am an active duty military officer stationed in a very rural part of the US for the next 2+ years who wants to attend USUHS or a civilian MD/DO school and become a physician. The nearest 4 year brick-and-mortar university is 1.5 hours away and the local CC only offers prereqs that I have already taken. Ideally I would hope to transition directly from active duty to medical school. I will be taking about 20 credits of prereqs/upper level science classes in a DIY postbacc and plan to take the MCAT after completing all my remaining prereqs (in 2ish years depending on operational military commitments/deployments).
I graduated college from an undergrad (Ivy League humanities major) a few years ago with a 3.61 cGPA/3.2 sGPA.
In college I completed:
2 semesters of calculus
2 semesters of physics + lab
2 semesters of orgo + lab (received AP chem credit for gen chem)
Most of these science/math classes were taken during my freshman year all at once--hence the lower sGPA. However, most of these grades were some flavor of B--no C's, D's, or F's and only 1 B-. I think the issue was simply overloading/poor scheduling in the very beginning of college. Overall GPA trended significantly upward as well, and I've completed the psych & writing-intensive course prereqs too.
EC-wise, in college I did ROTC all 4 years, was a lab technician in a bio lab, and did extensive research in my field within the humanities (1.5 years of archival research requiring significant language translation, also was awarded grant to travel to various archives for research). I also worked all throughout college at various jobs (night manager for a diner, worked in a library) about 15 hours per week which somewhat limited extracurricular activities.
Here are my questions:
1. I am commuting to the 4 year university (1.5 hours away) for the remaining prereqs (2 semesters of bio + lab, biochem, maybe stats). However, a lot of their upper level non-prereq science courses that I was planning to take both to bring up sGPA and prove that I can handle upper level sciences are only offered at times of day which are simply not possible for me to attend given my military duties. Would it be acceptable to take the prereqs in person & do a few extra courses (or even 1 of the prereqs) online at another accredited institution (probably one of the UC Extensions) given my situation? Or should I just wait 2-3 years and hope to secure my next job in the military at a duty station that is closer to brick and mortar schools with a schedule that allows for outside coursework?
2. I will also be shadowing and getting some clinical volunteering experience. Is it necessary to get some additional science-related research experience? In general--what are the expectations for # of hours spent on research/volunteering/other "traditional" ECs for someone with an active duty military position involving deployments?
3. Is 20 credits an okay amount for a DIY postbacc or should I try for more? Will it be okay that I am only taking 1-2 classes at a time given my job?
