I already have a Bachelor's degree, how should I fulfill those pre-med reqs?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hey guys, I’ve done almost no research so feel free to link me to any obvious threads already discussing this.</p>

<p>I’m thinking about getting on that med school time but I know pretty much nothing about anything. I’m 23 with a dual degree in Physics and Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics, and I’m working as a software developer right now. It’s kind of blah, at least when I think about doing it for the next 30 years, and being a brain surgeon sounds fun, challenging, and life fulfilling. I glanced at some pre-med requirements and I have shortcomings, A LOT of them:</p>

<p>No college chemistry courses, one semester’s worth of biology but not from my Alma mater, not many humanities courses, no medicine-related extracurriculars. My ECs are limited to Physics/CS-related research and Physics-related teaching assistantships. </p>

<p>So yeah I realize I need to take courses, but any advice as to how/where? Anything in place to help potential late-bloomers like me? Like ‘come to our college, take the courses, get a good MCAT score, and we’ll fast-track you into our med school’ kind of thing. I can get a good MCAT score first if that helps. I dunno, I’m just confused as to what my options are. Can I just go back to college and take a few courses? Is that possible? Going back and getting another degree sounds painful, maybe just summer or evening courses?</p>

<p>Oh and do you think no ECs will kill my chances regardless? Maybe I can work on that while I study for the MCAT.</p>

<p>Thanks for ANY advice, encouragement, or discouragement you can give. I’m in exploration-mode right now, let me know if you want any more information. I’m a very naive person in general, but especially when it comes to things I consider dedicating large portions of my life to. Like three episodes of House and almost all of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the extent of my knowledge. Oh and of course The Fugitive (with Harrison Ford). </p>

2

<p>Welcome!</p>

<p>Non-traditional students can certainly apply to med schools. (My older D was a non-trad. She is a physic & math major who is currently finishing her 3rd year of med school.)</p>

<p>There are a couple of different ways you can approach taking your pre-med coursework. </p>

<p>1) You can enroll in a dedicated pre med post-bacc program. These programs are full time and intensive and will give you both all your coursework and structured opportunities to engage in med school ECs. The program takes about 2-2.5 years to complete. The downside of these programs is they are quite expensive. (Think in the $50-65K/year range.) And there is little FA available other than unsub student loans. The very best programs offer linkages—guaranteed admission to med school if you meet certain criteria (GPA in the program and MCAT). The programs with linkages are also the most difficult to get accepted into.</p>

<p>Here’s searchable DB of post-bacc programs. Select “career changer” as type.</p>

<p><a href=“https://services.aamc.org/postbac/getprogs.cfm”>https://services.aamc.org/postbac/getprogs.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>(Some programs have great track records; others are awful. Caveat emptor!)</p>

<p>2) You can do a do-it-yourself post bacc where you take your pre med classes at a local college, going either full or part time, while finding your own opportunities to engage in ECs. Less expensive, less structured and usually takes longer. </p>

<p>A few things–</p>

<p>ECs are hugely important in med school admissions. Having no ECs is guaranteed to kill your chances at admission. You’ll need to do some physician shadowing, have a continuing record of community service, have many hours of clinical volunteering (where you will be dealing with patients), and be able to demonstrate that you have leadership skills (typically thru holding leadership positions in your ECs). If possible you should have some research experience to demonstrate that you understand the research process. (Your research experience needn’t be in a biological field. D1’s research was in medium energy particle physics.)</p>

<p>The second thing you need to know is that applying to med school is a risk. Every year 60% of applicants get rejected everywhere.</p>

<p>I also hope that you’re joking about being a neurosurgeon! Neurosurgery is an extremely difficult specialty to match into. If you’re only interested in neurosurgery and wouldn’t be happy with being…say a family practice doctor or general internist–please save yourself a lot of grief and don’t even think about med school.</p>

<p>If you are serious about medicine, your first step is to start volunteering at a hospital, stand alone clinic, a group or nursing home ASAP. Next start contacting physicians that you may know and ask if you can shadow them so you can get a better idea what the life of doctor is like. (HINT: it’s nothing at all like you see on TV.)</p>

3

<p>Thanks a lot for the advice. You’ve given me a lot to think about and a much-needed dose of reality. ECs sound like they’re going to be tough. I’ll start researching the pre-med post-bacc programs. Good to know that non-traditional students like your daughter and me are common enough to warrant these. Neurosurgery isn’t so much a joke as a dream right now, or at least some far-off goal to work towards. I don’t know enough to have a real preference, however.</p>

<p>60% of applicants are rejected everywhere? That’s a surprisingly high number, pretty scary.</p>

4

<p>Actually D1 didn’t do a formal post-bacc. She followed the do-it-yourself approach. Took her about 3 years since she was working 2 or 3 part time jobs to pay the rent. </p>

<p>Your best chance for med school will usually be in your home state. (Unless you live in CA). Be sure to carefully read the admission webpages for all your in-state med schools. Different schools have different requirements, different missions and different expectations of applicants.</p>

<p>Some schools are more friendly towards non-trads than others. But older applicants are not at all uncommon. </p>

5

<p>I live right near Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic so I’ll start looking for opportunities there. Thanks.</p>