless you would be willing to do family/community medicine in a rural area or a low resource urban area. 

Depending on your exact interests, you may want to look at a clinical psychology degree (PsyD or PhD) as a possible alternative to medical school. In some states, clinical psychologists have prescribing rights for a limited list of psycho-active medications.  

Another possible alternative would be a MSW to become a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). LCSWs do counseling and offer a range of therapeutic behavioral therapies. LCSWs can have in-patient or out-patient practices/caseloads.
9

As a parent paying for my child in this situation, my most important question would be can you pay for medical school?
It is very very expensive. We’re paying everything for our daughter because she doesn’t have time to work.

All expenses are on you to pay for your living expenses, health care, your insurances, everything.
You were in debt, previously, do you plan on taking out a massive amount of loans for this? Because that’s what it’s going to take if you don’t have a quarter of a million dollars saved.

There’s no magic fairy for funding for medical school. The students are all on parent funding, or loans, or a combination of both.

10

@“aunt bea” and @Thorn01

There are 2 programs will fund 100% of the cost of a medical education, but both are service for scholarship programs.

HPSP (Health Profession Scholarship Program) requires that scholarship recipients commission into a branch of military service, enter a military residency and repay their scholarship with 4-6 years of military service after the completion of residency. Specialty choices for HPSP students are dependent upon the needs of the military.

NHSC (National HealthService Corp) offers 2, 3 and 4 year scholarships. Scholarship recipients are required to enter a primary care specialty (FM, IM without sub-specialty, pediatrics or OB/GYN) and after completing residency repay their scholarship by working for 2-8 years in a federally designated medically underserved area.

There are also post-residency jobs that will pay off federal student loans/grad plus loans if you work for certain federal agencies–like the Indian Health Service or the VA.

Additionally many private or group practice jobs in less popular areas offer some form of student loan repayment as a signing perk. (Generally, though, these offers are much less generous than those offered by federal agencies and aren’t vested until the young physician has completed 5 years of employment with the practice.)

The hard part isn’t paying for med school. The hard part is getting into med school.

11

Good to know @WayOutWestMom.

None of my daughter’s roommates appear to have the use of these options yet, or, that I know of.
Getting in, is the trick, as well as staying in.