28 y.o. Public Health to Med?

[rubivega]

Dear All,

I am a 28 year old male. I have a 3.2 cum gpa and 2.5 sci gpa (30 credit hrs) from a Top 30 US School. I did a UK masters in public health nutrition. I have not taken the MCAT. I have worked for a very well known international organization on public health data analysis/grant writing/knowledge management etc. for 3 years. I just left my job, and I overall find the work unfulfilling. I am still love the health field and believe in preventive medicine, but I would find something much more rewarding working in clinical and not sitting behind a computer all day. I would be interested in peds or IM (& breastfeeding medicine, addiction medicine). I've considered a PhD but again think research is not my calling. I could beef up my programming skills and do more data viz stuff with public health data, but again I would rather be with patients. I need my life & career to have real meaning, and it was hard to feel in my public health experience. I hate the feeling of stagnating, and I needed to leave my previous position. I want to invest my time wisely in a certain direction, but obviously going to a postbac is a big risk in terms of opportunity cost and $. Any advice for me to decide if this would be the right choice? I'm single no kids. Some student loan debt but not exorbitant. Have some familial support.

Thank you

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[Cornfed101]

Have you shadowed a doctor? I think that should be the first step. You need to make sure you are running to medicine and not just running away from public health. There are many ways to work with patients. Have you thought about being a nurse, tech, EMT, physical therapist, etc?

your science GPA is abysmal. After shadowing, if you decide becoming a physician is your only option then you will need to do a postbac. You will be screened out automatically at most places. How many science credits do you have? That will help determine how much work you have ahead of you.

 

[rubivega]

Have you shadowed a doctor? I think that should be the first step. You need to make sure you are running to medicine and not just running away from public health. There are many ways to work with patients. Have you thought about being a nurse, tech, EMT, physical therapist, etc?

your science GPA is abysmal. After shadowing, if you decide becoming a physician is your only option then you will need to do a postbac. You will be screened out automatically at most places. How many science credits do you have? That will help determine how much work you have ahead of you.

33 hours

I’m just curious about fastest possible route to DO

 

[Cornfed101]

See Goro's Guide for Reinvention. Luckily you don't have a ton of sGPA credits so you don't need a lot to get above a 3.0, but obviously you should get that GPA as high as you can. You need 17 sGPA credits to break a 3.0 if you get an A in every class.

 

[NTF]

If sitting behind a computer is a deal breaker then being a doctor may not be for you. We spend a lot of time behind computers.

 

[meditate19]

I agree with the last comment. Medicine entails a lot of documentation after seeing patients, performing procedures, etc it's very time consuming, especially in primary care specialities where you're seeing a high volume of patients. So yes a lot of time is spent behind the computer. You're likely going to be broke for a longtime as a student/resident... so think long and hard before making this decision. Once you're in, it's hard to get out, especially with all the student debt.