Introduction to the SDN Pre-medical community

[Asclepius2000]

(Note: I posted this in the Nontraditional forum but decided to cross-post here because it is naturally much more active.)

Good evening, fellow pre-meds!

Selfishly, I thought it might be a good exercise - perhaps even cathartic - to write out my (very preliminary, exploratory, non-committal) plans. For some context, a little about me:

• 35+ year old male, married, young children under four.
• Sole breadwinner - work in sales (own a small business with 2 employees who are in support roles), wife is SAHM (for now). In the interest of preserving anonymity I will leave it at that.
• College dropout - a handful of WUs that devolved into Fs. Despite this, I have a 2.9 GPA in a liberal arts major at a public school in my city.
• On again-off again student - steep upward slope, earning all As since 2017.
• Income since 2015 has ranged from $180k to $300k+. This year I will earn over $500k, enabling me to buy a house for my family in a suburb outside our city, where our families live and where we currently rent an apartment.

I am beginning what I hope will be the last stretch of my undergraduate education. In an effort to reinvent myself, I have earned admission to a reasonably-priced private school (I will have no loans) with a high quality SMP with linkage. I am enrolled in a Biology B.S. program with a target graduation date of December 2023 (~21 months from now). Over the next 21 months, my plans are to:

• earn as close to a 4.0 GPA as possible in all of my classes;
• study for the MCAT, in a well-planned and systematic manner, and then take it (beginning Summer 2023);
• spend one day/week (8-10 hours/day) shadowing two to three physicians (separately and consecutively) in a capacity that maximizes my exposure to patients - ultimately garnering 500+ hours by the time I earned my B.S. in Biology;
• spend one day/week working in the Biology Department Chair's lab assisting him and other post-doc researchers with research in their field (specific area within molecular biology)...

On the personal side, we will buy a house in the next three to four months. God willing, we will have another child in the next year or two. As you might imagine, I am used to working fairly long hours (by some standards) in my business - usually 9am to 9pm. I am also deliberately involved with my young children - spending early mornings and all day on the weekends with them, and expect to continue this. We are blessed that we have family nearby who can, and do, help often, and that we are healthy. I am blessed that my wife and our families are so supportive for I do not think what I aspire to would be attainable in the absence of all these things.

Importantly, my soul is drawn to medicine - and I have fantasized, endlessly, about pursuing it for well over a decade. I want to spend my life helping as many people as possible in the most potent way, and learning and doing interesting things in the furtherance of medical science. I have learned that, while I am good at my job, I derive zero satisfaction beyond the commerical pursuit and the economic upside it affords.

I think that's enough for now though I'd be happy to elaborate on any of the above. (Yes - I realize this may seem insane and unrealistic.) I look forward to getting to know other nontraditional aspirants and becoming a part of this wonderful community.

All the best,

Asclepius

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[candbgirl]

Welcome. Spend some time reading the WAMC threads and see what others are doing. A couple of things. You do not need 500 hours of shadowing. You need around 50. You do need direct clinical contact with the sick, injured and dying. This can be paid or volunteer. Around 250+ hours will be good. You also need 250+ hours doing nonclinical volunteering focusing on the unserved/underserved in your community. As to research, it is nice to have but not absolutely necessary. So see what you can find to cover all of these areas.
Good luck. Feel free to ask questions.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like a good plan. I highlighted something

• spend one day/week working in the Biology Department Chair's lab assisting him and other post-doc researchers with research in their field (specific area within molecular biology)...

May be better to break this up just due to the nature of research. It’s probably not a great idea to do some work the have to wait 7 days before you get back to work.

 

[chzsux]

Would honestly recommend not doing the research since it is not really required to get accepted. Think a better use of that time would be to use it for clinical and nonclinical volunteering, which are pretty much hard requirements at this point

 

[LizzyM]

Be careful about buying a house at this point. Unless you are very, very lucky, you are not likely to attend medical school within reasonable commuting distance of the place you intend to buy. You could be stuck having to sell at a loss or rent the place and have someone manage it for you (repairs, tenant problems, etc).

Also, shadow 5-6 docs for a full work day with each one. (you don't need more than 50 hours of shadowing). Pick their brains and really find out what they love and what they've grown to loath about medicine and how medical practice has changed since they started. Get the scoop on what practice may be like in 10, 20, 30 years and why this may be a good idea or a really bad one. Don't get to far down this road without knowing what you might be getting into. It is not uncommon to have a fantasy of medical practice (and the 7+ years of training) that is not all realistic.

 

[gyngyn]

This thread can be followed here: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/introduction-to-the-nontraditional-sdn-community.1457504/