Anyone applying to other professional schools just in case?

Nope.

I took the MCAT and I'll be damned if I'm going to that another standardized test before my USMLE's.

 

nope, im going for all or nothin

 

I don't intend to, but I think that anything other than the MD/DO route could be problematic because it demonstrates a vacillating or dubious dedication to a particular career. For example, why would you apply to a law school and a medicine school and claim that you are sure of your career? I don't mean this to be criticizing, but I don't think it's a good idea to apply to more than one profession. If one cannot choose between different professions, the best thing to do is to wait, get more experience and make a final decision. It's better to spend an extra year choosing your career than making a decision you might regret.

With that said, I am also interested in hearing people who have an interest in more than one career, their justifications for doing so and their ultimate decision.

Good thread OP,
-Dr. P.

 

I have looked at nursing and pharmacy, but nothing gives you the satisfaction like an MD. Being able to help people and being boss, can't beat that. But on a serious note if for whatever reason I do not get into ANY medical schools after like the third try, well, my backup I guess is pharmacy. Let's hope it doesn't get to that point.

 

The thing I have with this type of question is that if you apply to other professional programs, don't get into med school and go ahead and do those other programs, then how sure are you of medicine in the first place? Or... if you are really sure but you didn't get in so you pursue something else just to get a career started, then how happy will you be in that career if you know in your heart that medicine is for you?

I say to have horse blinds on if you're that devoted to medicine. Having a related job (lab technician, paramedic, etc.) in the meantime to make some money to support yourself is not a bad idea at all but only if they're not career-ish type jobs. Similarly, if you already have all the experience in the world as it relates to medicine and you want to use this time to pursue an outside interest while making money, then that's a good way to go as well; again, as long as it's not a career job. Who knows though? Maybe over the course of your job, it can develop into a career as you find that you're satisfied with what you do and you see potential in it. People change and that's normal. But something like physical therapy, which involves a lot of training in itself, is not the best idea unless you want to do that for a while (a while by this definition means in terms of years, not months).

It's all relative though; this is just my 5 cents. Take 2 and keep the change.

 

If you want to go med, and settle for something else, your going to end up some whiny optometrist lobbying for surgical rights.

 

^ Or the proverbial chiropractor/masseuse who insists on being called "doctor".

 

so true, if you want an MD, then any other path will leave you wondering what if and bitter, so very bitter

 

I understand what you all are saying, but what if you want to do a combined degree and want to make sure you're at least partially on your way this year? For example, what if you want to do an MD/JD, so you apply to some schools but also apply to a few law schools separately. This way if something flubs up, at least you're working on your law degree, right? Same with graduate schools I'd say if you're interestedin MD/PhD.

 

hey what did you do your senior thesis on?

 

Well the title was (kinda long) "High-Throughput Substrate-Activity Screens and Mechanistic Studies with Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetases Using Large Molecule Mass Spectrometry"
Roughly it developed a highly efficient substrate screening technique to characterize NRPS enzymes. NRPSs are large multi-modular enzymes that build peptides without using a nucleic acid template (i.e. all the information is for building the peptide product is found on the NRPS itself). Each enzyme can be broken into "modules" each of which is responsible for adding 1 amino acid to the growing peptide chain, just like ribosomal peptide synthesis. The peptide products are bioactive compounds like antibiotics, immunosupressants, and anti-tumor agents. NRPS enzymes give microorganisms a weapon to fight other microorganisms. For example, bacteria can secrete antibiotics to kill other bacteria. In fact, penicillin is made from an NRPS system. The thought is that if we can understand how bacteria make antibiotics using these systems, we can learn to make better antibiotics of our own. For example, one of the findings of our studies was a possible method to make more soluble forms of the antibiotics clorobiocin and coumermycin, two aminocoumarin antibiotics that are effective in treating MRSA, a common deadly hospital infection, but are not able to be used in humans because they are insoluble. Also in the distant future, scientists hope to be able to 'cut and paste' individual modules to create basically any peptide product that they want.

Hopefully that was enough big words to make you think I know what I'm talking about Let me know if I was unclear on anything or you'd like to know more...

Cheers,
J

 

Will other schools (med schools) know if you applied to other professional schools (dental, pharm..) ?

 

ITT people believe no one can have several passions.

 

i don't think so since they all use different application services.

 

Hahah yea that was what I was thinking but I heard from someone that they will know? I guess they can ask you during an interview but I don't know how else they would find out.

just wondering!

 

They won't know but you would have to be pretty convincing when they ask, "Why dentistry, pharmacy, etc?"

If you want to be a doctor, do your best to do that, as the other professions you mention are very different.

To the other poster: As for "being the boss", you can do that in dentistry, pharmacy, pod, and others. What are you referring to?

I know people go into professional schools for various reasons (including money) and there isn't anything wrong with that IMHO; people want stable careers with a good lifestyle. The important thing is to be honest with yourself and your reasons for doing it and definitely know what you're getting into. If it is for the money, remember that you are helping patients too and that is part of your job! You should do your best to fulfill that.

Unfortunately, to get into any professional school, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops that are mainly BS. Fortunately, a lot of the pre-reqs are the same.

 

ITT no one cares because the thread is five years old.

 

Haha I didn't even notice that!