Biology Teacher to MD? (Repost)

[mstori]

I was wondering if anyone was in the teaching profession, and making the transition/necessary steps towards obtaining a medical degree, and practicing medicine. How is the process going for you? Any advice?🙂

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[Signifier]

Hi mstori,

I am currently a biology and physical science teacher at a high school. I will be applying in June to enter medical school in 2012.

Pre-writing secondaries, writing the AMCAS essay and activity statements, getting LORs and trying (now and then) to get some more shadowing experience is altogether a huge amount of stuff to deal with while teaching.

This is all I have to say right now! Where are you in the process?

 

[dolcissimo]

Hey OP,

I graduated with all of my pre-med requirements as an electrical engineer and worked in corporate America for 7 years before becoming a social studies teacher for 3 years. I applied last year and did not get in (but I learned the importance of applying early), got some great feedback on the schools that rejected me, quit my teaching career for more medical experience, and now I have one offer, was told I'm at the top of the wait-list for another school, and feel confident I'll hear from one or two others.

Being a former teacher has many perks - and my med school interviewers told me that they like the skill set it adds for me.

My advice: rock the MCAT, have a good narrative to explain your path from here to medicine, and use your experiences with diverse populations and presenting information to different learning styles to your advantage. Also - my understanding of best-practices in teaching made me gravitate towards PBL schools - and those schools like hearing about that.

 

[uclaussr]

I know a biology teacher from my high school who taught for a couple of years, then went to a top 20 med school. now he is doing an emergency medicine residency. great guy.

 

[SFO-IST]

Yes!

 

[mstori]

Hi mstori,

I am currently a biology and physical science teacher at a high school. I will be applying in June to enter medical school in 2012.

Pre-writing secondaries, writing the AMCAS essay and activity statements, getting LORs and trying (now and then) to get some more shadowing experience is altogether a huge amount of stuff to deal with while teaching.

This is all I have to say right now! Where are you in the process?

When are you able to get shadowing time in? Right now I just started teaching high school biology at a local public school. I love it, but my quest to become a physician is still strong. I just needed to give myself time to get together finiacially before diving into medical school. I am currenty looking into scholarship opportunities and such. I am excited! Where did you get accepted?

 

[mstori]

Hey OP,

I graduated with all of my pre-med requirements as an electrical engineer and worked in corporate America for 7 years before becoming a social studies teacher for 3 years. I applied last year and did not get in (but I learned the importance of applying early), got some great feedback on the schools that rejected me, quit my teaching career for more medical experience, and now I have one offer, was told I'm at the top of the wait-list for another school, and feel confident I'll hear from one or two others.

Being a former teacher has many perks - and my med school interviewers told me that they like the skill set it adds for me.

My advice: rock the MCAT, have a good narrative to explain your path from here to medicine, and use your experiences with diverse populations and presenting information to different learning styles to your advantage. Also - my understanding of best-practices in teaching made me gravitate towards PBL schools - and those schools like hearing about that.

Thank you! When will you be entering your medical program?

 

[DrDrummer]

When are you able to get shadowing time in? Right now I just started teaching high school biology at a local public school. I love it, but my quest to become a physician is still strong. I just needed to give myself time to get together finiacially before diving into medical school. I am currenty looking into scholarship opportunities and such. I am excited! Where did you get accepted?

Teacher --> Medical school student here.

Medicine goes 24/7. There is plenty of time to shadow. If you want primary care exposure, try to find a physician who sees pts on weekends, or take a day off when your kids are doing something a substitute can handle and schedule a full day of observing. Emergency departments and hospital wards are excellent places to start-- I recommend networking to find other people in healthcare professions (ask around, you'd be surprised how many teachers have spouses who work in hospitals, I mean, they're two of the biggest fields of employment ever), and use those connections to get some time shadowing.

My experience was similar to other posters. Apply early, talk about why you're switching, and schools will like the experience. Gives you a lot to talk about in interviews.

 

[JonnyL]

Best of luck to you guys.

 

[dolcissimo]

Thank you! When will you be entering your medical program?

That all depends on where I end up...but it looks like July's a pretty popular time for the white-coat ceremony.

By the way - if you haven't yet taken the MCAT, I dedicated an entire summer to it. I needed that much time because I'd been out of the loop for so long. I don't think I could've done very well studying during the school year.

 

[jtnagle]

I am currently teaching my third year in rural Mississippi (I was a TFA corps member for the first 2 years). I teach Biology I, Biology II, and Introduction to Biology. I will be going to University of Michigan this Fall, feel free to ask any questions.

 

[Signifier]

TFA represent! jt, how is your third year?

I have not been accepted to any medical schools yet, OP. I find time to shadow (rarely) on the weekends where I am not swamped with work.

Good luck to everyone.

 

[jtnagle]

Third year is great! My students have grown from performing in the bottom 5% in the state to now in the top 30%!

As for finding time to volunteer, I never could find a scheduled that worked for me (however that could be due to living in a very rural setting). Instead I increased my exposure to healthcare by creating programs to expose my students. For example a diabetes awareness week that involved students creating information pamphlets to hand out to community members, bringing in local health practitioners to talk about how they use biology everyday in their professions, and organizing a volunteer program for students at a local nursing home.

Medical schools do not want to see the same 4 hrs a week in the ER extracurricular activity on every AMCAS. Adcoms understand that as teachers we are already stretched thin, so find something that benefits both you as a teacher AND you as a applicant.