Switching from accounting to a pre-med-type track

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

Hi all,

I know many of you will read the title of this and scoff at it, but please hear me out.

When I was applying and picking schools, I did not consider any other major than accounting. However, I am now finishing my fall term of my junior year and I realized that I have not liked any of my classes, I don’t like the internship I have been doing for the last year (wealth management firm), and I feel like I am being challenged enough in my major. On top of that, I am not sure that I am excited for any of the career paths that lie ahead of me after I graduate.

I realize that it is a bit late to fulfill the requirements and still graduate in four years, but that does not bother me at all. I am fine with taking classes to catch up. Plus I already took the first class of the gen chem sequence!

All joking aside, I would like some genuine advice about this. I wouldn’t hesitate to take a single science class, I have always been fascinated by most sciences.

The amount of schooling (MD, residency, fellowship, etc) also does not bother me. I would much rather have a career I truly enjoy than spend 8-10 less years in school for some career I don’t want to pursue.

Any advice from people who have been in a similar situation?

Thanks!

2

My older D decided she wanted to go to med school when she was senior (physics & math major). She had completed some, but not all of the pre-reqs. She took most of her pre-reqs after graduation while working multiple part-time jobs (to give her scheduling flexibility for classes). She did go to med school and is now a physician in residency training.

What you need to do:

  1. Start volunteering at a clinical site NOW (Clinical means any place where you will working around doctors & patients. Nursing homes, public health clinics, hospices, group homes for the physically or mentally disabled, elder care centers, local hospitals, etc)

  2. Get involved with one or more community service projects NOW. These projects don’t need to be medically related, but do need to show your willingness to work with those who are less fortunate than yourself. Your community service should be a on-going and long term commitment.

  3. If you have space in your schedule, add 1-2 science electives for next semester. Gen chem 2 and an intro level bio would be great. But you could also add any of the following: calc 1, statistics/biostatistics, intro to psych, into to sociology–if you have space in your schedule

  4. Consider taking one science sequence over the summer. Intro bio 1 & 2, ochem 1 & 2 or physics 1 & 2.

  5. Over the summer, find opportunities to shadow one or more physicians. (There’s no easy way to find a doctor to shadow. Expect lots and lots of “no” answers, but keep pursuing this since it’s important.)

  6. Assuming you do well in your science classes, then you can either postpone graduation and take the rest of your pre-reqs, or you can graduate and take the rest of your pre-reqs as a non-matriculated student at any local 4 year college.

One other alternative: to #3, 4 and 6, consider if you’d rather do a formal post-bacc program for career changers.

There’s a searchable database of post-bacc programs here:

https://apps.aamc.org/postbac/#/index

Enter career-changer as the focus.

What is a Post-Bacc? What does a Post-Bacc do?

https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/preparing-med-school/post-baccalaureate-programs/

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools/articles/2014/01/02/find-a-postbaccalaureate-premed-program-that-fits-you

3

Wow, thank you so much for that reply. Not only does it give me somewhere to start, but it gives me hope that I can do this.

Thanks for the wonderful information!

4

In addition to WayOutWestMom’s suggestions, I would suggest that you have the conversation with your parents about what the impact would be of extending your college career for an extra year or so if necessary in order to complete the pre-reqs. You want to make sure that you don’t over schedule yourself and sabotage your chances by getting lower grades in those courses. That innocuous lab for one unit can involve as much work as an entire accounting class for 3-4 units. Med schools also generally frown on doing pre-reqs at schools other than your primary school (no community college over the summer to fill in gaps, for example). So you want to plan ahead.

Other resources: Amherst’s guide to medical school admissions is the gold standard and it’s free online:https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/careers/act/gradstudy/health/guide

And the AAMC’s tables for GMAT/GPA will also tell you what you are aiming for:https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html

Your situation is not that unusual. Nephew at USC decided as a junior that he didn’t want to be a business major after all. He’s now completing his anesthesia residency and couldn’t be happier with that decision.