Anyone non-traditional?

[Shanna]

Hello there... I've been browsing through this forum for a few days now and I haven't seen any topics on what concerns me. Maybe I missed them and someone can please point me in the right direction after I explain my situation?

My college doesn't have a pre-med program, so I'm making one from scratch under a BSc-General major. I intend to apply to a canadian med school for the 04 year. I'm taking a nice mix of class types- accelerated, online, reg semester nights and reg semester days. I'm doing volunteer work at a nearby hospital as well. I enrolled in college in 1998, and I have never taken an SAT. I am literally cramming 3 and a half years of school into one and a half. No website, book, paper, etc... for those who wish to go to med school seems to have information for people like me. They list timelines & advice that I can't use, doesn't apply to me. What I'd like to know is how I'm doing in comparison to other non-traditional pre-med students. How do I figure out when to take my MCAT? Do I just pretend like 02-03 is my junior year and 03-04 is my senior year? I have never taken a student loan and I find that in order to complete my degree I will need to do so and while I understand the basics of taking a loan, I don't know how to go about combining loan +scholarship/grant etc.

Are all of you laughing at me now? I'd love any advice, a point in someone else's direction...

Thank you

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[jenni4476]

I'm not taking an accelerated schedule like you but I will try to answer some of your questions as far as the basics go:

1. Though I haven't taken the MCAT yet, I understand that you need to have your general bio, gen chem, organic chem, and physics classes out of the way to even understand what they're talking about. I've also seen posts where they say having had biochem and genetics is helpful. It doesn't depend on your "year in school", you just need to have the knowledge base in place. So I would say once you have these classes out of the way go for it-this will give you ample time to retake it if you bomb the first time around. Most med schools accept MCAT scores that are up to three years old, so you should be fine there even if you take it next April.

2. While I don't know how the Canadian system for financial aid works, in the US you have to first submit the FAFSA (Financial Application for Federal Student Aid-I think) to the government. They then calculate your financial need and eligibility for certain types of aid based upon what school you are going to and your particular situation and forward those numbers to the school. The particular school's financial aid department is then responsible for figuring out the final package for you as far as grants and loans are concerned. Scholarships, on the other hand, need to be applied for. Most schools consolidate a lot of them into a single application and they are awarded based on the criteria (need-based, program of study, academic achievement, etc.). However, there are also scholarships outside of the school that you can apply for as well (affiliated with organizations, companies, etc.) If you do a search for "scholarships" on the Internet, you should be able to find a whole bunch of sites (but be prepared to spend quite a bit of time sifting through them!) Contact the particular school you want to apply to, maybe they can explain their specific process better.

Hope this helps and if any of my information is inaccurate I apologize. It's just what I've gotten out of my research (god knows us premeds do enough of it on these types of things )

Good luck!!