Need some Advice . . .

[BreakASweat]

Hey Guys,

I was going to post in the 'What are my chances' MD thread, but really my fears and worries lie in my age, and I'm very much a non-trad. A little bit of quick background, I obtained 2 undergraduate degrees, I completed a Bachelors of Science, Biology, 18 years ago followed by a Nursing degree, 13 years ago. Both were 4 year agrees, but I've been working as a Nurse in many different disciplines in California for the past 8 years, including in ICU, Maternity and teaching for 2 semesters at a community college. My adventures as nurse even took me overseas to work East Asia. I do love my job as a nurse, but over the years I've always wanted to pursue an MD degree but timing was never right, life just happened. I met my husband, got married and we have 3 kids under 6 and after my youngest was born I decided it was time to try.

I'm currently 39 and I went back to university as a student starting in September of 2013. I've already taken most of these classes before, but it's been over 10 years so they needed to be redone anyway. But I took Chem 1 + 2, Physics 1 + 2, Biology 1, Cell Biology, Genetics, Anatomy 1 + 2, Orgo 1 + 2, BioChem, Psychology, Sociology, Calc 1 and Statistics. I'm currently wrapping up a first year English class since a lot of schools are asking for this. Through God's grace I was able to get A's in all of the classes but it was definitely challenging raising a family, being in school and working. But I've loved being back in school!!

I had an MCAT strategy from the start as well which was essentially to study for the MCAT and do as many questions as possible while taking classes and it resulted in doing well in the classes and getting a 39 on the MCAT. But again, until the test was done, I didn't sleep properly in over a year!

I didn't apply last year because almost all of the schools I was looking at had rolling admissions and I was nervous that I was applying too late and I wanted to have as many post-bacc classes done as possible. I'm going to be 40 this year, I have 2 degrees, over 10+ years of experience in healthcare, rocked all of the classes I took, an excellent MCAT score and going to be applying to a bunch of schools. Based on this little information . . but really given that I'm going to be 40 . . does anybody have any advice. One thing I have in my favor, is that I don't look 40, but I really worry about age discrimination. I've always been a workaholic and I told my husband that he can retire when he wants but I'm working till I'm 77! Every MD school I looked at didn't seem to have any students in the 40s these past few years and it bummed me out more . . but I've gotten this far and going to try, I was just wondering if there were certain schools that encourages non-trads . . and if anybody had any other advice.

Thank you for reading, I didn't intend for this post to get this long! Good luck to all those with the same passion!

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[hopefuldoc97239]

mcat = 39? apply, apply, apply!

SDN is full of people who are trying to half-heartedly get into medical school and complaining when their feeble efforts aren't rewarded. you're almost the opposite. you did everything right and now you're getting cold feet. don't get cold feet now!

yes, some places might discriminate, but not everywhere, and it will be hard for them to overlook a 39, plus you said straight A's when you retook your coursework? go for it.

if you're really worried about the age thing i'd say: apply broadly at first, then narrow down when the interviews start coming in. if you're really worried you could also apply DO, which are much more likely to overlook age, but I don't think that's necessary.

you're in california now? i don't know how you'd feel about a move to Oregon, but my school (OHSU) definitely has people older than you, probably at least 2-3 students in their early 40's in each class. (and they might not even have your gpa/mcat). you should definitely think about applying to OHSU, although with the out of state tuition I'd suggest you think of OHSU as a back-up in case you don't get into a california school.

 

[BreakASweat]

Thank you for the quick response hopefuldoc! Your words are very encouraging! I wanted to clarify that I wasn't going to 'not' apply due to cold feet, , but last year by the time I realized that most schools do 'rolling admissions' that it was the start of the fall and I thought if I applied then my chances would have been severely diminished. In fact some of the schools I reached out to although they couldn't divulge how full they were, they said it was 'up there'. Which led to me to decide to wait and apply on June 1st of this year to apply to a bunch of schools all over the country. I hope that I will find a spot at a California school, it'd be a huge deal to uproot the family and move but we've already come this far! So I will definitely be applying to OHSU, I did see that there's a big tuition difference for out of state folks but I also noticed that they didn't divulge age range, although they did they say the mean age for the past 7 years has been 26 which is great to know, so thank you for letting me know that there are a few folks in their 40s in the program, that is very encouraging and I'll definitely be applying to OHSU! I was trying to figure out what other schools would also make sense, but ill probably just apply everywhere that I can. I was hoping that my MCAT score would get some attention, so that I could sell myself before questions about age came up.

 

[EsotericAlchemy]

@dsoz

 

[Just Call Me Doc]

I think you made a wise choice on waiting to apply early this year. I'm in a similar age bracket as you and made the mistake of applying a little late (ended up being delayed a month or so) and not broadly enough my first application cycle. I came up with two interview invites but no acceptances. This year I submitted my application on the first day and more than doubled my school choices. This resulted in 10 interviews and nine acceptances and so I will be starting med school this fall.

Schools that I found to be non-trad friendly include:
Dartmouth
Miami
Georgetown
Case Western
Pittsburgh
Vermont
Boston

With your great MCAT, great recent grades, and very strong medical-related EC's/prior career, in my opinion you will be a strong candidate for many schools. Age may be an issue for some schools, but maturity and experience does help us to stand apart from our younger colleagues. My numbers are a little weaker than yours and I still got in to a great school! And there are several success stories here from others as old or even older than you. So apply early and broadly and I think you will do well! Good luck!

