<p>1)Med schools don’t like community college courses without cause. You certainly have a very different situation in which I think going to a CC is not only advisable but a necessity. You need to get caught up with the math and the other things.</p>
<p>2) don’t worry about the age gap. It’s absolutely irrelevant at this point. You must realize that the average age for a first year medical student is 24 or 25. My medical school class has a number of people who are in their 30’s, with plenty who were 26, 27, 28 when they started medical school.</p>
<p>3) Don’t rule out other careers within medicine - pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Nutrition, Dentistry, or Physician’s Assistant. Keep your options open before committing right away.</p>
<p>What I think you should do:</p>
<p>Go to the CC, and take the courses you feel you need at the Remedial level. These are less likely to transfer as credit to a four year university. Also - if you go to a 4 year university far away from home, the credits are less likely to transfer. Study hard for the ACT and SAT. Going through a review book will help you see that you are capable of doing well - I think that your confidence has been extremely shaken at this point. </p>
<p>When you do start applying for colleges, talk with the admissions officers at the schools you are looking at and explain the situation to them. See if you can’t find a point person at each school to kind of handle your situation. It’ll make it a lot easier for you if you don’t have to repeat your story each time you need to ask a question. Be sure to see what they’ll do with your transfer credits if you don’t want them to transfer (I’d explicitly ask “can I not transfer any of these credits and start as a first time freshman?”). </p>
<p>Finally when it finally does come time to start applying to medical school or any of the other disciplines, be sure to explain what happened in your personal statement. Don’t leave schools to their own devices trying to determine what your situation entailed. They will get your CC transcripts (and you must give them to the schools - not doing so would be unethical), so they’ll see a very strange set of courses, and you need to set their minds at ease.</p>