Attorney to Dr???

[rgem2005]

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Hi, I'm not sure if my post belongs in this forum, but I'll ask my questions anyways. I'm a 3rd yr law student thinking about applying to med school. I have a couple of concerns, one being I'll be 27/28 if I do decide to apply. Would I be considered too old by some schools?

My other concern is that I only took 2 science courses in college and did poorly on both. Although I never thought of myself as a science person, I think that law school has somehow helped me grasp concepts better. I've been looking at some bio/chem materials and it doesn't look as bad as I remember it. Am I being silly for thinking about med school again?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[mev]

I'm in a different situation, but you're not alone. Try this thread:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=206868

You'll see stories of people with past low grades to overcome, people much older than yourself pressing forward anyway, and several people coming out of the law profession and interested in medicine. Good luck!

 

[Law2Doc]

Hi, I'm not sure if my post belongs in this forum, but I'll ask my questions anyways. I'm a 3rd yr law student thinking about applying to med school. I have a couple of concerns, one being I'll be 27/28 if I do decide to apply. Would I be considered too old by some schools?

My other concern is that I only took 2 science courses in college and did poorly on both. Although I never thought of myself as a science person, I think that law school has somehow helped me grasp concepts better. I've been looking at some bio/chem materials and it doesn't look as bad as I remember it. Am I being silly for thinking about med school again?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

You will not be considered too old, and are not being silly. I was a practicing attorney older than you are, was not a science person at all, and did the law to postbac to med school route. I too felt my study skills and conceptiual understanding really kicked in in law school (not sure if it was law school or maybe it is a function of getting older/ more mature) - not that unusual an experience.
My only real concern about your situation is that, based on what I've seen on SDN, you may face a bit of a hurdle applying directly from law school to a postbac to med school, as schools don't want people they perceive as "professional students" jumping aimlessly from school to school, or ones who are not well thought out in what they want to do with their life. Also people who don't know what they want to do, but know they want to be a professional, are troubling to interviewers - being a physician for status reasons is not considered a good reason to go into the field. A med school is going to want to be sure that after you spend four years there, you are not going to say "medicine isn't really for me - maybe I want to get a MBA/MPH/DDS etc.", etc. So I personally found it a much easier sell to have worked for quite a while in my initially chosen profession, and felt I was able to bring a lot more to the table in terms of diversity, thanks to that. (There are several people on here taking the direct from school to school route, or who have never practiced, who may likely disagree with me though - you may want to hear their insight before relying on mine). If you don't choose to become licensed and work in law prior to making the switch, (or even if you do) I strongly suggest you do a ton of shadowing and volunteer (or paid) hospital work so that you can go into the application process with your eyes open and be able to say for a near certainty that you have a good sense of what medicine is all about and that you really want in. (You'll need good LORs from physicians anyhow, so this won't be a wasted effort).
There is also the issue of having massive student loans if you do two professional schools back to back without ever having worked in between to pay them down.
Good luck!

 

[rgem2005]

Hi guys, thanks for your repsonses.
I'm not 100% sure about med school, so I'm going to try to do some volunteering at a hospital first. I might also take the spring mcats and see how I do on them. I don't want to give up my law career. I did a clerkship this year and loved the work. But I'm feelign a little restless and med school had been my first choice...untill I took freshman bio that is 🙂

 

[medworm]

Funny... I know a science geek who did the opposite: a year of med school and then switched to law.

 

[gpumpkin67]

I am in a similar situation --- I am a 2L/MPH student (age 26) preparing to apply to med school as a 3L next summer. I'm not sure that I have much advice yet, although I think that you probably do want to start those pre-reqs now (in addition to getting some volunteer experience) to (a) ensure that you can be successful in those courses (b) minimize the amount of time you have to spend in a post-bacc program (c) help you decide if you really want to pursue it. besides, what else do you have to do as a 3L? 😳
on the "take the mcat and see how i do approach" -- i did this. i thought, "oh, i did pretty well on the lsat without preparing, how could the mcat be any different?" ... well, it is. while you can take it again, you probably do want to invest some serious time in preparing for it (esp if you will not have completed the pre-reqs first).
I am already anticipating Law2Doc's "professional student" problem in interviews, but I think (hope?) that there are possibilities for working at the intersection of law and medicine...
This is a kind of interesting (perhaps outdated, not very fancy) website with some examples: http://md-jd.info/jd-md.htm
of course, maybe you just want to practice medicine...in which case, i think you should definitely try, otherwise you will always wonder...

 

[Sainttpk]

It seems like we have quite a few people on this board who are leaving the legal profession for medicine.

I am in a similar boat as you. I will give you a little insight as to what I am doing, maybe it will be of some help to you. After my 2L year, I got my EMT certification, and I Am currently looking for jobs as an EMT or ER tech, In addition to working in the health care field I have also decided to take one math course a quarter during my 3L year. That way I have a jump start on my med school prereqs.

In addition to all I mentioned above, I am taking all health law classes. Our school has a health law program, and I figured that since I am going to be a doctor, I might as well know about the legal issues prevailing in health care. I.E. HIPPA, medicade, medicare, medical fraud/liability, and payment schemes.

I would encourage you to make the most out of your law school experince. I for one never thought I was smart enough to be a doctor before law school, now that I have been in law school my study skills are 10x times better then ever!! I am curious why you have decided to switch? I love talkin to those in the legal profession who want to switch to medicine.

T