 

[Goro]

Pay very careful attention:

Some of my all time best students were in their 30 and 40s. I graduated one last year at 50.
I want you to send an app to my school 6/1/15!

I assume that you aced your post-bac classwork. If so, and with that 39 MCAT score, you are HIGHLY competitive! Apply! And aim high.

Hey Guys,

I was going to post in the 'What are my chances' MD thread, but really my fears and worries lie in my age, and I'm very much a non-trad. A little bit of quick background, I obtained 2 undergraduate degrees, I completed a Bachelors of Science, Biology, 18 years ago followed by a Nursing degree, 13 years ago. Both were 4 year agrees, but I've been working as a Nurse in many different disciplines in California for the past 8 years, including in ICU, Maternity and teaching for 2 semesters at a community college. My adventures as nurse even took me overseas to work East Asia. I do love my job as a nurse, but over the years I've always wanted to pursue an MD degree but timing was never right, life just happened. I met my husband, got married and we have 3 kids under 6 and after my youngest was born I decided it was time to try.

I'm currently 39 and I went back to university as a student starting in September of 2013. I've already taken most of these classes before, but it's been over 10 years so they needed to be redone anyway. But I took Chem 1 + 2, Physics 1 + 2, Biology 1, Cell Biology, Genetics, Anatomy 1 + 2, Orgo 1 + 2, BioChem, Psychology, Sociology, Calc 1 and Statistics. I'm currently wrapping up a first year English class since a lot of schools are asking for this. Through God's grace I was able to get A's in all of the classes but it was definitely challenging raising a family, being in school and working. But I've loved being back in school!!

I had an MCAT strategy from the start as well which was essentially to study for the MCAT and do as many questions as possible while taking classes and it resulted in doing well in the classes and getting a 39 on the MCAT. But again, until the test was done, I didn't sleep properly in over a year!

I didn't apply last year because almost all of the schools I was looking at had rolling admissions and I was nervous that I was applying too late and I wanted to have as many post-bacc classes done as possible. I'm going to be 40 this year, I have 2 degrees, over 10+ years of experience in healthcare, rocked all of the classes I took, an excellent MCAT score and going to be applying to a bunch of schools. Based on this little information . . but really given that I'm going to be 40 . . does anybody have any advice. One thing I have in my favor, is that I don't look 40, but I really worry about age discrimination. I've always been a workaholic and I told my husband that he can retire when he wants but I'm working till I'm 77! Every MD school I looked at didn't seem to have any students in the 40s these past few years and it bummed me out more . . but I've gotten this far and going to try, I was just wondering if there were certain schools that encourages non-trads . . and if anybody had any other advice.

Thank you for reading, I didn't intend for this post to get this long! Good luck to all those with the same passion!

 

[eablackwell]

I agree, apply! Seeing as you have small children, some areas might be easier on your family than others, but if your husband is 100% behind a move wherever to follow your dreams, I wouldn't hesitate to apply to your reach/dream schools as well. Up to you, but you sound like a great applicant, and I've been told by several attendings/faculty members at my school (in S. FL) that they enjoy the maturity of older students.

May I ask what field you want to pursue? Being in healthcare so long, you may have an idea of what you like already. If that's the case, it may serve you well in the application process.

 

[BreakASweat]

Thanks guys for the thoughtful and kind replies! Yep, I'm getting all my stuff together. My husband is 100% behind me on a move, but it won't be easy. But we'd have to sell the house (and take a loss), and we love our school district and husband's got a great job . . that'll all go out the window! But he's okay with it . . so if I did get in somewhere, we do want to look at cities where the transition would at a minimum be easier on the kids too (e.g. good schools).

Eablackwell - If I was able to pick my residency, my dream would be emergency medicine. I've always found it be stimulating and mentally challenging when I worked in ER but again, I wonder if I'm better off looking at family medicine just to save a year of school and a year of residency but my passion doesn't really lie there. ER medicine would be my choice, I'd be 44 when I'd be looking at residency programs, and 47 when I'm done. I don't know if residencies also discriminate. But that's what I'd 'like' to do!

 

[Just Call Me Doc]

How is the rental market in your area? If the rental prices are comparable to your mortgage, and you can find a good property manager, renting out your house could be an option. I had to do the same thing for my place. Just a thought!

 

[Darth Doc]

My husband is 100% behind me on a move, but it won't be easy. But we'd have to sell the house (and take a loss), and we love our school district and husband's got a great job . . that'll all go out the window! But he's okay with it . . so if I did get in somewhere, we do want to look at cities where the transition would at a minimum be easier on the kids too (e.g. good schools)

I'm about your age and am in my first year. I got into a medical school where the best school district in the state is surrounding my school, and the cost of living isn't horrible. We had to basically give up our old house and take a huge knock to the credit score to move here, but it's completely worth it. I did research the school districts around the medical schools I considered applying to and now live in a great school district less than 2 miles from my school.

You definitely can do this. Do your research and apply!

 

[DesertPT]

Post-bacc GPA of ~4.0 (almost all relatively difficult science classes) and MCAT of 39 while having 3 kids under the age of 6, plus a decade of experience working in healthcare? Wow, I'm seriously impressed. Any admissions committee member would be a damn fool not to select you.

Ageism aside, you would have to choke in a seriously big fashion to not get into a desirable school at this point. Based on your track record, I doubt that is gonna happen! Please come back to this thread in a year and tell us all the places you have been accepted to medical school. I will be genuinely curious. Congratulations on your progress so far!