26 Year old career changer

[seltzerfan95]

Hi,
As the title says I'm in my late 20s working as an accountant. As a kid I always wanted to be a physician but was talked out of it and pursed a business degree. However, I am miserable. I simply can't do this the rest of my career. I see what my manager does and that seems even worse to me. I am curious about a post bacc program. Should I do courses at a local community college or will that hurt my chances? Does anyone who's been in my shoes have any bits of wisdom to pass along? I would ideally like to work while taking prereqs so I can keep an income for a bit. Any advice/ tips are welcome!!

P.S I am in the Greater Boston Area if that's helpful at all.

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[deleted1146619]

Hello! I worked in a similar line of work as you and was ~ the same age when I embarked on this journey (applied and admitted this current cycle). Happy to offer some perspective...

I simply can't do this the rest of my career.

I know the feeling! Good Luck!

My advice:

1. Accept that without any prereqs taken, this will take a couple of years at minimum to accomplish this goal
2. Get clinical experience as early as possible, you don't want to embark on this journey w/o having a sense of what it is like to be a physician
3. Determine your cGPA and sGPA asap
   • The go forward is a lot different for a non-trad with a solid cGPA (~3.5+) having taken little to no courses that count towards sGPA
   • Conversely, if you are starting out with a below 3.0 cGPA, the calculus is different
4. Speaking from experience, community college courses are fine-the important thing is to ace them and ace the MCAT
5. Start volunteering yesterday, I recommend leveraging your professional background to be of service to underserved members of your community
   1. i.e. Volunteer a few hours a week in financial literacy for marginalized groups.
6. Working while knocking out everything (classes, MCAT, volunteering, clinical work, etc.)--it sucks lol, but is very necessary, I spent several chunks of the last few years in nonstop grind mode. However, now that I'm admitted, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Make sure to remember what your why is; it'll go a long way in the periods of suck.

 

[Member2223]

Hello! I worked in a similar line of work as you and was ~ the same age when I embarked on this journey (applied and admitted this current cycle). Happy to offer some perspective...


I know the feeling! Good Luck!

My advice:

1. Accept that without any prereqs taken, this will take a couple of years at minimum to accomplish this goal
2. Get clinical experience as early as possible, you don't want to embark on this journey w/o having a sense of what it is like to be a physician
3. Determine your cGPA and sGPA asap
   • The go forward is a lot different for a non-trad with a solid cGPA (~3.5+) having taken little to no courses that count towards sGPA
   • Conversely, if you are starting out with a below 3.0 cGPA, the calculus is different
4. Speaking from experience, community college courses are fine-the important thing is to ace them and ace the MCAT
5. Start volunteering yesterday, I recommend leveraging your professional background to be of service to underserved members of your community
   1. i.e. Volunteer a few hours a week in financial literacy for marginalized groups.
6. Working while knocking out everything (classes, MCAT, volunteering, clinical work, etc.)--it sucks lol, but is very necessary, I spent several chunks of the last few years in nonstop grind mode. However, now that I'm admitted, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Make sure to remember what your why is; it'll go a long way in the periods of suck.

Working full-time while simultaneously accumulating all of those experiences seems like a recipe for disaster. Your postbacc performance is paramount to a successful application, so why jeopardize it?