Beginning my journey, would appreciate some advice.

[mf25]

Hi everyone this is my first post from a long-time lurker. I am currently 24 yrs old and extremely interested in making medicine a career of mine, with orthopedic and sports medicine as a specialty. Overall, I am looking for some advice to back up my personal research on the journey itself.

Background:

Throughout my whole life, I have always been interested in science/medicine because my Dad works in the medical device field and have been around doctors most of the time. However, during my college years, I fell off track for a little bit. I attended a big school with no direction of where I wanted to go career-wise, didn't care about class or grades and halfway through it I kind of "woke up". I then transferred from that school to a smaller school to continue playing baseball and focus on my grades providing that athletics gave me a sense of structure. During my time there I brought my GPA from a 2.0 to a now current undergrad GPA of 2.98 and graduated this past spring of 2018 with a BS in Business Administration. During my last two years, I became interested in finance for the wrong reasons and began applying to whatever job was related to that industry. I have had no luck in securing a job so far considering how hard the finance industry is to break into especially being that I graduated from a sub-par college with a business degree.

Throughout this time after school, I have had ample time to think about what I really want to do with my life and I've come to realize that finance or business does not fit me at all.

More recently, I had a second "wake up call" and I got into a pretty bad car accident which put me in the hospital. While there I kept thinking how interesting medicine actually was. It was amazing to me how the doctors patching me up were able to put their learned skills to work, heal me and help me survive. The accident made me realize that your life could be taken away at any second, so why not do something that is interesting to yourself and rewarding in the sense that you are also able to help people.

That being said, I've come to the conclusion that I will attend school again for a PostBac program with the intention of attending Med School after. I understand that the journey is extremely tough and grueling but I believe I'm ready to hit it head-on.

I have already called most PostBac programs, talked to admissions and the majority of them said that they accept people based on a holistic approach. They said that if I provide a solid case for myself with great letters of recommendation I have just as much of a chance as any.

So I ask you guys, is this true? What programs do you guys think are practical? What can I do to improve my case?

Any advice is welcome and much appreciated.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[NITRAS]

I’d be careful you were getting more school because you didn’t get a job in finance.

You do know it’s really important to know finance and business to be a successful doc, right.

 

[mf25]

I’d be careful you were getting more school because you didn’t get a job in finance.

You do know it’s really important to know finance and business to be a successful doc, right.

Yes, of course. What do you mean by be careful getting more school though?

 

[Goro]

Yes, of course. What do you mean by be careful getting more school though?

I believe that what Nitras means is that you need to be running TO Medicine, and not merely from a bad job market in Finance.

 

[solitarius]

• I think it's tempting for pre-meds to idealize medicine. Spend some time volunteering at a public health clinic and getting to know the staff to get a real grip on what this profession is like.
• Ortho is the #1 gunner specialty in medical school. Few make it, and you will be competing against people for whom studying at the medical school level is second nature.
• Don't want to discourage you, but the competition to get into medical school is getting more absurd. 60% rejection rate among a self-selecting group.

 

[mf25]

I believe that what Nitras means is that you need to be running TO Medicine, and not merely from a bad job market in Finance.

Ah I see. I didn't mean to make it seem like that, meant that the time I've had while trying to find a job lead me to do some "soul searching." Still a good point though.

 

[mf25]

• I think it's tempting for pre-meds to idealize medicine. Spend some time volunteering at a public health clinic and getting to know the staff to get a real grip on what this profession is like.
• Ortho is the #1 gunner specialty in medical school. Few make it, and you will be competing against people for whom studying at the medical school level is a breeze.
• Don't want to discourage you, but the competition to get into medical school is getting more absurd. 60% rejection rate among a self-selecting group.

Good idea.

 

[curbsideconsult]

For you, it seems like the best route would be to enroll at your local college/university and take one or two science classes to see if you can handle it. It doesn't sound like you're in any rush. Start with bio 1 and gen chem 1, but make sure they're the classes for majors and/or pre-meds and not the really easy science courses for students who simply need to fulfill a general graduation requirement. If you can handle those classes, then sign up for a full load the next semester and keep going from there. You don't need to be enrolled in a structured post-bacc program unless you really want to.

If you really want to do medicine, you have to show it. You have to find some clinical experience. If you get a lot of clinical experience, I don't think shadowing is something you need to do. If you don't get a lot of clinical experience, you should get 40-50 shadowing hours with a primary care physician. Also start volunteering at a couple of places where you can show service to the needy.

 

[Campana]

In addition to the feedback you have above, I'd recommend you take a look at how many courses you'd need to take to get your AMCAS GPA up.

I've seen 3.0 as the bottom bottom goal and 3.5 as a safer goal. You're young and have time to take lots of additional undergraduate courses - all of which can help your GPA and preparation for MCAT. I'm guessing you don't have many classes in your Science GPA yet, so that one may be better off.

But, as has been said, we are all running in a very competitive race here and you should always make every attempt your best attempt (read: always do the work needed to get an A)

You have time - make sure you use it to know what you're getting into (see previous posts about getting clinical experience) and that you present the best picture of your potential (excellent grades/MCAT).

Also - see @Goro 's advice on reinvention (easy to search for here on SDN)

Good luck!