<p>Hello, I’m currently a freshman at the university of Michigan. Medicine is my long-term goal, but I’ve always known that I’ve wanted to take at least a year off in between to experience the real world. My current plan is a double major in molecular biology (my passion) and computer science (my hobby) and I plan to intern and maybe work in computer technology right out of college for a while. Another option that I just found is Air Force ROTC. A plan like that may be up to 10 years minimum of post-undergraduate service if I am able to become a pilot. </p>
<p>While I don’t know how I’ll still be feeling about med school after all those years, I’m wondering: is it terribly difficult to get into medical school at even 30 years old or older? And I’m thinking med schools with reputations at least as grand as Michigan’s. Would this fall into the same category as people who just take one or two gap years?</p>
<p>There are many career-changers who decide to attend medical school in their 30’s, some even in their 40’s. (There’s a med student at our state med school who entered med school at 51.)</p>
<p>Military service is usually considered a plus for med school admission. (Because of the leadership skills learned, experience with handling serious responsibilities, and maturity that a stint in the service confers.)</p>
<p>If you’re looking at competitive programs (like Michigan), you’ll need all the same qualifications that all applicants are expected to have regardless of their age: a great GPA, excellent MCAT, excellent LORs, a consistent track record of community service, plentiful clinical volunteering, physician shadowing, basic or clinical research and demonstrated leadership skills.</p>
<p>Well, my concern would be time limitations that you are putting yourself thru. I am IT proffessional with over 30 years of experience. While in CS you will be spending tons of time debugging your programs. I am not sure how deep you are in CS as a hobby. If have had an experience writing software, then it might be a different story. But if you have never written any programs, then you are up to spending lots of time doing it. Consider this as college GPA is one of the most important factors.<br>
In regard to U of M Med., D. has a very negative experience applying there. It does not mean that you would though. For references, she had college GPA = 3.98 and decent MCAT and way over average of other things, Medical and non-medical ECs (as noted by her pre-med committee), she also happened to graduate as a top pre-med in her class. U of M Med. completely ignored her application, not a peep from them, no rejection, nothing. D. was accepted to couple top 20s, so I assume that her application was good.<br>
Again as a reference, she has at least one guy in her current Medical School class coming from military and she has only positive comments about him. Nice, mature, hard working, treating everybody with respect, all traits that are important at Med. School. I am mentionning it as Med. Schools might be aware of this fact. So, I understand from this one example why “Military service is usually considered a plus for med school admission”</p>
<p>Getting into medical school is hard, regardless of age. Getting in as an adult with other experiences can be done. Many medical schools now prefer students who don’t go directly from undergrad to medical school; they want them “seasoned” and a bit more knowledgeable about the world. A friend of mine got a PhD first, then applied to medical school. He got in and is now head of a large practice group.</p>
<p>Don’t let the difficulties of medical school admissions alter what you want to do. You will be much better off living the life you want to live and seeing where the chips fall. Life is rarely lived in a straight line.</p>