Between Lawyer and Doctor

[sottovoce]

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Hey SDN,

Hope you are all having a great day. I am currently going into my third year undergraduate at a big state school, and have about a 3.94 in my chosen major of History and Political Science.

I am between becoming a doctor and a lawyer. I want to maintain the high GPA that I have to maximize my chances for getting into a very good law school, and am scared that experimentation with science classes will bring it down. Thus, my plan is to graduate as quickly as possible (at the end of my junior year) with degrees in History and Political Science, and then go into a post-bacc if I want to, or continue into law school. My intention is to pretty much keep both doors open. I was wondering if 1. you see any holes in this plan 2. if you can get into a post-bacc without significant (outside of a biology class, and a earth science class) coursework in the sciences. Lemme know if you have any questions, and thanks in advance for any responses.

 

[type12]

The plan is solid, and yes, you can get into many post-baccs without the sciences. In fact, places like Bryn-Mawr require a lack of science courses.

I see no issue with your plan, with the caveat that I do not know how (God forbid) poor performance in a science postbac will have on your chances to law school should you change your mind.

 

[sottovoce]

Thank you so much for the quick reply. I am planning on making the decision on whether to go to Law School/Medical School before I enter a post-bacc program so I don't forsee that being a problem. Thanks again!

 

[Bboy1985]

A post-bacc into medicine is going to take you an extra 4-5 semesters of coursework if you don't have anything from general chemistry done. Would be something to consider if you don't mind taking an extra 2 years out to do medicine versus going into law.

 

[sottovoce]

Yeah, it has been something that has definitely bothered me. I figured that an extra two years is a small price to pay, considering that deciding one way or another will likely stay with me for life. I figure I would be out of med school/residency by the time I am 32-33, which doesn't sound too terrible to me.

 

[Bboy1985]

If you haven't graduated yet, i'd recommend going through Gen Chem 1 at least before you graduate to see how well you can hang in a harder science class than a general biology. That way if you find out its harder than you anticipated it won't hurt your GPA too terribly much.

 

[sottovoce]

^Very good advice. I'll take that 2nd semester of this year (Juniro Year). Any idea as to how difficult this is in comparison to other classes (i.e Orgo) that are usually thought of as much more difficult?

 

[Bboy1985]

ITunes has free university courses from campuses like Stanford on them, this includes every single lecture recorded in a standard in person class at stanford as well as notes and sometimes parts from the books are included, all free. I'd recommend checking that out and watching some of the first sets of videos to see how hard it is for you since everyone is different.

 

[sottovoce]

Great. Will do. Any idea if that will take me out of the running for certain post-bacc programs such as Bryn-Mawr, or any program that requires a lack of science courses?

 

[deleted248403]

Hey SDN,

Hope you are all having a great day. I am currently going into my third year undergraduate at a big state school, and have about a 3.94 in my chosen major of History and Political Science.

I am between becoming a doctor and a lawyer. I want to maintain the high GPA that I have to maximize my chances for getting into a very good law school, and am scared that experimentation with science classes will bring it down. Thus, my plan is to graduate as quickly as possible (at the end of my junior year) with degrees in History and Political Science, and then go into a post-bacc if I want to, or continue into law school. My intention is to pretty much keep both doors open. I was wondering if 1. you see any holes in this plan 2. if you can get into a post-bacc without significant (outside of a biology class, and a earth science class) coursework in the sciences. Lemme know if you have any questions, and thanks in advance for any responses.

I guess ill raise the obvious - why do you want to do medicine?

What is your exposure to it? How do you know you want to do it? Have you touched/smelled a patient?

The top post-bacs won't touch you without answers to these questions

 

[sottovoce]

I guess ill raise the obvious - why do you want to do medicine?

What is your exposure to it? How do you know you want to do it? Have you touched/smelled a patient?

The top post-bacs won't touch you without answers to these questions

I think that the answers to these questions will have to come with a little bit more prodding into volunteering at the local hospital/shadowing my father (who is a private practice cardiologist) etc. The reason I am between the two is because I am not sure if I want to do medicine yet. My interest in Medicine is pretty cliche - I think that it is the most noble profession, and that no profession more purely helps people. Bringing people back from the brink of death, no matter how far they are - is I think something very much worth dedicating your life to. I don't have any experience in volunteering/etc. How do you recommend I build a resume? If I have no volunteering/medical experience at all, is it possible to get into a post-bacc program (A good one at that?) Also, is GPA at all a thing that post-bacc adcoms use to determine admission?

 

[deleted248403]

I think that the answers to these questions will have to come with a little bit more prodding into volunteering at the local hospital/shadowing my father (who is a private practice cardiologist) etc. The reason I am between the two is because I am not sure if I want to do medicine yet. My interest in Medicine is pretty cliche - I think that it is the most noble profession, and that no profession more purely helps people. Bringing people back from the brink of death, no matter how far they are - is I think something very much worth dedicating your life to. I don't have any experience in volunteering/etc. How do you recommend I build a resume? If I have no volunteering/medical experience at all, is it possible to get into a post-bacc program (A good one at that?) Also, is GPA at all a thing that post-bacc adcoms use to determine admission?

