Hi all! Aspiring physician here, and I’d really like to hear the community’s thoughts on my competitiveness.
I am a non-traditional white male who is looking to transition to medicine after 10 years in the tech industry, most recently as a Senior Product Manager. My educational background though is, well, quite unique. I dropped out of high school in 10th grade simply because I was bored and went straight to college at my local CC. During that time, I bounced around multiple universities in several states (6 in fact) with mediocre grades as I cared for my grandfather. I later enlisted in the Navy but was injured in boot and cycled out. I came home to return to school, but eventually, I dropped out of college to start a company with a few colleagues. We had great success and were later acquired, and I then went into industry leaving school in the past.
Later on, I went back to school, attending ASU Online, and got a degree. I achieved a 3.8 GPA over the span of about 16 courses and finished undergrad with an overall GPA of 3.4. I then did a premed post bacc at Northwestern University and attained a 4.0 post bacc GPA and received a 518 on the MCAT.
During the last few years while making this transition, I’ve volunteered with a local free clinic helping the less fortunate with their care (overall around 400 hours of volunteer hours), volunteered at the local veteran’s hospital helping vets where I can (overall around 150 hours), and shadowed physicians of multiple specialties including a cardio thoracic surgeon, a radiation oncologist, and a cardiologist (overall around 100 hours).
I am now preparing to apply next cycle with my top programs of choice being UChicago, Pitt, UCLA, Emory, and Case. Obviously, I will be applying up and down, and I intend to apply to close to 60 programs including a few DO schools. With all of that said, am I competitive for the programs I’m looking at? Am I competitive at all?
Thanks, everyone!
I am a non-traditional white male who is looking to transition to medicine after 10 years in the tech industry, most recently as a Senior Product Manager. My educational background though is, well, quite unique. I dropped out of high school in 10th grade simply because I was bored and went straight to college at my local CC. During that time, I bounced around multiple universities in several states (6 in fact) with mediocre grades as I cared for my grandfather. I later enlisted in the Navy but was injured in boot and cycled out. I came home to return to school, but eventually, I dropped out of college to start a company with a few colleagues. We had great success and were later acquired, and I then went into industry leaving school in the past.
Later on, I went back to school, attending ASU Online, and got a degree. I achieved a 3.8 GPA over the span of about 16 courses and finished undergrad with an overall GPA of 3.4. I then did a premed post bacc at Northwestern University and attained a 4.0 post bacc GPA and received a 518 on the MCAT.
During the last few years while making this transition, I’ve volunteered with a local free clinic helping the less fortunate with their care (overall around 400 hours of volunteer hours), volunteered at the local veteran’s hospital helping vets where I can (overall around 150 hours), and shadowed physicians of multiple specialties including a cardio thoracic surgeon, a radiation oncologist, and a cardiologist (overall around 100 hours).
I am now preparing to apply next cycle with my top programs of choice being UChicago, Pitt, UCLA, Emory, and Case. Obviously, I will be applying up and down, and I intend to apply to close to 60 programs including a few DO schools. With all of that said, am I competitive for the programs I’m looking at? Am I competitive at all?
Thanks, everyone!
