Its something I will definitely consider! And for sure I have to since my chances at med school are slim to none right now! The diy post bacc is definitely more affordable than formal ones. If i do it at CUNY college its about 16k-20k. Where as other formal ones are 40k+.
This is likely to be helpful in applying to nursing programs. I have been a bit surprised in the past the extent to which very good work experience can offset so-so grades, but I have seen the good experience win out in a few cases. One is ongoing (a student who just started a graduate program) but in the other cases the student went on to do very well.
I agree with the comment that the pay stinks for home health aides. However, nursing pays better than being a health aide, and there is a nationwide nursing shortage. There are nurses with bachelor’s and/or master’s degrees.
This is recipe for rejection. Why?
Most medical schools will not accept updates once your application has been received.
Plus even if a school accepts updates, the adcomm is under no obligation to look at the update when they review your file. Your application will be judge as it is when it’s first received–sans updates.
NOTE: you cannot send transcripts directly to medical schools. They aren’t set up the handle transcripts and med schools will not accept them. Transcripts can only be sent to AMCAS/AACOMAS. And neither of those organizations will accept additional transcripts from applicants once their primary app has been processed.
You need to have your coursework completed and GPA improved before you apply, not in progress during your application cycle.
A 3.3 sGPA might get you a DO acceptance (assuming your MCAT score is good), but unless your 30-35 new credits of UL bio coursework are all A grades, your GPA is going to make you a very long shot for MD programs.
Do NOT take any CC classes. Community college classes are considered non-competitive and getting As in those classes won’t impress anyone, least of all medical school admission officers. You need to take all your GPA boosting coursework at a 4 year college.
RE: post-baccs. There are GPA enhancing formal post bacc programs. But formal programs can be quite expensive.
Here’s a searchable database of post bacc:
https://mec.aamc.org/postbac/#/index
2 Likes
You do realize that odds of you getting a med school acceptance in NYC/ Long Island are approximately zero, right?
If you do succeed in reinventing yourself, you will need to apply very broadly to have the best chance for getting an admissions. I would suggest that you concentrate on newer DO schools-- in places like Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Arkansas. You’re going to be even farther away from home than you were for undergrad.
This means you need to have yourself together enough and your mental health strong enough that you will be able to cope being far away from your family.
And I know this sounds cruel–but medical students need to be selfish. You cannot be successful in med school if you’re always worrying about your family or if your family is depends on you to help out at home/with family members. You have to more or less put your family out of your mind and just concentrate on doing well no matter what is going on back home.
4 Likes
You have already completed your basic science courses, with mediocre grades. You say you plan to study for the MCAT and expect an MCAT score of at least 510, which is 81st percentile. It’s too late for you to register at a CUNY or SUNY school for this semester. You say that your plan is to take additional courses in biology to demonstrate to med schools that you now can handle the coursework. I do agree that straight A’s in advanced biology classes, like biochem (if you haven’t taken it yet), genetics, etc. might help. But you cannot start that until January. So I have an idea for something constructive that you could do this fall, and depending upon how it turns out, it could guide your path realistically, based upon the result, and keep you from wasting your money on a futile endeavor. I recommend that you begin an intensive study program now, and plan to take the MCAT the first available date, which will be in January, 2022. It’s not offered between Sept 12 - early January. This way, if you cannot achieve a high MCAT score (hopefully a lot higher than 510), you can let go of the idea of med school, and plan for something else. Personally, I think that “something else” should be a BA to BSN program, which usually take about 15 months, and launch yourself on a nursing career.
When I took the MCAT, it had been about 7 yrs since I had taken general chemistry my freshman year. I had done the rest of my premeds starting about two years after I had been awarded my BA, in a self-designed post bacc program. Once I had finished the premeds, I took the summer off - didn’t work, lived off of a credit card - and spent the entire summer studying intensively for the MCAT. Back then, I think that the MCAT was scored on a scale up to 15 for each of its subjects, and with that intensive self-prep and a Kaplan course, I think my scores were all at least 13, some were 15. I think I took only genetics after that, because I was interested in it. I know that my very high MCAT score, combined with high grades in my postbacc sciences, demonstrated to med schools that I had mastered the material and was ready for med school.
