Hi Everyone. I am a nontraditional student hoping to get accepted to Medical School. I am active duty military but plan to get out when my contract ends in about 3 years. I have about 50 college credits from multiple schools due to me moving around a lot. I am attending ASU online right now and majoring in Biological Sciences. I can not decide if I should finish my Biology Degree with ASU or wait until I get out of the military and go to school in person. I am worried that if I finish my degree at ASU that I will not get accepted to Medical School because it is an online degree. If I do finish my degree online, when I separate from the military I can just to a post bac program for 1-2 years for those schools that do not accept online prerequisites. If I wait to finish school until I am out of the military then I will have to wait longer to apply but most of my prerequisites will be in person. Also since I have attended four schools in total and if I go back home to attend school in person that will be a total of five schools. Will that look bad on my application?
Advice on Path to Med School
- Thread starter NOVA1
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First off, many thanks fo ryour service to our country.
Second, It's OK to attend multiple schools. Just do well.
T
trev5150
I did a few credits online with ASU. I'm gonna straight up tell you it's not all going to be applicable. You're going to have to do a bunch of stuff over when you get out. As for the number of schools, like @Goro said, don't worry about it. I'll have 8 by the time I'm done with my B.S. this semester.
I hope this is all on TAP and not your GI Bill, correct? If it is, keep going. If your MOS affords you the time to get work done, then make the most of it. With my billet, I never had that opportunity. Then get out, evaluate what you have and what you still need (make a checklist). Make sure you have all the clinical experience you need when you go to apply.
Yes, I’m using my Tuition Assistance now. I wanted to save my Post 9/11 for my post bac or medical school or both. Im thinking it will be more beneficial to complete my degree while I can online so when I get out I would at least have a bachelors under my belt. Hopefully they will accept degree for the bachelors requirement that way I can just take all of the science prerequisites.
What classes did not count from ASU?
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T
trev5150
They were history courses and they did count towards my humanities stuff for my B.S. I didn't try to take any pre-req science classes online. I knew I was going to need brick-and-mortar for that because of the labs.
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First thank you for your service!
I am still pre-med. That said when I spoke with a ASU advisor recently they did mention that all lab work for their biochemistry BS, and Biological Science's BS are completed at ASU's main campus over the course of a couple weeks. Usually the summer between Junior-Senior year.
Is it possible that this route makes these degrees more appealing to a admissions committee?
Or would one face a post bac regardless?
I have not a clue.
For what it's worth, I don't think it matters if you attend multiple schools. I think what is looked at is your over all GPA.
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I am still pre-med. That said when I spoke with a ASU advisor recently they did mention that all lab work for their biochemistry BS, and Biological Science's BS are completed at ASU's main campus over the course of a couple weeks. Usually the summer between Junior-Senior year.
Is it possible that this route makes these degrees more appealing to a admissions committee?
Or would one face a post bac regardless?
I have not a clue.
For what it's worth, I don't think it matters if you attend multiple schools. I think what is looked at is your over all GPA.
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Hi when I spoke to my advisor she told me that only lab classes I would have to come on campus for us Organic Chem I and II. She told me the rest were either online or they send lab kits to your home.
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You are correct, I should have clarified, I had to call back and ask the advisor myself.
I guess the question should be, how much of your degree will medical schools even count as qualifying.
I'm struggling with this right now too. I have a scholarship from the company I work for currently, however I'm not sure if the risk of them not accepting my degree outweighs the desire to have my bachelor's be debt free.
If you go to ASU, and apply before taking a post bac. You run the risk of them not liking the online degree, and then having to do a post bac program in addition to the degree you already received to catch up.
It doesn't help that there have so far been no graduates matriculated into med-school, since they just started both programs. So we have no stats to guide our decisions.
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That’s true. I switched to the community health major instead of Bio. I don’t think it would look good to retake those classes in a post bac like the previous member mentioned. I’ve talked to some active duty service members that completed a non science major online and then took the med school prerequisites in person at a university when they separated.
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T
trev5150
This is a good logical path to an MPH later on.
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I’d take the pre recs in person personally, plus if you graduate as a non-science major their are a bunch of linked post bachs for non science majors.
