I know this forum is full of threads like this but here it goes.
I'm a 28F who graduated with a BS in Biochemistry in 2013, cGPA 3.55. The first two years were at a community college and that included Chem/Bio/Calc/Physics/Orgo 1&2 in 2009/10/11 school years, all upper level courses were completed at a University offshoot campus of University of Wisconsin. I always wanted to go to medical school but never thought I was smart enough. I was just too average. So I decided research was the way to go. I did some research my last year of undergrad with a poster presentation at a symposium.
Then I got ballsy and applied for a PhD program at Michigan State University that I was wholly under-qualified for. They accepted me anyways. I had several life "tragedies" right around graduation. My grandmother died during my last semester and my fiance dumped me the day before I graduated, over the phone. I decided to go ahead with grad school even though I had a bunch of red flags telling me it was the wrong choice. I was in such a bad place emotionally, the program was such a bad fit, I hated the research (mammary infections in cows?). I stopped going to class and slept all day. I failed the two classes I was supposed to be taking. The program director let me stop the research and try to get back on track with classes while dropping me down to an advanced undergrad biochemistry course. I went for the first few weeks and somehow squeezed out a B on the first exam with little studying. I eventually stopped going to that class as well, failed it, and eventually quit the program (the director was SUPER nice about it). Basically I ended up with a 1.1 GPA in graduate school.
I worked for a year in different manufacturing labs on contract and ended up going back to school for Medical Lab Science. I liked lab work and still wanted to be a part of medicine so it made sense. I did well, with all the credits I had previously my cGPA only went up to 3.6. I graduated with that second BS degree in 2017. During that degree I worked as a phlebotomist for a year and a medical scribe for 6 months (total of around 400 hours). I've been working as a Med Tech/MLS for the last 2 years and being in the hospital setting has just made my desire to go to medical school that much stronger.
I know I need to do shadowing, volunteer work, more clinical experience (recent), and study for the MCAT. I know realistically I would need to sell my house because of the high mortgage and lack of proximity to a medical school. I have concerns about the living aspect of medical school that are mostly silly; how to take care of my dog during 80 hour weeks, can I physically handle that many hours, my current debt from school plus medical school debt, etc. I'm single, no kids. Which is a blessing and curse. On one hand I'm not tied down, on another I have literally no support or help with living expenses.
So
1) How much will my failed graduate school experience hurt me? What should I do about it? - It's frustrating now because it's not like I studied hard and failed, I just straight up didn't go.
2) Do I need to do any more courses if my pre-reqs were almost 10 years ago?
3) If I'm not willing to go too far out of the Midwest would that severely diminish my chances?
4) Should I try to condense volunteering/shadowing/studying into 1 year to avoid my science classes getting any older?
5) How do people get letters of recs from professors if they have been out of school 4-5 years by the time they apply?
Throw it all at me. I've tried lurking here and on Reddit but some things just need to be more specific to my situation.
I'm a 28F who graduated with a BS in Biochemistry in 2013, cGPA 3.55. The first two years were at a community college and that included Chem/Bio/Calc/Physics/Orgo 1&2 in 2009/10/11 school years, all upper level courses were completed at a University offshoot campus of University of Wisconsin. I always wanted to go to medical school but never thought I was smart enough. I was just too average. So I decided research was the way to go. I did some research my last year of undergrad with a poster presentation at a symposium.
Then I got ballsy and applied for a PhD program at Michigan State University that I was wholly under-qualified for. They accepted me anyways. I had several life "tragedies" right around graduation. My grandmother died during my last semester and my fiance dumped me the day before I graduated, over the phone. I decided to go ahead with grad school even though I had a bunch of red flags telling me it was the wrong choice. I was in such a bad place emotionally, the program was such a bad fit, I hated the research (mammary infections in cows?). I stopped going to class and slept all day. I failed the two classes I was supposed to be taking. The program director let me stop the research and try to get back on track with classes while dropping me down to an advanced undergrad biochemistry course. I went for the first few weeks and somehow squeezed out a B on the first exam with little studying. I eventually stopped going to that class as well, failed it, and eventually quit the program (the director was SUPER nice about it). Basically I ended up with a 1.1 GPA in graduate school.
I worked for a year in different manufacturing labs on contract and ended up going back to school for Medical Lab Science. I liked lab work and still wanted to be a part of medicine so it made sense. I did well, with all the credits I had previously my cGPA only went up to 3.6. I graduated with that second BS degree in 2017. During that degree I worked as a phlebotomist for a year and a medical scribe for 6 months (total of around 400 hours). I've been working as a Med Tech/MLS for the last 2 years and being in the hospital setting has just made my desire to go to medical school that much stronger.
I know I need to do shadowing, volunteer work, more clinical experience (recent), and study for the MCAT. I know realistically I would need to sell my house because of the high mortgage and lack of proximity to a medical school. I have concerns about the living aspect of medical school that are mostly silly; how to take care of my dog during 80 hour weeks, can I physically handle that many hours, my current debt from school plus medical school debt, etc. I'm single, no kids. Which is a blessing and curse. On one hand I'm not tied down, on another I have literally no support or help with living expenses.
So
1) How much will my failed graduate school experience hurt me? What should I do about it? - It's frustrating now because it's not like I studied hard and failed, I just straight up didn't go.
2) Do I need to do any more courses if my pre-reqs were almost 10 years ago?
3) If I'm not willing to go too far out of the Midwest would that severely diminish my chances?
4) Should I try to condense volunteering/shadowing/studying into 1 year to avoid my science classes getting any older?
5) How do people get letters of recs from professors if they have been out of school 4-5 years by the time they apply?
Throw it all at me. I've tried lurking here and on Reddit but some things just need to be more specific to my situation.
