Healthcare/non-traditional 2015-2016 applicants!

[gmbz]

I thought this would be a great time to come out from lurking. I have been thinking that it would be a great idea if we could have a thread following the Healthcare and non-trad related applicant's through this upcomming cycle! We could share a bit of our past experiences, places that we are applying and feedback that we are getting during our application cycle (secondary, interviews, ect.).

So I guess I will start!

I have been a Registered Nurse (BSN) for the past four years, working in ICU and Cardiology. I took my pre-requisites for medical school (bios,phys,chem's) after starting to work as an ICU nurse. I recently took the 2015 MCAT and have applied for the 2015-2016 cycle. It has long been my opinion that my unique backround in nursing has given me a set of tools and expereiences that enhance my application. I take pride in being a non-trad applicant and look forward to telling my story to some admission committies!

Anyone else have any cool stories for this upcoming cycle?

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[ChrisMack390]

I'm not really sure if I count as non-traditional or not. Somewhere on the fence I suppose.

I graduated in 2013 with a degree in biology, but I never had any intention of pursuing medicine or healthcare at all. During college I did a good bit of research in academic labs, biotech labs, and with a clinical research company. Lab research was really never my cup of tea, but I greatly enjoyed the time I spent in clinical research. I took this to mean that I would be happy with a career in clinical research and landed a job as a clinical research coordinator at a major cancer center ~1 month after graduation.

As I thought, I greatly enjoyed me job. Then something happened - I got promoted! But wait, my new job has no patient contact at all. As it turns out, the reason I liked my job so much was that, besides getting to work on interesting research trials and finding something I was really good at, I got to be part of the care team for tons of cancer patients. I did not realize how much I would miss that, and that is what pushed me toward pursuing medicine, rather than research, as a career.

Unfortunately going from research to medicine is not exactly "non-traditional" as nearly all pre-meds do research. Hopefully I will be able to distinguish myself with my PS and secondaries...

 

[asyouwish]

Hey, just as a heads up there's a whole nontrad forum: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forums/nontraditional-students.110/ and a thread for those applying during this 2015 cycle. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...icants-progress-thread.1133728/#post-16471394

Best of luck to you! I'm a non-trad starting med school this summer c/o 2019.