I'm 40, applying this summer. Here's what I understand. We're weirdos. That can be good or bad. I don't think adcoms really know what to do with us. Mostly I think the over-35 applicant pool self-selects out before we apply - medicine is really, really hard, and statistically we have families and mortgages and perfectly reasonable careers calling us back from the insanity. So maybe out of 5000 apps, there are 25 over-35ers. I think it's reasonable for adcoms to fear us for different reasons than they'd fear 22 year olds. What if we left our career because we're slackers, hostile, smelly, obnoxious, or first to get laid off and thank god they're gone? What if we STILL haven't gotten over our daddy complexes? What if we're old and tired and all used up and we don't know it yet? What if our children are at the age where they start experimenting with drugs or get pregnant and need all our time? Kind of like the American Idol outtakes. If I were an adcom I'd be terrified to make the bad admit that everybody regrets, and selecting for youth is one way to claim innocence maybe.
I know that incredibly subjective human eyes are between me and an interview. My numbers aren't fabulous enough for me to autoscreen anywhere. So I need those human eyes to not be age-biased (legality is irrelevant), and to see something in my app that's worth inviting, and just maybe, to see something that demonstrates my extra 20 years of (alleged) maturity and experience in a non-smug, non-arrogant, non-delusional, non-entitled, non-obnoxious, but approachable and healthy and viable and smart way. I'm pretty darned sure that if I put out any vibe that I won't do scut, or will need a nap by 10 pm when I'm on call, or that I expect my abandoned career to impress anybody, then I'm doomed. In hopes of getting past the app screen to an interview, it would be in my best interest to apply to 100 schools. (More likely: 30.)
So let's say some school says hey come for an interview. Wow. So now I'll have a presumably different set of humans to impress. I think the med students doing interviewing will be completely at a loss with a candidate as old as their mom. I'm afraid of the questions that a 22 year old would need 2 minutes to answer. I'll want at least 10 minutes. For example: what is wrong with US health policy? We were born before HMOs, and we voted in 1992 before the LAST time Hillary wanted to fix everything. If we've been paying attention at all for the last 20 years, and we want to be doctors, this is an all-night conversation. So I'm worried about being succinct without squandering my experience card. For an interview with me to succeed, in my view, the adcoms have to get through their normal question list, and ALSO find out if I can hold up physically, if I have a personality that's going to fit in with the 22 year olds, if I can survive the isolation and sleep deprivation, and most importantly, if I'm going to quit, because I can! I can go back to software! Us over-35ers aren't afraid of our parents! What happens when the misery we left is trumped by the misery about to begin?
I live with a surgeon who is finishing residency at 35. She's so darned grown up. She was on the admissions committee at her insanely prestigious school. On the one hand, she says adcoms will simply adore me for going for it and risking everything and for being all interesting and stuff. On the other hand, she says I absolutely have to apply this year. So apparently trying to start med school at 42 is about as advisable as trying to get pregnant at 42, and waiting to try until 43 is a non-choice. Which is ironic, because I actually did give up on motherhood for med school.
So I don't know. If you spend/waste enough time on the internet (such as oldpremeds.com) you can find out more about specific schools and their oldest matriculants etc. But mostly, I'd say get your PS read by as many eyes as possible, keep your nose clean academically, have ECs that compete with or exceed the ECs of 22 year olds, and with some luck, you'll need to do as many preparatory mock interviews as you can get.
Dang, I hate it when I blather. Best of luck to you.
