A question for Non-trads

[dctrben]

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I am just wondering if there are any other non-traditional students that have NOT worked in medicine since they graduated college. I have been active duty Army since I graduated college and am applying to matriculate in 2002. I would just like to hear some of your success stories to boost my spirits.

I will share mine as they come. 🙂

Good luck to all my fellow non-trads.

 

[Sugar72]

HI there,

I graduated from college in 94. Took med school pre-requisites from 95-97. I have been working in a casino as a table games dealer and supervisor. I will be quitting in july to move to AZ to go to AZCOM. yeah. by the way, i haven't had any time for any volunteer work since college because I have been working full time and pursuing my mba (exp 7/11/02).
When i was writing my personal statement i bought a book with pointers and example essays. All of the essays were by people that had spent years working in other countries, or doing ground-breaking research. I felt like I didn't have a chance.
I was wrong.
Do you feel better?

 

[AYLC]

I graduated from college in 95 and did not do any volunteer work as suggested. Worked on pre-med courses for one year. However, I had some research experiences and had attended graduate school full time since 97. I had 3 intervew invitations so far. Good luck with your application. 😛

 

[Stickboy]

Hi-

I'm an M1 who got into NSU-COM with a 2.6 cum. GPA and 27 on the MCAT. "Laughable" numbers. Oh, by the way, I'm on a full scholarship.

Obviously, there's more than meets the eye, here. I graduated undergrad in 1991 with a 2.4 gpa in Mechanical Engineering. My science pre-reqs (taken over the past 2 years) were 25 credits of 4.0.

I've spent 10 years as a Naval Flight Officer, as well as Mountaineering up and down the Sierras...obviously lots to talk about in interviews.

I took a combat medicine course (plus my every-3 year Aviation Physiology classes) and shadowed a local doc (not from base) for about a year (I followed him around like a puppy a couple of nights per week at the hospital). I had my flight surgeons write recommendations for me (in addition to the doc I shadowed, and my O-Chem and Anatomy & Physiology professors)

I'm on an Navy HPSP scholarship, which I got mainly because of my prior service (and good fitness reports)

I applied to about 10 schools (An even MD/DO split), got into Nova and waitlisted by PCOM. Rejected by all others.

The bottom line is that everybody has a story to bring to their application, and you never know what is going to strike a cord with the admissons board. Getting in takes perserverence, hard work and a little luck. (or maybe a lot of luck 🙂 I think that most admissions boards look favorably on a former-military person, You've already demonstrated your ability to handle stress and a sense of comittment. On a personal note, I thought the whole Medical school admissions process was more gruelling than 2 weeks at SERE school!!! That's a no-****ter.

I currently have a 94% average in Anatomy, and low 90's in my other classes (Histo, Clinical, Biochem, etc.) We'll see how the grades hold up after finals 🙂 Apparently, my MCATs and GPA were *not* indicative of how poorly I would do in the first semester of medical school. We'll see about boards in a year and a half...

In my opinion, almost *anybody* can get into medical school, but the path is going to be longer for some, shorter for others. Being a doctor is a whole lot more than statistics, and that's what you should take to heart. Good Luck

If you have any other questions, just lemme know.

Cheers,
-sb