Applying 12 years After Premed

[MrTyberian]

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Bit of a long life story. I graduated undergrad (NYU '13, cGPA 3.83, sGPA 3.95) majoring in finance but in junior year started doing premed prereqs because I realized I enjoyed the subject matter a lot more. I couldn't apply at the time because I was late switch to premed and didnt have the extracurriculars, but I also needed to go to work because I was the only one able to work in my family then and we had no savings, so I started working in a university psychology department doing research grant administration. Goal was to take a gap year or two working on extracurriculars while my family got back on its feet financially. After work I did ~150 hours volunteering in an ED keeping pt's company, fetching stuff for the nurses, helping with housekeeping, restocking etc, but the financial situation didn't get better and it became obvious I was going to be the only income in the family moving forward. Med School seemed unrealistic at this point, so 2015-2017 I did a Masters in Public Administration specializing in Healthcare Management with the goal of working in hospital administration. Graduated 3.92 GPA with a capstone project working with the NYC HHS population health team designing a draft socioeconomic factor admissions screening tool and helped with the planning phase of research comparing NYC and Montreal healthcare systems. The paper was published, I'm not listed as an author, but included in an acknowledgement in the paper. At this point I was supposed to start working in hospitals, but the timing worked out such that it would've left my boss with 3 critical staff leaving all at once, so out of sense of loyalty I agreed to stay for a bit longer and took a promotion. 2018-2020 I did a masters in industrial engineering, which is a management degree that in hospitals takes care of stuff like patient flow, staffing scheduling, equipment and supplies procurement etc. During this time I maintained a health policy blog which got me involved with a group of physician bloggers and an online book club that does fiction/nonfiction related to medicine. I did some podcasts about policy with these guys, ended up a cohost on the book club, I'm certain I can get recommendations from them. Anyway I finished that masters program with 3.82 GPA, but graduating Spring 2020 obviously was in the middle of COVID and hospitals were not hiring for administrative roles because funding was going to clinical staffing and the supply chain shortages. So I took another promotion at my grant administration job and to be honest kinda tuned out for a couple of years, in part because I was financially stable while the economy was falling apart and in probably in part because of depression over the whole thing. Anyway, this year I started wrapping up my position and applying for hospital jobs, but in the past month my family received an unexpected financial windfall that for the first time makes it easy for me to take off 4-6 years from work to actually go to school without worrying about supporting my mother, so whereas I thought years ago that med school was not going to happen, it's now back as an option.

So now I'm looking for advice on how I should proceed. The biggest problem I see is that I've been tangential to healthcare/medicine but never actually went into it, I admit I've been dragging my feet about it, and why it should be medicine instead of administration. I've spent a decent amount of time at the ER and talking to docs and I know that I love biology way more than policy or administration, I loved being with patients in the ER, I loved the day-to-day variety and the camaraderie among the clinical staff. I suspect my essay would need to focus on explaining on that as well as how socioeconomics affected my road to here. I don't have medical research, and it would be hard for me to pick some up because I've looked into this before and labs want you to come in during business hours but I'm working then. Picking up more clinical volunteering hours would be easier. I haven't shadowed directly, but I could probably get that done. I'm still planning on getting a hospital job in the coming months so I don't know how that's viewed in contrast to shadowing. I haven't done science coursework in a while, but I've done masters level statistics based coursework fairly recently so if necessary I could take a non-credit course in the spring, but I don't know if it would add value and would rather avoid it if possible because working in a hospital instead of the university I won't have tuition remission anymore. My understanding is that premed prereqs generally don't 'expire' so I'm depending on that. I'd have to relearn that coursework for the mcat, but I'm not concerned about that, I'm confident in my academics. I'd be studying to apply in Summer 2025 and if that somehow doesn't work out to reapply in Summer 2026.

If you got this far, thank you for reading. I'm looking for all advice, what I should watch out for, what I have to be doing, what's the biggest gaps you see or concerns you have, what I should lean in on, what has changed about the application process over the past decade.

 

[deleted1197125]

I’ve heard a general rule of thumb is that if the course is taken over 5 years ago, you should probably retake it. I’d double check about your pre reqs not “expiring”. I’m sure it differs school by school. Also, if you kill the mcat I’m sure it won’t matter much at all.

 

[PeteytheFish]

I second what the poster above me said about pre reqs. Reach out to some of your target schools and ask about their policies.

You'll need some shadowing regardless of whether you get a hospital job or not. Try to shadow as many different specialties as you can. I'd also recommend shadowing some PAs so you can answer the 'why MD/DO instead of PA' question with some authority.

Your biggest problem will be proving your case for 'why medicine, why now.' Try to get involved in paid clinical work if you are able (and if not, as many volunteer clinical hours as you can muster). You'd be wise to get some non-clinical volunteering under your belt, though as a non-traditional applicant, that particular burden is a lot less.

The name of the game for you (other than studying for and nailing the MCAT) is going to be getting involved in activities that show that you know what a career in healthcare actually entails and that you aren't running to medicine idealistically or in order to get away from something else.

 

[Stuaccount]

Your experiences are interesting. Aim for schools associated with large hospital networks. MCAT is the one thing you didn’t mention that is going to be critical for your application. You should take a couple of diagnostic/practice exam to see how your academics are. If your practice scores indicate the material is still fresh in your head, then focus on mcat prep for the next few months and do well in it. If things seem harder, take retake a couple of your prereqs like biochem and some other course. But be very honest with yourself about what your practice scores tell you.

The physician bloggers, use them for shadowing opportunities. Start looking at LoR requirements for the schools you want to apply to and start collecting those as you will need some from your science professors. You will have to get very efficient with your time in the next 6 months, otherwise you may want to apply in 2026 instead.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Who are the champions on your quest? Which doctors have you talked to or shadowed? You are around many health professionals so what is their feedback?

Ask admissions officers about your prerequisites. With your additional education, I don't think a bench researcher job is going to add to your application. Your expertise is your systems knowledge which most doctors would crave having.

But you also must get used to being the low person on the totem pole and sucking up to higher ranked people who may just be jerks to you. Maybe your already had to deal with that in your past roles, but that is always the hardest adjustment.