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Keep doing what you're doing. Definitely pursue academically the things you want to pursue, just make sure to raise that GPA as much as you possibly can so you can open as many doors for the future. GPA is very very difficult to "fix" later on, but it is an important metric for admissions.

I would recommend taking (and getting A's in) the pre-med classes right before you plan to take the MCAT (which should be in the year before you plan to apply) so the info is fresh in your mind for the MCAT (so you can rock it) and you can show the admin committees that you can handle the science.

There is no hurry to apply to medical school. I am almost 40 and I'm applying this cycle. I am so glad I waited. I've already had two careers and seen a large part of the world. I'm now in a much more appropriate place psychologically, financially, and maturity-wise to absolutely rock medical school and have the life-experience perspective to enjoy the heck out of it, even when it's the total grind. I may even be able to do it without loans because I saved like woah.

Play the long game.
 
Thousands apply, including thousands of non-trads. For non-trads some of the requirements may be difficult (getting academic letters if you havent been in school for a while, etc.) but requirements are requirements.

That being said you'll find the statement "As a non-trad I am finding it difficult to..." will gain you little sympathy or favor with adcoms as the other thousands of nontrads applying your year- and all the subsequent years found the same difficulty and tried to garner the same sympathy.

If you get in you'll find one of the thems of medical school, rotations, residency is "figure it out." This is your time to start "figuring it out" if you need to.
 
I got you a step by step guide coming up:
1. Finish your degree while trying your absolute best to increase that GPA. Focus on trying to receive mostly A's from here on out.
2. Take all of your pre-med required classes, and try your absolute best to make A's, whatever it takes. You can do this while trying to finish your degree OR you can take them on your own in your own time. Whichever way that can net you the highest possible grades.
*2.* I would NOT retake classes for A's that you have already taken / retaken and passed (maybe retake a C thats about it). That would be a waste of time and money, guaranteed. The return simply isn't there.
3. Increase your shadowing physician experience to 20 hours, your volunteering to 100+ hours (high school stuff won't count), and scribing is good! Keep doing that. Keep in mind, the best extracurricular activities are the ones that are truly near and dear to your heart because they're the ones that you can speak and write passionately about. Do those over others.
4. When you are ready, take the MCAT. You can study for the MCAT self-sufficiently, and there are plenty of plans online that you can follow to be successful. Remember, it'll take about three months or 300 hours of studying to be sufficiently prepared.
5. Obtain letters from the doctors that you've shadowed / work with, letters from who you've volunteered with, academic letters (might be harder, but as a non-trad, there is some lenience here).
6. Apply
 
notasciencemajor said:
Hi SDN,

I'm here to ask for your advice on how to best proceed.

I'm a current junior Russian major at a top-tier liberal arts college in the Northeast. After several years of trying to convince myself to pursue a different career, I've decided that I really do want to commit to medicine. The thing is, I'm in my third year of college and have taken very few pre-med classes. The quick overview of my transcript is that I have done well in my major courses (~3.7 major GPA, 3.9 over the last year) and have, honestly, struggled to varying degrees in most of the rest of my courses. I think the biggest red flag in my transcript is the number of withdrawals/the major struggle I've had with a lot of STEM courses. I have 5 withdrawals, including from calculus, and I failed intro bio. I know. it's bad. I did retake both calculus and bio, receiving 3.7s in each, and my general trend is very much upward (my total GPA right now is ~3.3). I know that I'm capable of succeeding in STEM courses, and I enjoy them a lot now. The reason I struggled so hard before was because I had an undiagnosed genetic disorder that was causing me to dislocate joints almost every day and it caused me severe chronic pain/difficulties with mobility while I was also trying to work 30 hrs a week to pay for school. It was a bad time, and while it was a situation that I didn't have much control over I take full responsibility for the way I handled it and have learned a lot from it. It's managed pretty well now, and that's allowed me to return to a somewhat normal lifestyle and I'm getting stronger and stronger each day.

As for volunteering/extracurriculars etc I have spent a lot of time in hospitals (as a patient, volunteer - although that was a pretty long time ago in high school, and scribe) and have a lot of volunteer experience in general - the most meaningful to me being a food pantry for Russian immigrants to the US and an education/healthcare program for Central/Latin American immigrant families. I'm also an accomplished musician and have served in several music leadership roles in college. I am generally an extremely good test taker, but the MCAT is a whole other level of hard that I know I'm going to have to dedicate a lot of time and energy to.

