24 yr old Finance major interested in Pre-med & Pre-PT

[FromFinanceToDr]

Hello everyone!

I don't know if this is the right place to even post this thread but I believe I would be considered non-traditional after taking a year off and being a non-science related major. I ended up taking a year off and deferring my scholarships because life happened and I needed to find out what I wanted to do with my life going forward. I took my first two years and was still indecisive about what major I wanted to pursue. Skip forward and here I am finishing my last semester as a Finance major/ Management minor. I have taken several general science courses like Biology, some chemistry and that's it. I only went with Finance because I figured it would be beneficial to learn personal financial management and could be useful outside of a career as well. Honestly, I am more interested in science and come from a background of being an athlete. I wish I would have pursued Kinesiology, but at the end of the day, I'm happy I stuck with what I chose and made a decision. My cumulative GPA is a 3.6 as of right now. I'm finishing my last 12 hours this semester and will be done with undergrad. I was looking at possibly trying to go to PT school or pre-med but I don't have any idea how things are going for pre-PT and pre-med students right now with COVID going on. If you were me with the times that we are in right now, what would be smart to do to try and get ahead with taking prereqs, post bacc, etc.? I feel pretty confident I will do well in my science prerequisite courses. Should I start taking them at my local community college next semester? Any information and even some help on what route or direction to go would be much appreciated. Basically, I just want to know if I even have a shot still with being 24 and being a Finance major?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[another_nontrad]

hi! I was in your shoes 2 years ago and so will answer this with what I wish I'd done differently. just a fellow pre-health student so take any advice with a grain of salt, but hopefully it will be somewhat useful.

it sounds like you're not quite sure about medicine vs PT. They're both great careers but are pretty different. I initially felt similarly about nursing and medicine. after spending a lot of time working and volunteering in healthcare, I realized they're a LOT more different than they seemed when I started out.

I did what you're proposing doing and started taking classes at a community college. I did some shadowing and volunteering, but was primarily a student for a year, and finished most pre-med classes. I'm now working as a CNA. I wish I had done that in the reverse order - work in healthcare first, get a really good idea of what the day in/day out is like, and when you're reallllllly sure what you want to pursue, THEN go back to take classes. I was taking pre-med track classes and doing well in them, but in the back of my mind, wasn't really sure if I wanted to be in the role of a doctor or if I was willing to continue sacrificing good life-years, studying on weekends, and watching my friends get ahead in their jobs... while I was getting ****ed by gen chem at community college as a degree-holding 24 year old who left a decent paying business job to pursue medicine. To apply to nursing school, I wouldn't have needed to spend the time and money to take biochem. I suspect that PT is similar and you would need a different set of classes than you would for med school.

I'd recommend looking for a job in healthcare where you can observe PTs and MD/DOs, and spending time volunteering, shadowing, talking to people you know in those fields. at least where I am, hospitals are still hiring. I assume you don't have any kind of certification (EMT/CNA/etc.) and that might be hard to get right now, so you could consider jobs like PT assistant, front desk (patient access, unit coordinator or similar), or whatever you can find. you might need to take a less appealing/worse paying job for that good ol' foot in the door/networking angle that we business people know so well.

oh and don't let your age or degree stop you! but a word of warning - you'll have watch your friends start making money and living their lives while you're delaying gratification for many years - it has to be worth it to you.