Is anyone here applying from an allied health field?

[lightredfloyd]

Hello!

I'm a 24-year-old Master of Science in occupational therapy (OT) student in my second and penultimate year of study. After obtaining my BA in psych, I chose this field because frankly I was intimidated by medicine. While I like OT and believe it is important work, I found myself completely enamored by my courses that focused on medical sciences, which are leading me to consider switching to medicine.

I feel that my current stats aren't half bad (3.61 undergrad GPA, 3.95 graduate GPA w/ ECs in undergraduate and graduate student leadership roles and 2 research presentations in behavioral and mental health by the time I graduate), but I am lacking in several prerequisites (I only have English, Bio 1 and Chem 1, and the latter was taken at a community college so I'm not sure how much it counts) and of course the MCAT.

With all this being said, I'm mainly looking for the perspective from nontrads that have switched to MD/DO from allied health fields like OT/PT/SLP. Did you have to take prerequisites/study for MCAT/shadow a physician while working? If so, how did that work out for you?

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[mc3894]

I'm not exactly from any of the allied health fields you mentioned, but I did come from working full-time in biomedical research. I already had all of my prereqs done, so I didn't have to take additional classes while working, but I did do my shadowing/volunteering, etc. while working. I also studied and took the MCAT while working full-time. It was definitely doable, and I ended up scoring fairly well. It just takes discipline and sticking to a schedule.

I think with your stats and background, you are in really good shape. You'll definitely want to work through those prerequisite courses that you're missing - I think taking them at CC is okay, especially if it isn't all of your prereqs. You're probably looking at applying for the 2022-2023 cycle if I had to guess, and based on your information so far, I think you could be in really good shape by then! I would just focus on getting good grades in those prereqs you have left and scoring well on the MCAT! Good luck!