My goal in medicine is to work in pediatrics, and while it would be cool to go to an MD school so there are a few more possibilities, I would be absolutely ecstatic to go to a DO school too. The only place I'm not down to go is the Caribbean, lol.

So basically, I'm here to ask: what do I do? I am absolutely not in a rush to start the application process - I have a whole lot more prereqs to take, I would like to pursue a Masters in Music, and would love to be a part of the Peace Corps in a Russian-speaking country before I apply - but I honestly don't know what the next steps I need to take are (especially academically). I would really appreciate any help you have to give!
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Couple things that came to mind:
1) 3.3 cGPA is not very good. Your GPA for your particular major does not matter much for med school unless it is a science major. You will need to take the med school pre reqs and see how you do in them before you can see if this is something that you have the aptitude for--plainly speaking.
2) Master's in music/Peace Corps sounds great! I'm just finding a hard time figuring out why you want to devote all this time to a master's in music when your ultimate goal is medicine.
3) Congrats on overcoming your illness.
Good luck!
 
Just my two cents--make sure you do the Peace Corps. I had a chance to go abroad for a year after college and I regret not having done it. Philosophy major here, now a resident in pathology.

Edited to add--collect any relevant letters of recommendation now so that you're fresh in the mind of your writers. The writer can keep them and then upload them when the time comes. My letters were one from my undergrad advisor (in philosophy), one from my PI/postbac prof, and a third from another postbac science professor.

Just in general, if you're at a fancy East Coast liberal arts school, don't get too depressed if your careers office tells you depressing stuff. For example, a med school classmate of mine from Dartmouth came to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine right after undergrad. Her premed office was telling her, like, you need to take at least a year off to do research, you shouldn't apply yet, your application is too weak, blah blah blah. They wanted her to take time off and then be competitive for top-tier schools. She is now doing residency at Cincinnati Children's, a top pediatrics program. An undergrad classmate of mine (at Yale) was a MARSHALL SCHOLAR and got a full ride at PENN. But before that full ride, our premed office was also telling him, oh, you're weak on research, you're less competitive, etc. With a low-ish GPA, they might basically tell you you're never getting into med school. Wrong! So take the useful parts of their advice and don't get too depressed if they have suggestions.
 
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You are fortunate in that time is very much on your side. You’re only a junior so pulling that gpa up will be much easier than it would be after finishing a degree.

Honestly getting that overall undergrad GPA up is the best and only thing you can do at the moment given all your other goals. It’s also the most important and currently the only thing that would keep you out. You’ve only completed four semesters of UG and have at least four more to go. You need to get As. Lots of them. The EDS/work story won’t help much because lots of students have the same or similar conditions and do just fine. Getting As will help though, so focus on that. Four semesters of 4.0 grades would pull you up into the 3.65 range which opens many more doors.

Some shadowing is probably a good idea, but if you’re eyeing an MM plus peace corps followed by a little post bacc for your mcat courses, you’ve got a lot of time. Like 5-7 years of time. For now I think the best reason to shadow is to figure out if you even want to be a doctor at all. Majoring in Russian, eyeing a seemingly unrelated music performing graduate degree, and a further unrelated stint in the peace corps, all before embarking on one of the most grueling professional educations possible - it suggests you’re a brilliant person with many interests but it does raise some questions as to whether you’re down for spending a solid decade training for one goal. Some good shadowing now may be more helpful for you than for your future application. You’ve probably had some wonderful interactions with physicians in addressing your connective tissue diagnosis - similar stories find their way into many personal statements - but you would be wise to ensure the actual daily practice of medicine is something you really want to do.
 
notasciencemajor said:
Basically, I just want to be able to pursue the things that I love other than medicine first because so many people have told me that once I start down that path it really never stops. I'm not in a rush - I don't know if that's me being naive, and I'm sure there is a lot that will change before I even finish college, but that's how I'm feeling right now.
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More power to you.
Just be aware that with these two prominent side interests, you will need to have a very clear answer for "why medicine."
You may need a post-bacc if you're already a junior and haven't finished the pre-reqs, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Good luck! 🙂
 
notasciencemajor said:
Thank you for this advice -- it is definitely some of the most helpful I've received so far. I just got grade updates from my professors, and I'm currently sitting at a 3.93 for the semester(!!); however, those are all courses in Russian so my science GPA isn't going up. I will be taking the second semester of biology this spring, and potentially another premed course.

