What Kind of Nontraditional Are You?

I guess I'm non-traditional in every way-

Previously attended college

Had a career...make that two

Have a family

Good grades - I didn't take many science classes for my degree so I had to take all the med school requirements post-bac.

I feel 20. Does that count me out?

The whole process as a non-traditional student has been very enlightening. Some schools love non-traditionals...some schools don't. I think overall I've had to work harder at proving my motivation than a younger applicant.

I'm 30.

I played football, but graduated with a 3.1 or so GPA in 4 years pretty much without ever studying much.

Reading a book was a foreign concept to me.

BK421 said:

I guess I'm non-traditional in every way-

Previously attended college

Had a career...make that two

Have a family

Good grades - I didn't take many science classes for my degree so I had to take all the med school requirements post-bac.

I feel 20. Does that count me out?

The whole process as a non-traditional student has been very enlightening. Some schools love non-traditionals...some schools don't. I think overall I've had to work harder at proving my motivation than a younger applicant.

Click to expand...

Keep your grades up, score well on the MCAT, and you're money for the numbers lovers.

MJB said:

I'm 30.

I played football, but graduated with a 3.1 or so GPA in 4 years pretty much without ever studying much.

Reading a book was a foreign concept to me.

Click to expand...

I don't know why but that makes me laugh.

I am a relatively traditional non-traditional. I have great grades (in science courses), but I had a lot of life-experiences that got in the way of school. I've lost family members, had my husband sent overseas, heart problems, even had a house burn down. In the end it resulted in three years of withdrawals (I think around 30 or so). It is a huge hurdle to explain them without sounding whiny. We'll see how much of a problem it ends up being.

Seriously, outside of History/Philosophy type classes or book report type stuff, i don't ever recall reading my text books...mostly just used my notes..

It wasn't until I read every word of every chapter during Organic that I learned what a great resource reading the materials can be!

I'm barely a non trad. I went to undergrad from 1999-2003 and graduated with a major in Biology/Minor in Chemistry. I was premed off and on through about half of college and decided to wait when I graduated. I got married my senior year and popped out a kid 12 months later. It wasn't for another 2 years (when I was pregnant with my second) that I decided to go ahead and take the MCAT and apply. (Oh, and I had two different full time jobs from the time I got married to the time when I started med school) So I'm 26 and an M1. I probably wouldn't consider myself nontraditional except for the fact that I have two kids which puts me in an entire different ballpark than the majority of my classmates.

I'm on the cusp of the Old Screw Up and Traditional Non-trad. I'm 30, first undergraduate QPA of 3.05, but went on to graduate school.

Old-Skool (i.e. Traditional) Non-Traditional all the way. My GPA wasn't great, but wasn't bad either (see my MDapps profile.) I've had a successful career, but have come to hate it. Not much else to say.

Young screwup. 21 in 9 days. Had some problems my first couple of semesters, should have withdrawn, but didn't. Never even went to class, destroyed my GPA. Back to my old self now, if I were to wipe out those first two semesters, my cum GPA would be like 3.90. However, unless I take like 300 credit hours at a 4.0, I'll never get over like a very low 3.xx. So although I'm young, I'd be lying if I told myself I'll ever had a good shot at a US allo school. Fairly untraditional, but not that much.

jota_jota said:

Old-Skool (i.e. Traditional) Non-Traditional all the way. My GPA wasn't great, but wasn't bad either (see my MDapps profile.) I've had a successful career, but have come to hate it. Not much else to say.

Click to expand...

I'm kinda sorta where you are. My gpa is 3.4-3.5 ish for UG and grad 3.9.

I think I'm between Old Screw Up and Traditional Non-trad so I picked other.

lilnoelle said:

I'm barely a non trad. I went to undergrad from 1999-2003 and graduated with a major in Biology/Minor in Chemistry. I was premed off and on through about half of college and decided to wait when I graduated. I got married my senior year and popped out a kid 12 months later. It wasn't for another 2 years (when I was pregnant with my second) that I decided to go ahead and take the MCAT and apply. (Oh, and I had two different full time jobs from the time I got married to the time when I started med school) So I'm 26 and an M1. I probably wouldn't consider myself nontraditional except for the fact that I have two kids which puts me in an entire different ballpark than the majority of my classmates.

Click to expand...

You and I did pretty much the same thing - I just graduated a year sooner and am starting a year later.

I don't think I'll be "old" in my class at 27 but I will be surprised if there are other moms in the class.

I regularly feel like a screw-up, but I guess I'm a traditional non-traditional because I always made good grades. I'm actually sort of heartened to see that we exist and are in good numbers because the prevailing idea on SDN is that all non-trads have bad grades lurking somewhere in their past.

Ahhhh life is so much fun, no?

