Advice on a Career Change: Accountant (CPA) looking to become a doctor

[ChicagoCubs]

I recently found this forum and it has been an excellent resource.

This Spring I graduate with an undergraduate degree in Accounting & Finance (150 credit hours) and plan to sit for the Certified Public Accountant exam this summer. I have always loved the sciences and I think I want to change course and study medicine.

During my undergraduate coursework I have taken not taken the required science courses--is a post-bacc program a good course of action?

I am considering post-bacc part-time and also working part-time for an accounting firm (or just work during the busy tax season and then study full time in the summer & fall).

How important is relevant work experience going to be for application to med school? Can anyone think of a job where I can utilize my business skills in a medical situation to gain relvent experience?

My undergrad GPA will end up being a 2.8, which worries me. I had a rough start to my undergraduate career, but my final 40 credit hours of coursework in upper level accounting and finance courses will average out to a 3.3 or 3.5.

Will this overall GPA significantly reduce my ability to apply to quality post-bacc programs, and eventually medical school? Think my CPA will help?

Looking forward to the future, a MD/MBA program looks like a wonderful, rewarding challenge!

Thanks for any advice!

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[ChicagoCubs]

This post has been very helpful: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=596861

I feel the same way about accounting as the poster in that thread, however, I will stay in public accounting as long as it takes to earn my CPA license and no longer.

I am not sure where I want to go after graduation, but I want to go to graduate school. I have been looking at masters in Finance, Project Management, as well as English and Humanitarian Affairs. I really want to study a masters in Renewable Energy, but I cannot apply since I do not have the required science courses in undergrad.
I really have no idea where I want to go. I enjoy learning so many different things, and I genuinely think I can do well at them, but I am not sure which direction to pursue. I obviously have some serious thinking and exploring to do.

I am not sure if medicine is going to be the right choice for me, but I am going to take the advice from the thread above and volunteer at a clinic or shadow a doctor. I love working with people. The joy I experience in my volunteer time with mentally and physically handicapped children makes me think that medicine would be a good fit. I always ruled medicine out because I thought another 9 years of school would be too much, but that time frame does not bother me so much anymore.

I believe my strongest attributes are my compassion, technical problem solving skills, creativity, and entrepreneurial ability. Do my characteristics suggest a fit in medicine?

A suggestion posted in the thread above was to work as an accountant at a hospital. That seems like a good idea for a summer job to help me figure this out...

 

[Titus Pullo]

I just posted in the other thread, so check that out, but I wanted to re-affirm what I said about taking advantage of your remaining semester(s) to find out if medicine is for you. It will become INCREDIBLY more difficult once you start full-time work. Your GPA is low, so take this time to give Chem 1, Bio 1, and Physics 1 a try before you graduate, and also do some volunteering/shadowing. If you have to, push your graduation back to use the Fall 2009 semester. Start dates at the big 4 generally aren't until September anyway, so pushing that back to January probably won't be a big deal.