Backup careers

[Dave Chester]

To those of you who did not get into medical school after multiple cycles: what are you doing now? Do you still plan to reapply or have you chosen another career?

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[Make Or Break]

I'm working at Sears. Lots of stress though.

 

[allantois]

While the hypothetical does not apply to me; I would personally pursue a teaching career



... or dentistry

 

[Lysinee]

The people who won't be pursuing a med career anymore won't be browsing the pre-med forum.

 

[altblue]

Probably teaching or research

 

[Lucca]

Same, if it applied to me. Teaching or research.

 

[deleted390966]

The people who won't be pursuing a med career anymore won't be browsing the pre-med forum.

If they happen to switch to other healthcare fields then they'll still be browsing SDN.

 

[Osteoth]

Pharmaceutical or biotech industry.

 

[karayaa]

To those of you who did not get into medical school after multiple cycles: what are you doing now? Do you still plan to reapply or have you chosen another career?

My alternative would involve a combination of mental health, teaching, research and social justice stuff

 

[HappiSquirrel]

Be a cop. Get wounded on the job. Meet a EM doctor. Get married.

 

[Doug Underhill]

As a person who is going to defend for his Ph.D in 2015 (although I'm still applying to medical school for the 2015-2016 cycle), I can say that biology Ph.D adcoms are not looking for pre-meds who couldn't make the cut. You don't want to give the impression that you really wanted a MD, but are settling for a Ph.D instead. In some ways, Ph.D is more challenging: you'll be tasked with doing things nobody has ever done before and you'll have to optimize them yourself. You need to be willing to do research for 60 hours/wk for 13 years (6 for grad school + 7 for post-doc). Demonstrating your interest in research is required for most competitive Ph.D programs.

Don't list your MCAT score on your Ph.D application, or physicians you've shadowed, or your clinical volunteering. Do list your research posters, publications, and presentations: they want all of those. GPA and GRE are also relevant.

If you have a passion for medicine but can't get into MD or DO, you should consider PA or nurse practitioner. These are great fields with a lot of growth and solid salaries. For me, if I don't get in, I'm going to try to be a MSL: med/sci liaison.