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[CoolBreezes]

Here's my issue: if I were to try to get back on the medical path (MD or DO, idc, I just want to be a doctor lol), how would I go about it?

My tentative plan is to take the MCAT in 2023 (around April), to start clinical volunteering again on the side, and to start finishing up my prereqs on the side, while continuing working. This might be very hard, but I'm willing to put in the work. Additionally I'd like to keep this job for the following year while I interview (hopefully) and wait for acceptances/rejections, so quitting and going back to school full-time isn't an option for me. Will this path be enough to offset the smudge on my record of dropping out of the postbacc, or is there anything that I'm forgetting here?

Being willing to put in the work is a critical element of your path to becoming a physician. I am not involved in medical school admissions but, based on what you've shared so far, I would be concerned that you would drop out from medical school when the going gets hard (or tech sector job prospects brighten). Getting longitudinal clinical experience and deeply personal, reflective writing about your reasons for seeking to become a physician will help to assuage this concern.

You haven't mentioned any academic challenges so I will assume that your grades to date are fine. If you excel at classes at community college, get instructors at said community college to attest to your intellectual curiosity and classroom engagement, and score highly on the MCAT, then I would imagine that your ability to handle the medical school curriculum wouldn't be called into question. Applying with evidence of only one of those things on your application would be doing yourself a disservice.

My advice is for you to take the time to do this right, if you really are committed to this path.

 

[karaya]

Two questions. 1) How long since you dropped out? 2) Do you have your mentals and family issues firmly under control? If not, do that first. Otherwise it's another risk factor for dropping out of med school.

Straight up: I don't think it's feasible for you to apply in summer 2023. You haven't completed your prereqs, and beside that you don't have any academic letters. And tbh I don't see a lot of commitment in your journey. Why are you staying in a tech job if you want to be a doctor? Presumably the pay is good, but you have to dig yourself out of a hole here. How best to compensate for dropping out? >1 year of patient care employment, good grades, and volunteering.

 

[Med Ed]

Thank you all -- any advice here would be appreciated.

If you take the MCAT in April and bomb it, then you've really dug a hole for yourself. The MCAT is a career-defining exam, and the score will expire in a few years, so there is little reason to take it early in the process. The standard advice is to finish the prerequisite courses and take it after an organized period of study/review, and I think that applies here.

With regard to prereqs, plenty of non-traditional students get into medical school each year having taken required courses at community college. Is it ideal? Perhaps not, but it's also understandable that someone working full time doesn't necessarily have the time or resources to attend a 4-year university. So don't get too hung up on it.

As is often stated on this forum, getting into medical school is a marathon, not a sprint (and being a reapplicant truly sucks).