Any idea whether this will work?

[dan.sterling]

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A little bit of backstory...

Age 15 (we're taking 1990), I decided that medicine would be the career I'd like to pursue. Instead of going straight from high school to college, I took at year out to get a little life experience, fell in love and ended up married with a child. Hardly the best thing a future doctor could have done, but at the time (and still), it isn’t something I regret.

Finally got back into college and graduated with a 3.9+ in 2000. Second child was born by this point.

Worked for a while afterwards, then decided it was time for grad school - my career was going nowhere. And for some stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid reason, I ended up in law school.

Now I've been practicing law for a few years, hating every single day of it since the beginning of law school, wishing I had just bitten the bullet years ago and gone to med school instead - had I done so, I'd be midway through residency now.

Enough backstory.

I'm starting to plan my exit from law. My wife's career is starting to pick up. Sooner or later she'll be in a position to support the family for four years, and she's on-board with me changing careers.

I have no pre-med prerequisites, but I do have a math-based background.

Do any of you guys know whether pre-med prereqs 'expire'? By that, I mean if I started to take organic chemistry, physics, biology classes now - one a semester in the evenings at my local college a few blocks from where I work - would med schools be concerned that by the time I apply (and I'm thinking maybe for 2009/2010) that those college credits would be too distant? Or would a strong MCAT eradicate this problem? I'm just wondering whether or not med schools prefer prerequisites to be more recent, or if some prereqs taken a few years ago (by the time I might apply) would still be valid.

I'll be 35 when I apply, and potentially a little older. But I know how many of you feel - that medicine is something that you'll never get over if you don't actually do it. I already regret not trying it when I was younger, and I know this regret won't fade with time.

I don't want to rush the process. I'm happy to take my time, take one course a semester and concentrate fully on it and get solid grades (if possible).

Anyway, I'm glad to be back, glad to see that there's a nontrad forum here, and hope that this place is as supportive as I remember it being all those years ago.

 

[medicalbound]

Sorry for the short reply - I'm in the throws of studying for a final, but here it goes...

As with most things, it depends, but for the most part you should be fine if you don't space things out too far. In fact, I did exactly what you are talking about. I was a full time software engineer and took one class (with lab) at a time to get my prereqs done. It took me about 3 years at that rate (which I also accrued about 3,000 clinical hours) and having 2 more kids along the way (3 now). Bottom line, check with the schools you are interested in for specifics - it was not a problem for me.

Take care and I wish you well!

 

[dan.sterling]

Thanks. The only med school I could feasibly apply to (because like most nontrads I can't uproot a whole family to go to any school that would let me in - I've got to stay local) is fairly easy-going as far a prerequisites go. I'll shoot them an email tomorrow morning and double check that they're cool.

 

[vtucci]

A little bit of backstory...

Age 15 (we're taking 1990), I decided that medicine would be the career I'd like to pursue. Instead of going straight from high school to college, I took at year out to get a little life experience, fell in love and ended up married with a child. Hardly the best thing a future doctor could have done, but at the time (and still), it isn’t something I regret.

Finally got back into college and graduated with a 3.9+ in 2000. Second child was born by this point.

Worked for a while afterwards, then decided it was time for grad school - my career was going nowhere. And for some stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid reason, I ended up in law school.

Now I've been practicing law for a few years, hating every single day of it since the beginning of law school, wishing I had just bitten the bullet years ago and gone to med school instead - had I done so, I'd be midway through residency now.

Enough backstory.

I'm starting to plan my exit from law. My wife's career is starting to pick up. Sooner or later she'll be in a position to support the family for four years, and she's on-board with me changing careers.

I have no pre-med prerequisites, but I do have a math-based background.

Do any of you guys know whether pre-med prereqs 'expire'? By that, I mean if I started to take organic chemistry, physics, biology classes now - one a semester in the evenings at my local college a few blocks from where I work - would med schools be concerned that by the time I apply (and I'm thinking maybe for 2009/2010) that those college credits would be too distant? Or would a strong MCAT eradicate this problem? I'm just wondering whether or not med schools prefer prerequisites to be more recent, or if some prereqs taken a few years ago (by the time I might apply) would still be valid.

I'll be 35 when I apply, and potentially a little older. But I know how many of you feel - that medicine is something that you'll never get over if you don't actually do it. I already regret not trying it when I was younger, and I know this regret won't fade with time.

I don't want to rush the process. I'm happy to take my time, take one course a semester and concentrate fully on it and get solid grades (if possible).

Anyway, I'm glad to be back, glad to see that there's a nontrad forum here, and hope that this place is as supportive as I remember it being all those years ago.

Ok- first off, welcome to the club. I am a JD (practiced IP law for three years) and am now a MS2. I was 29 when I started and we have a lot of older students in my class (the oldest is in his early forties) at USF COM. Law2Doc as his name would suggest is also a JD. So you are not alone.

Requirements can expire but it is usually 5 years. Of course, they prefer more recent coursework

Strong MCAT- great if you can swing it.

However, a more important issue is the LORs from science faculty. You need three. They also like to see a LOR from law school faculty (to make sure that your personality is not that of a serial killer).

 

[vtucci]

Thanks. The only med school I could feasibly apply to (because like most nontrads I can't uproot a whole family to go to any school that would let me in - I've got to stay local) is fairly easy-going as far a prerequisites go. I'll shoot them an email tomorrow morning and double check that they're cool.

What is local?

 

[dan.sterling]

Local for me is out towards Virginia Beach/Norfolk.

vtucci - How did you find the law school debt then the medical school debt? (Or were you one of those lucky folk who ended up not being hammered for tuition during your JD years?) I'm just starting to make a dent in the $80,000 that law school cost. Adding $100K of medical debt onto that isn't something I'm looking forward to. But I guess that's about what a private medical education would cost.