I'm a traditional-nontrad, I think. Good grades, took time out to work/get married. It's funny how it takes sitting at a 9-5, make that 8-9, every day in an insurance company to realize you are TOTALLY in the wrong place. At least I'm not the OLDEST in my classes. *snickers at LTD* Don't worry, LTD, you act like us 27 year olds. You are only as old as you feel right? Boy, I feel young.

RAD11 said:

I think I'm between Old Screw Up and Traditional Non-trad so I picked other.

Click to expand...

I'm with you. 3.27 UG, 3.7? .8? Grad (seriously- my grad transcript has no actual GPA listed).

However, pre-postbacc, my UG science GPA was somewhere around 2.4.

Should wind up with 3.4/3.4 or thereabouts by the time this is all said and done.

32, love my career, want more than what it offers.


ps- LTD- loving your sig quote!

i put other because I did well in undergrad but then flunked out of grad school (oops...) Agree my 2 kids make me feel more non-trad than my age (28) The thought of being with 22 year olds is motivating me in my quest to lose the baby weight before August. I can still call it baby weight even though it's been 14 months since the last kid, right?

I've put old screw-up, but old screw-around might be closer to the truth. My GPAs are decent (3.54/3.53), but I do have more than a couple Ws on my transcript, and more importantly I've been vagabonding around the world and simultaneously accumulating degrees for 15 years now instead of pursuing a career. It's been wonderful, but now I have to convince schools that I'm ready to settle down and get serious about a long-term, life-defining job.

young... and experienced.... screw-up

Definitely a non-trad. Dropped out of high school, joined the military, went back to school (still going obviously). I had no "bad" GPA to hold me down, however it had been 7 years since I was in a school setting, so I was a little rusty at first.

sometimes I feel like the non-traditional non-traditional. I'm 23 so the premed undergrads think I'm old as in (omg the median age of that med school is 25? thats so old) but most of the nontrads think I'm a small child. I was going through college fine when I decided I wanted to be a doctor...2nd semester of my 5th year. So I moved to a new town that had a college w/postbac and have been doing that and working full time.

roubs said:

sometimes I feel like the non-traditional non-traditional. I'm 23 so the premed undergrads think I'm old as in (omg the median age of that med school is 25? thats so old) but most of the nontrads think I'm a small child. I was going through college fine when I decided I wanted to be a doctor...2nd semester of my 5th year. So I moved to a new town that had a college w/postbac and have been doing that and working full time.

Click to expand...

Good grades in college but not really thinking premed...until senior year/graduation. Did a postbacc to get all the science prereqs, and am now applying at 24....which for traditional premeds makes me positively ancient, but simultaneously a baby to trad nontrads. I did have a bit of a pseudo-career during/after college (travel writer/editor) which would make me slightly more of a trad nontrad....but not by much. I was going to propose the "Pseudo-Nontraditional" category myself, but I like nontrad nontrad.

I guess i'm pretty traditional. 28 years old and finishing a few pre-reqs.

Mom thought I should be a nurse and so I am...
I thought nursing wasn't very exciting so I got an NP...
I still want more....

My grades are good GPA 3.9 but I haven't taken o-chem yet so we'll see!
I also have yet to take the MCAT so...

I'm borderline non-traditional young screw up but I never left college. I started college my senior year of high school at a community college because I only had to go to class 3 days a week (bad idea) decided to be a nurse because of job security. Didn't really want to be a nurse so did poorly (really poorly) first year then worked to pull my gpa back up to graduate with an associates degree (whoohoo) and decided to start from scratch the following fall as a premed at a 4 year. Now I'm 22 and married and the second oldest person in all my classes and get along better with my professors than I do with anyone near my age. Only one other nontrad in any of my classes.

I marked the traditional non-traditional merely due to the GPA but I feel like a screw up too. I got pregnant during my sophomore yr and got really depressed bc I felt like I messed up my life up and ended up getting about a 3.0 that year. Besides 1 D in a graduate class that I took as an undergraduate, I've had about a 3.8 every other year including post-bac and grad school. My sophomore year brought my GPA down to a 3.6 so I guess, to me, I feel like a screw up.

Old screw up

But lots of very bad problems outside of school.

I guess I'm midway between the young screw up and traditional nontraditional. I didn't screw up completely, I got so-so grades (3.4 in computer science) but I ate off more than I could chew and took too heavy of a load which made it difficult for me to do well in my premed courses. I ended up getting burnt out from my premed and engineering courseload and decided to work instead (easy way out). At first I was happy since I no longer had to worry about my grades anymore and I could slack off on my grades but when I started working, I felt unfulfilled and realized I regretted not doing med school. I had to pull up my sciGPA by taking a few science courses (and b/c I hadn't cracked open a bio book in four years) and take the MCAT. I guess I got lucky with my acceptance. I really think I was a mediocre candidate but somehow, I slept through the cracks and they left me in!