It’s not as if any of the postbacc bio classes you plan to take will help you to do well on the MCAT. You’ve already taken the classes that cover the material on the MCAT. So why not prep intensively for the MCAT for the next 4 months, and take it the first available date in January, 2022? Your result on it will be available in early February, perhaps early enough to be able to add a class or two at CUNY for the spring semester.
This way, you would be making realistic plans based upon real data - your MCAT score - rather than spending money on classes which won’t help you towards an ancillary medical field, in the very likely event that med school admission is impossible for you.
However, I strongly urge you to consider an accelerated second degree nursing program. This is much more likely to offer you a path to a successful, satisfying career in medicine. I do not think that you will be able to get into medical school, although if you can achieve a super-stellar MCAT score, you might have a chance. That’s why I say if you’re absolutely hell-bent on giving it one last shot, do the MCAT first, before taking any more classes. But if you will listen to reason, consider a BA into nursing program. Here’s a link to 20 programs available in NY state, some of which are in the greater NYC area. 21 Accelerated Nursing Programs in New York – 2023
6 Likes
Nursing programs are also competitive. Your work as an MA will help as would work as a certified nursing assistant. Community colleges and the Red Cross offer courses that certify you for the latter.
Have you already taken a rigorous general and organic chemistry? If not, you could take those and they will help with applying to both nursing and med schools.
If you don’t want to do an accelerated Nursing Program, you can do a community college program. Affordability is a plus in your situation. Avoid debt as much as you can!
1 Like
This person already works as a medical assistant. They most definitely do not need to become a CNA! Nursing level classes in basic science are “science lite”. The person’s grades at a SUNY in premed classes likely already indicate mastery of the nursing level of basic science classes. Starting over at a community college for an RN would be cheap, and easy, but would take longer than a BA to BSN course, and would lead only to an RN, as opposed to a BSN. Many hospitals are moving towards hiring BSNs rather than RNs, for obvious reasons. However, there are online RN to NP programs! Ain’t that great? (not)
I didn’t realize your sGPA was so low! If taking an additional 30 credits in science will only get you to a sub 3.0 sGPA, I’m not sure med school is a reasonable goal for you.
A sub 3.0 sGPA will get you auto-screened out of every med school in the country (MD and DO). Your only viable route would be to get your sGPA to 3.0, then enroll in a SMP. This is a very long (4 years minimum) and very expensive route ($100K at least) that will mostly likely leave you with significant debt and no med school acceptance.
I suggest that you do as @parentologist suggests and take your MCAT in January. Unless you score 510 or above, then med school is simply not going to happen for you.
If you don’t want to take the MCAT yet, then enroll in a SUNY or CUNY in the spring and take 4 UL bio electives --biochem, genetics, A&P plus one other of your choosing.(I’d recommend neuroscience or microbiology) If you don’t get As in all 4 classes, then it’s time to retire your dreams of medical school.
Our community college has a BA to RN program.
CNA’s do direct patient care, medical assistants don’t. The nursing students I know do CNA not MA to help them get in.
The Red Cross offers a month long CNA course for $950.
EMT is another option.
I’d recommend against an EMT.
EMT-Bs are a dime a dozen and jobs can be hard to find. Additionally EMT-Bs have a high rate of physical injuries (back injuries) due to the amount of heavy lifting required by the job.
Unless the OP wants to earn an EMT-B, work to gain some experience than go back to school to become a paramedic (EMT-P) which requires 2 years of full time study, an EMT-B is a dead end job.
