chances at postbac then MD?

[lifepwned]

AP chem/ physics B and C in highschool.
Dropped the ball in college with no science courses and a 3.2 (Duke)
Went to law school and transferred after a top 10% first year. Finished at a top 10 law and went to a New York firm for M&A work. Got first year layoff/life-pwned in February.

I take my **** seriously and work hard, but am afraid that

1) my college GPA will ruin my post-bac admission chances

2) my not having taken science/math for eight years will **** my chances

3) my college GPA will ruin my MD chances

Thoughts?

Also, I can get a lab gig pretty easily.

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[dragonfly99]

Your high schools grades don't matter.
3.2 undergrad GPA will hurt, but the fact that it is from Duke will probably help a little at some of the more picky private schools. Unfortunately, these are some of the ones that care the most about GPA and MCAT scores.

Make sure you aren't just running from law to medicine due to the crappy economy. The adcoms can smell that. It sounds like you were a very good law student, and probably a good attorney, so make sure you actually want to abandon that. Do you have any student loans to pay back?

I think if you want to get your feet wet, then getting a job in a lab, and taking 1 or 2 science classes/semester would be a good way to do that. See if you like biology and science enough to like med school. It wouldn't hurt to try volunteering at a hospital as well.

Also, remember if you do this you'll be starting all over in another career and will be at the bottom of the pecking order for several years (4 years of med school and at least 3 years of residency). You'll get paid $0 for 4 years, then just enough to cover expenses, and maybe not even the interest part of your student loan payments, during residency.

I don't think the 3.2 from Duke undergrad is the kiss of death, necessarily, but it will be a little hard to overcome. There are always options like foreign med schools, and DO schools tend to be more forgiving about less than perfect GPA's as well. Your state of residence also matters, in that some states have more than 1 state supported med school, or just have fewer applicants than others.

 

[lifepwned]

Thank you for the advice.

I wasn't listing my highschool grades, just the highschool science courses I took. I didn't take a single science course in college, as the highschool sicence let me pass out of college science requirements.

If I go to a post-bac and do well (say, 3.8+), will this off-set my undergrad performance? It just seems absurd that they would look at my undergrad grades (from a good school) when my law grades were much better/recent and I took no science courses.

As for transitioning careers, law was the path of least resistance for me. I am/was a good attorney, but at the end of a day lawyers fall into two camps, transactional and litigation. Litigation is boring, writing intensive, and involves the most tedious of pursuits, discovery. Transactional is more boring and completely dead right now.

I also have no loans paid back and have 150-200k ear-marked (specifically and exclusively) towards future education.

Also, what path should I take on this? Should I take community college courses and apply from there or should I do a post-bac?

 

[ruraldr]

I didn't take a single science course in college, as the highschool sicence let me pass out of college science requirements.

This will actually be to your advantage--if you are able to do well (above a 3.5 in your post-bacc, you'll be able to demonstrate not only a new level of academic prowess but also demonstrate your ability in science classes.) With that said--you only get once chance at this--if you are worried about your skills then I would recommend some good math review before gen chem and physics and to not take too many courses without making sure you can handle the workload.

If I go to a post-bac and do well (say, 3.8+), will this off-set my undergrad performance? It just seems absurd that they would look at my undergrad grades (from a good school) when my law grades were much better/recent and I took no science courses.

Sadly--a bit of this process (because of the large # of applicants to schools) is a very generic and what can feel like a very surface-level review--looking at undergraduate GPA is one very important element. If you take classes as a post-bacc (undergraduate classes) you will be able to affect the overall GPA. You'll also be affecting the science GPA (Since you haven't taken any) which is a very important # looked at). You also still have the MCAT ahead of you--which will be another # that can get you looked at. The Duke name will also open doors for you.

As for transitioning careers, law was the path of least resistance for me. I am/was a good attorney, but at the end of a day lawyers fall into two camps, transactional and litigation. Litigation is boring, writing intensive, and involves the most tedious of pursuits, discovery. Transactional is more boring and completely dead right now.

You'll want to make sure that you have a good story for your personal statement/ interviews about how you chose law and now how you are choosing medicine--and then have volunteer/research experiences that back up this story.

I also have no loans paid back and have 150-200k ear-marked (specifically and exclusively) towards future education.

Also, what path should I take on this? Should I take community college courses and apply from there or should I do a post-bac?

As a result of your having plenty of cash to spend on this, I would recommend a post-bac program (either informal, through a local four year university, or formal programs if you prefer--Gaucher and Bryn Mawr are two of the better known with large #'s of linkages). Community college classes can shut doors at some schools--you might as well leave as many doors open as you can in this process.

Feel free to PM me for more thoughts--good luck with the process.