NonTradMed said:

I guess I'm midway between the young screw up and traditional nontraditional. I didn't screw up completely, I got so-so grades (3.4 in computer science) but I ate off more than I could chew and took too heavy of a load which made it difficult for me to do well in my premed courses. I ended up getting burnt out from my premed and engineering courseload and decided to work instead (easy way out). At first I was happy since I no longer had to worry about my grades anymore and I could slack off on my grades but when I started working, I felt unfulfilled and realized I regretted not doing med school. I had to pull up my sciGPA by taking a few science courses (and b/c I hadn't cracked open a bio book in four years) and take the MCAT. I guess I got lucky with my acceptance. I really think I was a mediocre candidate but somehow, I slept through the cracks and they let me in!

Click to expand...

I hope that he was at least cute.

Chulito said:

I hope that he was at least cute.

Click to expand...

Ok, freudian slip!

I'm almost a traditional non-traditional, but I did get one really bad math grade when I was a high schooler taking a community college calculus class. Who knew that that grade would come back to haunt me fifteen years later! Also, I've been in some form of college since 1993, so I'm not sure if that counts as having had a "life," heh.

I have no idea where I'd fall there. My ugrad wasn't stellar but it wasn't horrible either. Went through a bunch of different majors before I finally graduated. I went abroad to work in a field I planned to have a career in and had an experience that gave me the confidence to realize that fear of failure is a stupid excuse for not doing what you want and that I am more capable than I give myself credit for at times.

I guess that would be "other" - or maybe young "screw-up" in a way.

Im your typical Traditional Non Traditional!.I'm 27 starting to take my pre-reqs..will be 30 when I get into school...I got a BA in Theatre/Public Relations...took 1 Bio class with a C grade...took 1 Phsycology class got a B+...and that's it. Graduated in 2000...wanted to be an actor...singer...dancer...became a personal trainer...I do fitness competitions...was a Server/Bartender for a while ...and then became a Real Estate Agent...which is my current job...I got into Real Estate because my boyfriend suggested it and wasn't doing anything else...

I have always been fascinated by the body but never crossed my mind about becoming a doctor till this past year when i had a 1/4 life crisis and took toll of my life and what i want to accomplish...I don't have kids, not married (serious relationship 3+years)...and in a job that I'm not passionate about whatsoever...I love the relationships i build but absolutely no intellectual stimulation. I looked at my life and thought about kids...thought to myself ...i really don't want to be one of those mothers who pushes her child to do something that "she" was never able to do...I want to be proud of what I have accomplished and passionate about my work! And if that means holding off on kids till the time is right then i'm ok with that. Let's just hope my BF is too...not sure about his support yet( a little bumed about that) Well the true test will come soon!

So if that's not non--traditional i don't know what is?

Young Screw Up, but only with the first two years at one school(2.3) before transferring to another for the remaining 4 years of undergrad. Some of those classes in the first two years were some of my sciences, so the BCPM did suffer a little.

Non-Traditional-Traditional in the sense I had recent success with those last 4 years(got the degree) with a 3.4 there and was focused on doing well in class as well as with extracurriculars. Currently acing a couple of science retakes and new pre-reqs, and eventually will begin working on a Masters in Biology with a concentration in Cell Biology and Physiology.

"traditional" non-traditional.

Graduated in 2005 with a engineering degree and pre-med pre-reqs. Good grade, research and all those things. Went on with life as a IC designer in north cali. Have a good career, designed two cutting-edge chips (55nm baby!) in a year and half while attending a top graduate school part time for my master in EE. From work and volunteer, realize that I love a job that involves science and human interaction. Took the MCAT in January and ready to apply.

A question for all u non-trad from engineering world, is there a correlation between male baldness and engineering? I certainly see a disapportionaly high number of bald people at work.

Traditional non-trad:

I always liked books, that's why I was history major -I figured history would let me study everything.

Then I realized I didn't want to live my life in a library, archive, museum, or cubicle.....got married, got pregnant, got a mortgage...

What was really the last straw for me was having a Normal kid. As a teacher, I had this fear of being the busy professional with the ADHD/OCD/autistic/whatever kid -the kid who really needed 1-on-1 most of the time, and feeling guilty about going to work. Turns out, as mom, I spend more time sitting on my hands to make myself wait to let him do it himself than actually being needed.

Zolar Czakl said:

Young screwup. 21 in 9 days. Had some problems my first couple of semesters, should have withdrawn, but didn't. Never even went to class, destroyed my GPA. Back to my old self now, if I were to wipe out those first two semesters, my cum GPA would be like 3.90. However, unless I take like 300 credit hours at a 4.0, I'll never get over like a very low 3.xx. So although I'm young, I'd be lying if I told myself I'll ever had a good shot at a US allo school. Fairly untraditional, but not that much.

Click to expand...