I wish everyone had your passion for medicine and with your past experiences and dedication to caring for the sick I think you would make an excellent healthcare professional. You have stated you understand that your chances of being accepted to medical school are slim to none but don’t want to regret not having exhausted every avenue before giving up. True, you don’t want to look back later and wish you had tried, so please do. You have been given lots of good suggestions here. Do not do anything else in CC. You have to remember your GPA and grades are far, far, far from being competitive. You have to take a major step up to show that you are equally competitive as other applicants. CC courses are perceived to be inferior and in many places not accepted at all, and you have to do everything you can now to raise the quality of your application. This means have to take upper level bio classes, which are almost always harder than the prereqs you already took and received Bs and Cs in. You really have to get all As in ALL of these classes, which is very hard even for someone who received all As in prereqs. You also going to have to take 12 of these classes to reach the median for DO? And no “easier” classes to lighten the load (think history/government/fine arts)? Four hard science classes only in a semester? Also, the classes aren’t typically offered over the summer so your timeline won’t work. You’re running out of classes, and classes where attainable As are getting scarce. You should look at grade distributions for the courses and only attempt ones where you have the best chance of getting an A. Anything else means you need to move on. I just don’t think this will happen for you, and I think you do too, you just haven’t come to the point where you can accept this yet. So continue on your course but please also do yourself a favor and recognize the value in other fields in healthcare, all very rewarding. Since you can’t do any classes until spring 2022, the idea of studying for the MCAT is a good one, take a review course, try to get that high score to improve the quality of your application. Get to know your professors well when you take classes in the spring, you are going to need stellar LOR. Also, you said you are alone here then later you say you live with your parents. You need to clean things like that up when you apply, meaning minimize any questions or red flags in your application because it will be scrutinized and you can’t afford any inconsistencies.
2 Likes
And good luck, I hope you are successful.
3 Likes
My grandma died of medical malpractice and my mom just got diagnosed with cancer.
This is terrible reason to go to medical school. Your drive to medicine has to be bigger than just your family situation
And EMT B spend more time driving the vehicle than providing patient care. If the goal is to have a job providing direct contact patient care, EMT B might not work
I agree with taking the MCAT and then deciding, but the gpa is a big deal.
NP and some BSN programs are quite competitive, so do your research. Also- these programs have different prerequisites. Some require labs, others don’t, some accept AP classes (chemistry) while others don’t, etc.
CUNY accelerated BSN is competitive. For example, Hunter requires a test and they list the applicants from high to low (gpa and test score) and they accept based on stats only.
I think this student needs to take a step back and have a good plan in place. There is no rush.
Her reason is no worse than all the students that want to go into medicine to get rich. Come on.
Yeah, but saying you want to go to med school to make money gets your application tossed in the trash bin. Adcomms are actually very good at reading between the lines and people who are driven solely by monetary concerns tend not to get interviews.
And talking about someone being a victim medical malpractice in a PS–that’s a big no-no.
I was discussing ways to get into nursing school ,or med if OP persists. I know two young people who did EMT training and worked as EMT’s to help with admissions. They were part of the volunteer fire department.
EMT work is more intensive than MA work. Even driving a chair van (which some EMT’s do for entry level) would involve dealing with patients.
CNA work for a hospice might be interesting, given the OP’s motivation.
With grades that are not stellar, I was just suggesting some of these types of experience which the nurses I talk with in the hospital (my mother is constantly in the hospital) tell me they did in order to get into their program.
For a career path, yes, paramedic would be better but OP didn’t express interest in that.
EMT, MA, CNA, patient advocates, medical scribe–med school admission officers don’t really care what type of clinical exposure an applicant has, only that they are sufficiently exposed to the day-to-day realities of hands-on patient care.
But the reality is that most EMTs have very little hands-on patient contact. They’re justifiably considered “bus drivers” by most adcomm members.
I don’t have anything against EMTs. My older D was one (but she was a AEMT–which is a higher level than a EMT-B and has a much broader scope of practice) before she went to med school. Her sister chose a different clinical exposure (neuro rehab therapy assistant). Both did fine with med school admissions.
BTW, Itoo have spent way, way too much time in hospitals and have talked with numerous ancillary med staff. Both my Ds are doctors, so are many of their friends (some of whom I’ve known since high school), one SIL is a PT, the former fiancé of one D was EMT-P, one of my longtime best friends is an AART and on the national accreditation committee for her profession. There are lots of routes to lots of different healthcare professions.
In my town EMT’s do a lot of hands on, because paramedics are often not available. I trained as an EMT myself and there was a volunteer ambulance in the city neighborhood where I worked. But yes, new EMT’s who are working for pay mainly generally just transport.
I think MA’s have the least experience with patient care, at least in my experience.
I was discussing these options to get into nursing school, not med school so much.