Best route for me? Somewhat unique background

[tedalbany]

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Hey everyone!

I'm trying to figure out the best route into med school given my background, any help would be appreciated.

Stats (and the TL;DR)
- Graduated from a decent/flagship state school in 2010, 3.52 cGPA in Psychology (no real science background did take AP Calc + Calc II in college)
- Went to law school for a year. Did pretty well, top 15% (~3.5) at a top 30 school, just hated law and had no interest in spending another 100k to finish so I took a leave to figure things out
*Variety of semi interesting internships from legal days. Interned for Federal judges and wrote opinions, interned for NY City council.
- Currently working for one of the largest medical software companies (~6 mos experience so far), get to work in hospitals every now and then for floor support
- 24 y/o (don't want to wait much longer for this and be a 35 y/o resident)
- Plan on volunteering between now and whenever I apply (start applying to Post-bacs next spring)

Story
I know my biggest weakness will probably be that I appear to not know what I want to do. I think I can create a decent narrative though. I wanted to go to med school since middle/high school. I started out pre-med in college and was an astronomy major, however I ended up with a 2.9 gpa. I panicked since I knew that wouldn't fly for med schools (there weren't even really any science courses involved). I had an interest in politics and entrepreneurship too, so figured I'd go the law route since they weren't as GPA selective. I maintained around a 3.8 average every semester after the first year. It was more adjustment issues than course difficulty, I still did decent even in a pre-med dominated neuroscience class. Went to law school, instantly realized how much of a terrible mistake that was. I did pretty well with minimal effort, but I just had no interest in becoming an attorney. Desk jobs in general don't appeal to me at all.

I left to get some work experience, sort things, and make some money. My job is still mostly desk work which I'm not crazy about, but I do get to fly out to hospitals every now and then. I love being in the hospitals, on my feet all day, working with nurses and physicians.

I don't have great credit so I'm looking for a post-bac route that will be relatively easy to finance through fed loans and my own savings (ie Harvard Extension?). If I actually get into med school I don't think I'll have a problem finding a PLUS cosigner or clearing up any adverse history.


Questions

So what are my odds of getting into a decent post-bac? Should I go the structured route or just take community college/4 yr pre-reqs? Any post-bac programs that I should definitely look into? So far the best option seems like Harvard because of the cost and easy entry.

Is there a chance of me getting into med school? I'm also a pretty good standardized test taker (~95th %ile on LSAT), so hopefully this will translate to the MCAT too (which is entirely speculative).

Anything I should be doing aside from work+saving/volunteering/shadowing?


Thanks in advance!! It's a huge risk to leave a good job for a post-bac with no guarantee of getting into med school, so I just want to cover all my bases. (There are no post-bacs within 100 miles of my job).

 

[Goucher2013]

I hate to be blunt, but your story is fairly abundant on this forum and with postbacs in general. There are lots of law dropouts. I presume you're currently working for a company like Epic, which isn't that unusual, either.

Your GPA can be explained pretty easily as a first-year slump. Your LSAT score is excellent. You just need to start getting lots of shadowing/volunteering under your belt, and start thinking of a life story angle that will make you stand out, both in terms of past (mis)deeds and demonstrably strong fit and desire for medicine. I also recommend long-term volunteering with a free clinic or similar. Beats short-term stuff every time, even if it's some glamorous trip abroad.

In terms of credit worries, I'd say aim for a structured postbacs, e.g. Bryn Mawr, Hopkins. Places like Goucher have switched to postgraduate status, which means Grad PLUS loan and higher Stafford eligibility, so no worries about private loans. I don't think HES or similar are structured that way.

In terms of switching to medicine being risky...it isn't really. You'll still have a safety net afterwards. Still be employable afterwards. Yes, $5-30k in debt from a failed career switch sucks, but there are far greater penalties for failure out there. There's no need to make this process sound dramatic for yourself. It's straightforward, and you're no outlier in any negative way. The less anxious you get, the better you'll feel day-to-day, and the better your postbac and med school interviews will go.