I spent most of my pre-college life completely committed to medicine and did pretty much everything in pursuit of that goal, and when EDS started to really get in my way a lot of things changed. I thought I wasn't capable of doing it anymore because I was struggling so much physically, mentally, and academically, and when I started college I did horribly in everything - except Russian. So I decided to focus my energy there, and I'm so glad I did! I basically completely abandoned STEM for a bit and pursued interests I never even knew I had. Now that I'm doing better, I've started taking science and math classes again and I've really enjoyed them, but I also know that I do actually enjoy things outside of that (wild, I know!!) and I kind of feel like I'm making up for lost time with those other interests. Along with that, I also had some clinical employment and about 40 hrs of primary care shadowing during late 2019-early 2020, which has really resolidified my interest in medicine. I completely agree with the advice to shadow and am very excited to be able to get back into that and do more once the situation with Covid-19 is more stable! I know that once I start my medical education, it will require my full attention, and I won't have the time or energy to pursue those interests in the way that I can now. My logic with the MM is that I've been playing for so long and it has always been a very large part of my life, but I've never had the opportunity to really focus on it which is something that I would love to do. If it's not something that I'm able to do, I won't be heartbroken, but I've already received an offer of a graduate assistantship and I would be able to take a few of my prereqs during that program. As for the Peace Corps, I'm really hoping to be in a community health position - because of Covid-19 I still have never actually been in a Russian-speaking country and I think it would be a really incredible opportunity to combine my major and my interest in medicine.

Basically, I just want to be able to pursue the things that I love other than medicine first because so many people have told me that once I start down that path it really never stops. I'm not in a rush - I don't know if that's me being naive, and I'm sure there is a lot that will change before I even finish college, but that's how I'm feeling right now.
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Nice job on the grades! Keep that up and you’ll be in a good position when you finally do apply.

You’re definitely right that it’s much easier to do other things before medicine than after. I made my living as a professional musician for a number of years before switching to medicine so I get the appeal! Impressive to have a GA offer as a junior before anyone even auditions - you must be a pianist and a pretty good one at that! I know a number of docs with MMs or similar degrees so it’s not unheard of, and honestly I’ve found many of the musical skills transfer directly into medical practice.

I guess the key then is to explore all your interests while making sure you don’t close any doors permanently. GPA is the big one for now. Your grad classes won’t count toward undergrad GPA as they are considered separately, but obviously you want to do well there too. Make sure you’ve taken the various music theory and history courses and have a firm foundation prior to your masters. If you are a pianist you shouldn’t have much trouble with them and maybe you’ve taken them already. Either way - you won’t have the luxury of phoning in your graduate courses while focusing mainly on your applied lessons like many students do. You’re going to be held accountable for those grades in a different way than your music classmates.
 
notasciencemajor said:
An update for anyone who wants to know:

I finished the fall semester with a 4.0 gpa and full courseload, plus a 4.0 in my January class. So my cGPA is up to 3.48 (not excellent, but hey, a pretty big improvement) 🙂 and I did that while working 35h a week and dealing with EDS that sent me to the ER 4 TIMES IN A MONTH at one point, so I'm pretty happy. I'm going to keep doing my best and get through the rest of undergrad with the best grades possible, then go from there!
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Great work!!! Now you know you can do it and you know HOW. Cheers!
 
notasciencemajor said:
Another update: I 4.0'd this semester as well, including a bio class, so my cumulative GPA is now up to a 3.55 😊 My sGPA still needs a whoooole lot of work but hey, I am very very happy with how well I've done this year. It's been a bit of a rough semester health-wise and I've been in cardiac rehab and physical therapy for the past three months so that is not ideal but I made it work!! I've kind of started to lean away from the MM idea, mostly because playing for any solid period of time has become painful due to my EDS and I don't want to make things worse on my hands or cause any permanent damage. I've applied to serve in the Peace Corps, and am currently under consideration for a position as a community health outreach volunteer in Kenya. This upcoming year I'll be taking physics and finishing out my degree requirements and then hopefully in a few years will do a postbac!!
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Be sure you know what you are getting into. Another alternative, if you are inclined to take volunteer/stipend type positions, is the 10 year loan repayment program. You can do this when you graduate medical school.

I'm just picturing myself as an admissions counseler trying to figure out why you're committed to medicine. Your ECs are very broad but you will need to make it clear why exactly you're interested in medicine, esp. if you've volunteered or worked as a clinician before. You need to demonstrate with ECs that it is MEDICINE you're committed to, not another health profession or interest.

We are rooting for you! 🙂
 
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