21 y.o nurse to premed path

[hyper]

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[karaya]

Nursing will be great clinical experience for med schools, so keep doing that. Now you have to focus on getting A's in the prereqs and a strong MCAT. I can't answer the other questions, but, speaking as a non-trad applicant, it really helped me to go part-time in my job. That may not be feasible for you but if you can pull it off, great. You'll need the extra time to study effectively and also decompress.

Also, truly learn the material in your prereqs. Read the textbook. Don't cheat yourself by merely memorizing. Because come MCAT, all that learning will pay off when you can skip content review and go straight to practice problems. I believe practice is where you improve your score. Analyze all your wrong answers.

If I could do it again, I would 1) start earlier and 2) take a biostats class.

 

[DPTtoMD23]

Another career changer here, do you have a medical advisor at your current top 5 California school? If you create a solid plan, get adequate scores, and continue to work as a nurse you will have a good chance.

First, find out from advisors which of your classes count for pre-reqs for medical school, I know some core sciences for BSN are actually labeled ‘chemistry for nurses’ and won’t count towards medical pre-reqs. From there, I would figure out which pre-reqs you are missing and take them in person while working as a nurse either contract or part-time. Clinical experience is invaluable to the medical school admissions committee and really shows you know how to work with patients. While nursing is a different role and scope than a physician, you will be working with the same patient populations. By working as a nurse, you show everyone that you know what it’s like to work in a clinical setting, you know what it’s like to see sick people all day long, you can develop relationships with other health professionals and your patients, and you show a deep commitment to the field of healthcare. If you get your BSN and then immediately drop it to become a full-time student, they will wonder why you are running away from clinical work.

Additionally, it will help your interviews and essays when you have experiences to draw upon. You will be able to speak on difficult scenarios like end of life care, access to healthcare, insurance difficulties, and patient complaints. You might also have to fit in other activities to boost your application, like part-time volunteering in your community, leadership roles at work or within the community, or other types of altruistic outreach. After you have taken most of the core pre-reqs you will study for and plan an MCAT test date. Your score on the MCAT will help inform you and your advisors which types of programs you can apply to.

If you get everything worked out in your head and are staring down 1-2 years before you can apply that’s okay. This can seem overwhelming, but putting your best foot forward in the application process is worth it. I would advise against rushing the process under the misconception that you must be young to do this. I am in my early 30s and took 2 years to get my application completed and apply. I will not be a re-applicant because I took my time making sure I was thorough and did my best. Take a deep breath and realize it’s a marathon, not a sprint./

Let me know if you have any other questions about being non-trad.

 

[hyper]

Nursing will be great clinical experience for med schools, so keep doing that. Now you have to focus on getting A's in the prereqs and a strong MCAT. I can't answer the other questions, but, speaking as a non-trad applicant, it really helped me to go part-time in my job. That may not be feasible for you but if you can pull it off, great. You'll need the extra time to study effectively and also decompress.

Also, truly learn the material in your prereqs. Read the textbook. Don't cheat yourself by merely memorizing. Because come MCAT, all that learning will pay off when you can skip content review and go straight to practice problems. I believe practice is where you improve your score. Analyze all your wrong answers.

If I could do it again, I would 1) start earlier and 2) take a biostats class.

Thank you,

Yea one of my only worries is how I will learn the content in the prereq classes and prepare for the MCAT after not taking a standardized test in so long and also being bad at standardized tests. I sort of flew threw nursing school where I only got an A- in Ob/Peds but that was because I despised it.

Thank you for your response!

 

[hyper]

Another career changer here, do you have a medical advisor at your current top 5 California school? If you create a solid plan, get adequate scores, and continue to work as a nurse you will have a good chance.

First, find out from advisors which of your classes count for pre-reqs for medical school, I know some core sciences for BSN are actually labeled ‘chemistry for nurses’ and won’t count towards medical pre-reqs. From there, I would figure out which pre-reqs you are missing and take them in person while working as a nurse either contract or part-time. Clinical experience is invaluable to the medical school admissions committee and really shows you know how to work with patients. While nursing is a different role and scope than a physician, you will be working with the same patient populations. By working as a nurse, you show everyone that you know what it’s like to work in a clinical setting, you know what it’s like to see sick people all day long, you can develop relationships with other health professionals and your patients, and you show a deep commitment to the field of healthcare. If you get your BSN and then immediately drop it to become a full-time student, they will wonder why you are running away from clinical work.

Additionally, it will help your interviews and essays when you have experiences to draw upon. You will be able to speak on difficult scenarios like end of life care, access to healthcare, insurance difficulties, and patient complaints. You might also have to fit in other activities to boost your application, like part-time volunteering in your community, leadership roles at work or within the community, or other types of altruistic outreach. After you have taken most of the core pre-reqs you will study for and plan an MCAT test date. Your score on the MCAT will help inform you and your advisors which types of programs you can apply to.

If you get everything worked out in your head and are staring down 1-2 years before you can apply that’s okay. This can seem overwhelming, but putting your best foot forward in the application process is worth it. I would advise against rushing the process under the misconception that you must be young to do this. I am in my early 30s and took 2 years to get my application completed and apply. I will not be a re-applicant because I took my time making sure I was thorough and did my best. Take a deep breath and realize it’s a marathon, not a sprint./

Let me know if you have any other questions about being non-trad.

My nursing school is top 5 in terms of accelerated nursing, not in terms of school in general unfortunately. I know which classes I need and which extra classes I have taken will count toward my science gpa.

So I've taken Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology, and Chemistry for Applied Sciences. These are the 4 major classes that will still count toward my science GPA for med school.

