1st time post

[SenorDoutore]

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Hello everyone..i'm sure you have anwsered these questions a million times before, but i'm having trouble getting straight anwsers. let me give you some back ground:

I'm 24 yr old loan officer for a mortage company. I went to a great high school, go into rutgers university in NJ, and proceeded to do terribbly. I then went to a community college where I continued to do pretty badly. My last semester I did ok. I now am interested in medical school, and I know and understand the hard work involved. here are my questions:

Where do i go from here? Do I have to apply as a transfer student? Can I let them know that I went to school and did very bad, but not give them the grades? I am thinking about medical schools in the caribbean, because of the cheaper tuition. Any thoughts or ideas?

I know it seems like a stretch, but I always was a fairly intelligent kid in school, just lazy, and I liked to party, which explains my crappy grades. All that is behind me now. I am ready to pursue what I always dreamed about. 👍

 

[KittenKnows]

I was in your similar situation when I decided I wanted to go to med school, and I was actually 24 when I decided to bite the bullet to do it.
There are lots of things you need to do. First of all, you really do need to have a 4 year college degree before you apply. You don't have to get this degree in any of the sciences, but it will certainly help with not only your MCAT, but with your studies in med school.
You already have some college coursework, so perhaps you can transfer into a 4 year university and obtain your degree in 2 years. It is essential that you do very well in these 2 years to show your dedication and that you can handle med school coursework. That being said, you also need to carry a full semester/quarters worth of coursework because admissions will look at your ability to handle a large amount of material.
I also suggest you get together with a pre-med advisor at your college who can point you in the right direction as to what classes you are going to need. Having a low GPA will have some affect on your admission to med school, but if there is a strong upward trend they will take this into consideration. If you haven't already done so, you are going to need to take all the pre-med classes like Organic chemistry, physics, biology, and inorganic chemistry. Some med schools require calculus as well. If you set yourself up to major in a science, you will cover all the pre-requisites needed for medical school.
Good luck, it is a long pathway to take on, but if I can do it then anyone can. I also had some pretty crappy college grades from when I first started after high school, and it is important that you explain this in your personal statement, and do not hide ANY of your previous transcipts because they will look for previous work and I have heard of students getting kicked out of med school because they were dishonest about their past academic history.
And about the Caribbean schools, from what I understand is that they are not all that cheap, but I suppose you could look into whether they would take you as a transfer student without a college degree. My guess is no because you have nothing to show for how you will perform in medical school, but I could be wrong.

 

[KY1975]

I am no authority here by any stretch. I will advise you to spend a few hours reading the posts. You'll develop a very good idea of what you need to do.