Comp SC., HR, Cabin Crew, PSYC

[Clooney? Jk..]

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Hello! I'll try to make the story short, I wanna hear people's opinions and advice.

I did 2 years of Comp. Science and hated it. I did really poorly.
Switched to Human Resources but at a college level - Loved it, and did great (3.7)
While in HR I worked at a Manager in retail

Traveled the world and came back, decided to join an airline as Cabin Crew.
I've been there for 4 years, and I decided to take on this path to Med school. Currently doing part time studies (Psychology), doing fairly well (about 3.5), and hoping to write the MCAT during the spring in 2018.

Question 1: Even though I'm not taking all the science courses (the universities I want to apply with do not require any specific courses), I know I need to do amazing at the MCAT. If I take a prep course, will they teach basics if, say for example, I never took biology or physics?

Question 2: with this kind of background, assuming I do decently well on the MCAT, how are my chances looking?


Best regards,
Definitely not Clooney

 

[Scytale]

Clooney, honestly you're going to need the subject background basics for any MCAT prep course and to do well on the MCAT and a huge percentage of med schools require you to take some iteration of the following classes:

• One year of Biology with lab.
• One year of General Chemistry with lab.
• One year of Organic Chemistry with lab.
• One semester of Biochemistry.
• One year of Physics with lab.
• One year of English

Furthermore most schools want you to have some type of clinical experience under your belt such as being a scribe, a clinical technician, or EMT.

In regards to your second question, sorry I can't really help you there...I'm very interested in what universities don't require you to take those classes and just look at the MCAT.

-Scy

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Clooney, honestly you're going to need the subject background basics for any MCAT prep course and to do well on the MCAT and a huge percentage of med schools require you to take some iteration of the following classes:

• One year of Biology with lab.
• One year of General Chemistry with lab.
• One year of Organic Chemistry with lab.
• One semester of Biochemistry.
• One year of Physics with lab.
• One year of English

Furthermore most schools want you to have some type of clinical experience under your belt such as being a scribe, a clinical technician, or EMT.

In regards to your second question, sorry I can't really help you there...I'm very interested in what universities don't require you to take those classes and just look at the MCAT.

-Scy

Keck has no actual prereq requirements. Probably not getting in there with no clinical experience, no science courses, and a 3.5 though.

 

[wholeheartedly]

You have a unique background, that's for sure. Key points for you moving forward:

1.) Your GPA determined by AMCAS will include every college class you've ever taken, including the comp sci stuff you did poorly on. You'll need to calculate your total cumulative gpa and total science gpa to get an idea where you stand/what your chances might be. Someone posted a handy AMCAS gpa calculator spreadsheet on here.

2.) While there are schools that don't require specific pre req courses, the idea is to allow students to have diverse academic backgrounds. However, they still expect people to have a solid science foundation, they're just more flexible about how you get it. Skipping biology and physics not the best plan.

3) Medical school admissions are highly competitive. Restricting your application to just that handful of schools greatly reduces your odds of success.

4) All the MCAT classes (and books as well) are different as to how much they cover the basics or how in depth they get. In general though, they seem to operate on the premise that you've already been exposed to the material and the pace of the course flows accordingly.There are quite a few posts of nontrads not getting as much out of the courses because their foundations were weaker since they hadn't seen the material in awhile. There are nontrads who've tried to self study for a section of the MCAT they haven't had the course for yet (and usually only one), but most have said it didn't work out as well as they hoped.

5). The biggest questions nontrads get asked at interviews, and something you'll need to address in a personal statement is "Why medicine?" and you'll need to provide solid evidence for why you feel medicine is for you. This evidence comes from firsthand exposure to what doctors do (often shadowing) and what its like to interact with patients (often through clinical volunteering or work) and have a realistic idea of what sucks about working in medicine and healthcare.

The most important thing to know about medical training is that it is a marathon not a sprint. You are looking at your pre reqs, 4 years of medical school, 3-7 years of residency, and if you do a fellowship another 1-3 years on top of that.

So while its hard to see the years go by as a nontrad, in the grand scheme of things taking an extra year to solidify your science background, take the full prereqs to expand your app pool and max your MCAT prep is just drop in the bucket overall.

 

[Dr. Souk]

You have a unique background, that's for sure. Key points for you moving forward:

1.) Your GPA determined by AMCAS will include every college class you've ever taken, including the comp sci stuff you did poorly on. You'll need to calculate your total cumulative gpa and total science gpa to get an idea where you stand/what your chances might be. Someone posted a handy AMCAS gpa calculator spreadsheet on here.

2.) While there are schools that don't require specific pre req courses, the idea is to allow students to have diverse academic backgrounds. However, they still expect people to have a solid science foundation, they're just more flexible about how you get it. Skipping biology and physics not the best plan.

3) Medical school admissions are highly competitive. Restricting your application to just that handful of schools greatly reduces your odds of success.

4) All the MCAT classes (and books as well) are different as to how much they cover the basics or how in depth they get. In general though, they seem to operate on the premise that you've already been exposed to the material and the pace of the course flows accordingly.There are quite a few posts of nontrads not getting as much out of the courses because their foundations were weaker since they hadn't seen the material in awhile. There are nontrads who've tried to self study for a section of the MCAT they haven't had the course for yet (and usually only one), but most have said it didn't work out as well as they hoped.

5). The biggest questions nontrads get asked at interviews, and something you'll need to address in a personal statement is "Why medicine?" and you'll need to provide solid evidence for why you feel medicine is for you. This evidence comes from firsthand exposure to what doctors do (often shadowing) and what its like to interact with patients (often through clinical volunteering or work) and have a realistic idea of what sucks about working in medicine and healthcare.

The most important thing to know about medical training is that it is a marathon not a sprint. You are looking at your pre reqs, 4 years of medical school, 3-7 years of residency, and if you do a fellowship another 1-3 years on top of that.

So while its hard to see the years go by as a nontrad, in the grand scheme of things taking an extra year to solidify your science background, take the full prereqs to expand your app pool and max your MCAT prep is just drop in the bucket overall.

Thanks for the really helpful/thoughtful breakdown