I’m an economics major about to start my 3rd year this fall. I’ve recently become very interested medicine and have been more passionate about it than I’ve ever been about my major. Unfortunately because I never really liked what I was studying, my GPA is a fairly average 3.4. My math/science GPA is a 3.7. I have no clinical or shadowing experience, but I have volunteered ~20 hours per semester. Because I’m so late to switch, I need to finish the econ major and do the pre-med track, instead of picking a science major like most people do. I know it will be extremely hard but I will give it my all because I’ve never been as passionate about any field before. Do I have a chance? Is there any advice you guys have for me?? Thanks in advance!!
Yes, imho, you still have a chance, if you are lack of clinical experience you can make it up post graduate in a gap year. But more importantly you need to get highest Gpa in the next two years, in your Econ major and pre-med courses.
Sure, you have a chance. My older D didn’t decide to pursue med school until the semester before she graduated from college. (She’s a physician in her second year or residency.) If she could make the switch, so can you.
What you need to do:
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do well in your remaining classes and see if you can improve your overall GPA. Majors matter very little to med school adcoms, but grades do.
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finish whatever pre-reqs you’re missing. (Or alternatively, if you’re missing most of them, you can plan on doing a career-changer post-bacc after graduation. The post-bacc can be a formal program or informal, do-it-yourself one. Both will get you where you want to go.)
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start doing some clinical volunteering. (Doesn’t need to be at a hospital. Try nursing homes, hospice centers, group home for physically disabled or mentally ill, county health clinics, Planned Parenthood, Healthcare for the Homeless etc.)
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you’ll need additional ECs–physician shadowing, non-medical community service, and, if possible, leadership positions. Most pre-meds traditionally do some sort of clinical or bench research, but this is not absolutely necessary (unless you’re gunning for top ranked research-oriented med schools–then you pretty much **must have it).
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plan on taking at least 2 gap years post graduation. (Why 2? Because the med school admission process takes a full year. The earliest you’ll be able to apply is after graduation–meaning by default you’ll have one gap year, but you may want to have delay applying for another year to give yourself time to finish pre-reqs and study for the MCAT and to give yourself more time to develop your ECs. Please don’t underestimate the importance of ECs. There’s saying about med school admission–your stats get you to door, but it’s your ECs that get you that interview.)
Remember that journey to med school is a marathon, not a sprint. Apply only when you’re ready and have the best possible application you can manage.
It is not too late, but you are not going to be able to apply to get into med school right out of college. You may need to take a fifth year to finish all the requirements, since a number of those requirements form a long chain of prereqs. The average med school matriculant nowadays is 24, however, so you won’t be alone if you didn’t finish college in four years and go straight into med school. If you are close to finishing your degree however, just finish up, and then enroll in a career changer post bac program that is designed to help you get the requirement courses done. This is different from SMPs, which are designed to be a med school audition for those who had sub-par GPAs as undergrads.
Your major matters very little, if at all, to med schools. You definitely want to see if you can get your GPA up to at least 3.6 to be considered competitive. An upward trend in grades always helps.
I haven’t been able to access this page in a while, so I apologize for my delay in thanking you all. Thank you so so much! This advice is incredibly helpful. I luckily have just enough room in my schedule to complete the prereqs before graduating. As for volunteering, I’m lucky to be part of a service fraternity which could help me out a lot with clinical volunteering & nonmedical community service. I’m very excited to begin the prereqs this coming fall!