I'll answer your questions first..... 1) i'll elaborate more on that in a min 2) It is possible to get into A post-bac program, just not a good one. The elite ones want a clear and demonstrated history of why you want to do medicine. You essentially have to be med-school ready, minus the pre-reqs 3) Yes post-bac adcoms care about GPA because med schools care about it. If you had a 2.0 cGPA you aren't getting into the elite programs because you then wouldn't get into med school, and that would hurt their numbers.

In terms of building your interest in medicine - do not shadow your father. It is frowned upon. Better yet, is to ask him to introduce you to colleagues and shadow them. You will need a LOR from somewhere eventually, and you can't get one from Daddy. However, you can get one from your dad's colleagues. Use his network to get into a bunch of different fields and shadow them starting immediately. In terms of hands on stuff - you can contact hospitals and see what they have for volunteer programs; you can also contact nursing homes or other care facilities (dialysis units) and see if they have opportunities. I would also start getting involved in your school's pre-med society and see what they are upto. Finally, you can consider becoming an EMT to get some hands on experience - its a big commitment, and doesn't carry as much weight with Adcoms as it used to, but its still an excellent way to get your hands dirty.

 

[sottovoce]

I'll answer your questions first..... 1) i'll elaborate more on that in a min 2) It is possible to get into A post-bac program, just not a good one. The elite ones want a clear and demonstrated history of why you want to do medicine. You essentially have to be med-school ready, minus the pre-reqs 3) Yes post-bac adcoms care about GPA because med schools care about it. If you had a 2.0 cGPA you aren't getting into the elite programs because you then wouldn't get into med school, and that would hurt their numbers.

In terms of building your interest in medicine - do not shadow your father. It is frowned upon. Better yet, is to ask him to introduce you to colleagues and shadow them. You will need a LOR from somewhere eventually, and you can't get one from Daddy. However, you can get one from your dad's colleagues. Use his network to get into a bunch of different fields and shadow them starting immediately. In terms of hands on stuff - you can contact hospitals and see what they have for volunteer programs; you can also contact nursing homes or other care facilities (dialysis units) and see if they have opportunities. I would also start getting involved in your school's pre-med society and see what they are upto. Finally, you can consider becoming an EMT to get some hands on experience - its a big commitment, and doesn't carry as much weight with Adcoms as it used to, but its still an excellent way to get your hands dirty.

Thanks for the reply. Would part time stuff work? I am really into politics and like to spend my summers working for campaigns (have an internship at the White House this summer!) and am just not ready to make a commitment to Post-bac work. Are you saying that I have to make a commitment now or face doing this after graduation and perhaps wasting an extra year or two?

 

[deleted248403]

Thanks for the reply. Would part time stuff work? I am really into politics and like to spend my summers working for campaigns (have an internship at the White House this summer!) and am just not ready to make a commitment to Post-bac work. Are you saying that I have to make a commitment now or face doing this after graduation and perhaps wasting an extra year or two?

Correct.... you need to spend a summer doing medical things. You need to figure out if this is for you or not.

 

[sottovoce]

Just one summer would suffice?

Correct.... you need to spend a summer doing medical things. You need to figure out if this is for you or not.

Would just one summer suffice in the eyes of AdComm?

 

[DrMidlife]

I agree w/robflanker in principle here, but I disagree that a dedicated summer is required. It's too easy to get a bad summer gig or get one that doesn't require you to do anything. So I'd vote to keep that internship, but see what you can do to make it specific to health care. Start asking whoever is in charge of you, right now, without relenting. That will work out whether you do law or medicine.

Generally the typical premeds have lab and/or clinical research experience, which isn't required to get into med school. People who start med school without undergrad research experience who want to match into very competitive specialties have to play catchup during med school. But it's not a given that trying to do research in undergrad will be successful. My advice on this: don't worry about it.

What you should start doing right now: get a clinical volunteering gig 4 hrs/wk, and keep doing it until you are in med school or until you give up on med school.

I also agree on not shadowing your dad. No way. Generally you want to use your dad as one of 3-5 sources of information as you pursue medicine. You should be forming questions during your volunteer gig, and using your shadow docs to get answers which will contradict each other, and then using your educated and mature brain to decide what's true for you.

Lastly, be bigger than a rodent in a maze looking for the adcom formula. Be better than that. Think.

Best of luck to you.

 

[deleted248403]

I agree w/robflanker in principle here, but I disagree that a dedicated summer is required. It's too easy to get a bad summer gig or get one that doesn't require you to do anything. So I'd vote to keep that internship, but see what you can do to make it specific to health care. Start asking whoever is in charge of you, right now, without relenting. That will work out whether you do law or medicine.

I certainly dont think you should give up that internship - thats an amazing opportunity. But I do believe that you need to accumulate significant hours to decide for yourself. One summer would accomplish this, but you can also do this thru out the school year.

 

[sottovoce]

Great advice from the both of you. Thanks so much. Was not expecting to get this much useful info this quickly. I will def try to get the clinical volunteering gig. I go to U of M so I am sure they are looking for people to do some grunt work at the Hospital.

 

[VolunteerMoose]

why not do both? there are some MD JD programs out there.

 

[DrMidlife]

why not do both? there are some MD JD programs out there.

👍

I have a buddy who deferred her med school acceptance to go to law school. Which means she had her act together to get acceptances for both and had choices. Choices are good.