3 Semesters from completing my BSN but want to go to Med School

[ky2i729]

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to present my rather unusual situation here in hopes that someone may be able to offer me some advice. So, I am currently a 4th year BSN student with 3 semesters left to complete my degree (I transferred into the 4-year nursing program after doing 1 year as a general health sciences major because I was not initially accepted into the program). It wasnt until about 6 months ago that I began to decide that my passion was more for medicine than nursing. While I have really enjoyed the the information I have learned in nursing school, I was more interested in courses such as pathophysiology, pharmacology, and anatomy. As I began my clinical experiences, I have learned that I would enjoy the role of the physician more than that of the nurse.

SO, where am I now.... Well I have completed chemistry 1 and 2 "for life sciences" as well as anatomy & physiology also "for life sciences". Knowing that these were nursing specific courses, I compleated Bio 1 and 2 over the summer and am now planning on adding all of the Chem and Physics pre-requisites on top of my nursing schedule for the next 3 semesters. One of my major concerns here is that my current GPA is a 3.53.

Lastly, A little bit my non-academic life. I just obtained a volunteer position with a local hospital. I have been working as an Emergency Medical Technician for a 9-1-1 ambulance service for 4 years and have gotten a lot of clinical experience from there as well as from nursing school.

I have scheduled my MCAT for May of 2018, purchased the Kaplan review book and begun working through them. I suppose my question is, what is my next step? With my current situation, is my plan of attending medical school even feasible?

Any advice from anyone that was, or still is, in a similar situation would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all in advance!

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[AnotherLawyer]

Next steps: Finish your pre-reqs while you finish your degree aiming for a 4.0, shadow, do some non-clinical volunteering, research if possible, crush the MCAT, apply early.

There's nothing particularly unusual about your situation.

 

[Noisewater-TDX]

A bunch of RNs going back to Med School on SDN
RN to MD Progress/Support Thread


Just get registered as a nurse, don't let all those years be for nothing! Take the NCLEX!!!

 

[Blanky]

Take the prereqs before taking the MCAT. :/

 

[wholeheartedly]

Agree with taking the MCAT after completing the prerequisites and definitely get registered as a nurse.

 

[calivianya]

I would also advise waiting to take the MCAT until your prereqs are done. I didn't - hadn't taken Physics 2 yet and didn't have time to learn it on my own, and it made my chem/phys score way lower than my other sections. You want your best score to be your first score; many schools average scores together when evaluating you so a low score won't just be fixed by retaking the MCAT and scoring better the second time.

When are you anticipating finishing up the prereqs? If it is by the time you graduate nursing school, I would just take it then. I'm assuming you're saying you're graduating in spring 2019? I'd say take the NCLEX ASAP so you can work and have money to pay for application fees (assume mid-May 2019 to allow for receiving your authorization to test and scheduling it). Schedule the MCAT for about a month later so you can have some time to review solely for the MCAT (assuming mid-June).

With this timing, it would be tricky to know what schools your MCAT would be competitive for, so I'd complete both the DO and MD primaries immediately, submitting the first day they're open, with only one school each. Then, when you get your score back in mid-July, you can add schools as appropriate. Pre-write many possible secondaries before you get your score back so the minute you get your score back, you can add schools, and you'll be ready to submit your secondaries ASAP when you get them, which will be quickly because your primary application will already be complete and verified. You should be able to be complete by the end of July at most schools with this plan.

 

[treatem-and-streetem]

You definitely should take biochem before taking the MCAT. It will help you tremendously. You may as well finish your BSN and take the NCLEX. You can still do MD/DO