In addition, I will need to take general chem 1 and 2, orgo chem 1 and 2, physics 1 and 2, biology 1 and 2, and possibly biochem lecture.

I may end up going part time if I can find a job as such in the intensive care unit. If this path does not work out, CRNA it is. Lol.

Any volunteering I should be doing or just focus on making connections with teachers and doctors to get LORs and shadowing?

Thanks again.

 

[chilly_md]

Any volunteering I should be doing or just focus on making connections with teachers and doctors to get LORs and shadowing?

Thanks again.

Yes, something that helps those less fortunate such as at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, food bank, Big Brothers Big Sisters etc.

Make sure you can articulate a clear and convincing reason for why you want to pursue being a physician instead of a nurse, especially when you will barely have had much time working as a nurse.

 

[tachypremed]

I’m an RN and am starting medical school this summer (just finished the application cycle)! I got multiple interviews and multiple MD acceptances. I’m happy to do discuss with you further if you’d like 😊 it was a hard decision and not a super easy path, but I don’t regret it!

 

[hyper]

I’m an RN and am starting medical school this summer (just finished the application cycle)! I got multiple interviews and multiple MD acceptances. I’m happy to do discuss with you further if you’d like 😊 it was a hard decision and not a super easy path, but I don’t regret it!

What did you sGpa, cGpa and MCAT look like? How much hours nursing experience and did you do any other volunteering on top?

 

[hyper]

Yes, something that helps those less fortunate such as at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, food bank, Big Brothers Big Sisters etc.

Make sure you can articulate a clear and convincing reason for why you want to pursue being a physician instead of a nurse, especially when you will barely have had much time working as a nurse.

For a project in nursing school, I worked with the homeless for around 50 hours providing care. Can I use clinical hours during nursing school as experience toward medical school? How do I approach volunteering that I benefitted from in nursing school toward medical school?

 

[chilly_md]

For a project in nursing school, I worked with the homeless for around 50 hours providing care. Can I use clinical hours during nursing school as experience toward medical school? How do I approach volunteering that I benefitted from in nursing school toward medical school?

You will want around 150-200 hours for volunteer hours. Working a year as a nurse would probably be a good idea to count as full clinical experience. I don’t know what you did volunteering wise outside of providing care for the homeless for 50 hours.

 

[hyper]

You will want around 150-200 hours for volunteer hours. Working a year as a nurse would probably be a good idea to count as full clinical experience. I don’t know what you did volunteering wise outside of providing care for the homeless for 50 hours.

Since high school I've worked with a religious group that I belong to serving and cleaning for around 200 hours over a period of 5 years. While in nursing school, I have done various flu and covid shot clinics for around 40-50 hours over a period of 2.5 years as well.

 

[chilly_md]

Since high school I've worked with a religious group that I belong to serving and cleaning for around 200 hours over a period of 5 years. While in nursing school, I have done various flu and covid shot clinics for around 40-50 hours over a period of 2.5 years as well.

You can include those as activities on the application then.

 

[Splenda88]

I was a RN who went to med school in my 30s; I am in year 2 as a hospitalist attending and it's the best decision I made career-wise. So follow your dream.


Will answer some of your questions:

I think the nursing experience will help. I remember my interviewers were really interested in my nursing background.

I did not have any research at all

Easy to build relationship withs science professors. Get A/A- and go to their office hours so they who know you are

I would advise not to tell your nursing colleagues that you are going to med school. You will need 2 science letters and another one that is not science

 

[hyper]

I was a RN who went to med school in my 30s; I am in year 2 as a hospitalist attending and it's the best decision I made career-wise. So follow your dream.


Will answer some of your questions:

I think the nursing experience will help. I remember my interviewers were really interested in my nursing background.

I did not have any research at all

Easy to build relationship withs science professors. Get A/A- and go to their office hours so they who know you are

I would advise not to tell your nursing colleagues that you are going to med school. You will need 2 science letters and another one that is not science

Did you count the clinical hours in nursing school as clinical hours? I have around 1200 hours from nursing school alone.

Thank you!

 

[Splenda88]

Did you count the clinical hours in nursing school as clinical hours? I have around 1200 hours from nursing school alone.

Thank you!

I probably did not since I worked as nurse for 7 yrs. I used my work hours as clinical hours. I think you can count them because they are clinical hours.

 

[tachypremed]

What did you sGpa, cGpa and MCAT look like? How much hours nursing experience and did you do any other volunteering on top?

Cumulative undergrad sGPA ~3.55, post-bacc sGPA ~3.8, and undergrad cGPA ~3.6. MCAT 508. I went straight from my BSN to a post-bacc so I didn’t have a ton of paid nursing hours listed on my app (probably around 3000 total - I didn’t include anything from nursing school). I got super involved in community service with a local medical non-profit (had ~2000 hours). I also worked as a clinical research assistant and had about 2500 hours.

 

[hyper]

Cumulative undergrad sGPA ~3.55, post-bacc sGPA ~3.8, and undergrad cGPA ~3.6. MCAT 508. I went straight from my BSN to a post-bacc so I didn’t have a ton of paid nursing hours listed on my app (probably around 3000 total - I didn’t include anything from nursing school). I got super involved in community service with a local medical non-profit (had ~2000 hours). I also worked as a clinical research assistant and had about 2500 hours.

Oh nice! Do you think there was an advantage for you to work as a clinical research assistant as compared to just more hours as a nurse?

 

[tachypremed]

Oh nice! Do you think there was an advantage for you to work as a clinical research assistant as compared to just more hours as a nurse?

I'm not sure! I chose to do research because I wanted to make sure I was "checking all the boxes" and ended up enjoying it, so I did it for much longer than I originally planned. I don't think it is 100% necessary, though!