Biomedical Engineer looking to transition to Medicine

[docbedoc]

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Hi Guys,
You have probably already seen something like this, but any advice is much appreciated.

I am 37 year old BioMed engineer. I have for a long time thought about going to Med School, but time never seemed right. It is a time and financial commitment, and I have two kids, one and three. I finally decided that i can't wait any longer. I have a foreign bachelors, so I enrolled in local community college to satisfy some prefers that I don't have on my transcripts. The ones I am doing are 1 year Bio, 1 year Eng, Biochem and 1 year Org Chem. I am looking to apply for Med School next summer and going to be taking MCAT in May, 2019. I am doing volunteering and shadowing.

I wanted to check if taking Anatomy and Physiology, or intro to genetics is helpful for the med school application. I cannot take both, as I already have a lot of credits to take for spring semester. Any other courses I should be considering instead?

Second question: Are you aware of any Med Schools which will consider the other prefers already on my bachelors transcript?

Thank you so much for all your help.
Wannabe Doc

 

[Tchotchke]

Howdy! First of all, good luck on your journey! I'm a second year in med school. This is my opinion, might not be shared by others.
What seems to be most important is the grade you earn in the science courses, not the specific course. The GPA/MCAT combo is the most important factor. I dont think schools care you took a class that was beyond the required prereqs. When you say "helpful for application" I will interpret that as useful for MCAT studying and med school courses.

I would not recommend taking anatomy because it wont help you for the mcat and your medical school in the future will have a different anatomy focus. You'll likely do cat anatomy, so dont enroll in that right meow.
Physio would be good for both the MCAT and prepare you for med school. It involves a lot of basic physics concepts you prob have down pat, like flow in tubes of varying diameters, pressure differences etc. So you might do well in the class and it will help you for MCAT prep (chem/phys AND bio/biochem section) as well as med school courses. Plus, you might even enjoy the class.

Genetics could be useful too, but i'm blanking right now if there was much of a genetics focus on the MCAT besides nucleotide/codon changes. If you had to pick one, chose physio.

 

[PapaGuava]

Genetics would be helpful for sure, and you will see some of it on the MCAT. Like Tchotchke had said, you basically need to be tactical in the science courses you take, and do well in them. So far in my interviews, I've never had anyone say " Ooh you took Bioinformatics, what interest lead you to take that course?" etc. haha,