Trismegistus4,
thats absolutly true. Some schools look for postbacc student applicants who has had some experience in the healthcare field before being accepted into their post bacc programs while other schools do not.
For instance, I have applied to several post bacc programs and most of the schools didnt care if u have had any healthcare experience but schools such as Pennstate puts students who has had healthcare experience as priority before non-experienced students. Also, Upenn wants students who has had experience in healthcare as a requisite for being accepted to the program. I went in for my interview at Upenn and I felt i did really well in the interview and questions the interviewer has asked however, becuase of my lack of healthcare experience, the interviewer really questioned my reasoning for changing my career to medicine. He told me flat out that becuase i do not have much of a healthcare background, I do not fully realize what I am getting myself into. As it turns out, becuase of that i got rejected from the program and I was a lil dissapointed however that experience really made me think. Did i really know what i was getting myself into?
To make a long story short, after long long consideration, i realized that medicine may not have been best path for me.
So all in all, yes some schools require healthcare experience while others dont. Just becuase u do not have much experience in healthcare right now, u can still apply to other schools that do not require volunteer experience. However, i really hope u do know what u are getting yourself into. If you are just like me, you are prolly coming from a non-science background thus u will need to take ALL the general science requirements and you will have a long long tough road ahead of you. But if its really in your heart to become a doctor and you have the time and fianances and discipline to get there, then by all means do it! However u MUST put in hours of volunteer and research during ur postbacc years to be a qualified applicant to medschools.
One reason why i decided not to purse medicine was becuase since im coming from a non-science backgroun more specifically artschool, I feel I am already really behind in my academics and healthcare experience to be considered anywhere near a competative applicant. If u look around this website and check out the medschool student's profiles, i saw that everyone of them had so much credentials and healthcare experience on top of research and leadership backgrounds. Non of which i have right now. But dont let that deter you from pursing your dreams. That just means u are gonna have to bust you butt alot harder to catch up to their level.
Man now i feel like im just babbling on and losing focus of what my point was hehe.
anyways, good luck and think things through thouroughly before you make your choice.