I did exactly the same thing... except I'm 24.

I voted Young "Screw-Up", but I'm kind of on the border, because while I was 28 when I started a post-bacc, I'm 30 now during my application year. No wife or kids, and I don't really feel like my previous job was a "career", but most people probably would.

I think it would also be interesting to draw a distinction between people who were "screw-ups" in the sense of having done most or all of the pre-reqs in college, but not having done well enough to get into or apply to med school, vs. those of us who are new to the pre-med experience. When I first started doing this, I had the impression that most non-trads were like me, doing it all for the first time, but more and more this forum and the Post-Baccalaureate Programs forum seem dominated by the returning pre-med types, and I don't really feel like the two sets of experiences have much in common.

.

LifetimeDoc said:

What kind of non-traditional are you?

Young "Screw-Up": already attended undergraduate before, maybe graduated, wasn't focused and got a poor GPA. Still in undergraduate school or maybe worked for a couple of years, maybe just started a family. Generally folks under 30.

Old "Screw-Up": already attended undergraduate before, maybe graduated, wasn't focused and got bad grades and a poor GPA. Had a career and/or life and/or family. Generally folks around 30 or older.

"Traditional" Non-Traditional: previously attended college or did not attend at all, had a career and/or life and/or family. Previous grades were good, or didn't include bad science grades or any science at all. Generally people in their late 20's or older.

Other: anything else you can think of, post below.

Click to expand...

how about nontraditional "nontraditional." ?

Young Screw Up would be an understatement! i.e. see quote from adcom below.

Long Story (doesn't everyone have one?)

"If everything is lumped into a single gpa it is going to be tough to make the effort to even open your file.

I also don't see the point of repeating science courses if you had a science gpa of 3.6. I think you're going to need to discuss your reasons for starting out in sciences, switching to business & back to medicine, if anyone even gets as far as your PS.

You've got yourself in a pickle and I'm at a loss as to how this may play out."

Soooooooooo....

I will persist and prevail. Whatever it takes! As long as it takes!

Just hopefully I won't have to change to an "Old Screw Up"!

MiesVanDerMom said:

i put other because I did well in undergrad but then flunked out of grad school (oops...) Agree my 2 kids make me feel more non-trad than my age (28) The thought of being with 22 year olds is motivating me in my quest to lose the baby weight before August. I can still call it baby weight even though it's been 14 months since the last kid, right?

Click to expand...

Mies,

I had my baby in the same exact outfit for x-mas. Too cute

I'm didn't screw up in college, or in grad school....it just took me a while to get to where I am today..so I can post on this forum

I work with patients that have a terminal diagnosis -- and it gives you a whole new perspective on life when you're treating someone that is your age. We all make mistakes in life. As long as you learn and move on, that's all that matters. I think medical schools realize that.

Did really poorly with my first degree- liberal arts, worked in finance and now Human Resources, and then got a second degree. Am 28, and will be starting med school in August!

I'm going into pharmacy, but I feel at place here in the non-traditional forum because your stories really inspire me.

I would have to consider myself a young screw-up. My story is all over the place. My freshman year I was at a CC, and I did wonderful. Second year, I was barely okay. Junior year I crashed due to not handling my depression earlier in life (I was dropping classes like flies.) I ignored it still, and went to a four-year in new jersey (Rutgers). I lasted three months, and had to completely withdraw, I was so utterly depressed. That fall, I attended UCLA. First quarter I had to drop all but one class. Winter quarter, I lasted one month, and withdrew temporarily. I currently am still a student, but I am not in school. I've been working really hard on my mental health issues. And after a long struggle, I am finally at peace

I start up again at the same CC I left this summer, as I'm feeling better and want to get back in school. But it has certainly been a long road. I have to stay at the CC until I finish my basic science classes (I've already got a year of biology, a semester of gchem, and will be taking calc this summer), and then get back to UCLA to major in biology. I'm going to be 21 in june. I have about 3 more years until I graduate, but that's okay. Luckily I have a type-A pre-med perfectionist personality by nature to get me through this

Im not really sure where i fall in there.

Im 25. Rocky teenage years, h.s. dropout. Went to art school at 19, graduated with decent GPA. Worked in graphic design for a few years, found that I was incredibly unfulfilled and started to take classes at a junior college to get into a real university. Nothing from art school transferred so i essentially started over. At a small new england university now, Pre-med with 3.6 cumulative, got my EMT, labwork, EC's and so on. Ive worked my a$$ off to get this far, and i feel i have a potential 'rags-to-riches' story. However, after reading some of the pre-allo posts, I would be thrilled if I got into ANY US allo school. Everything I have acquired or acomplished had been on my own; my school has no pre-med advisor, not much research, and no basket of premed opportunities like 'Big U'. Nonetheless, i cant go back in time and make different decisions. Ive got to claw my way to the top.