Full time RN wanting to go to UTHealth med school

[RNmadeMD]

Hey guys I really could use some advice. I currently work as an Rn full time in the ICU and I want to go to UTHealth medical school. I am wondering for any of you who are currently enrolled there or know about this but I plan to take my prerequisites at a community college due to pricing and low student ratio (I learn better in smaller classes) (I also have a bsn in nursing). If I get all As in them all and do really well on my MCAT should I be okay with getting in? I am 27 soon to be married with no kids at the moment as well.
Thank you guys all replies are welcome!

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[goatmed]

Many successful applicants begin their undergraduate careers in community colleges (you can see a discussion on it in this thread, for instance) but eventually you may have to jump into four-year institution because of upper level course requirements and the need for a bachelor's degree.
Another older thread includes this video with better recommendations than I can give on getting there

But, yes, if you do your first few years in community college, manage your extracurricular requirements, letters of recommendation, and do well on the MCAT, you can get accepted to a medical school such as UTHealth (or virtually anywhere else depending on how well you do 🙂 )
If you're concerned with the particular requirements of UTHealth, you can get this tool called the MSAR that includes the stats of accepted applicants and matriculants to US MD schools.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Hey guys I really could use some advice. I currently work as an Rn full time in the ICU and I want to go to UTHealth medical school. I am wondering for any of you who are currently enrolled there or know about this but I plan to take my prerequisites at a community college due to pricing and low student ratio (I learn better in smaller classes) (I also have a bsn in nursing). If I get all As in them all and do really well on my MCAT should I be okay with getting in? I am 27 soon to be married with no kids at the moment as well.
Thank you guys all replies are welcome!

Hi and welcome!
I would suggest reading this guide. https://oaa.rice.edu/sites/g/files/...Dental Guide for Rice Students 20171113_0.pdf A lot of it applies only to traditional applicants, but it will contain a lot of useful information and the general expectations that med schools have from their applicants.

I would suggest taking courses at a traditional institution, as some medical schools do see someone who takes all of their prereqs at a community college as "dodging" the harder classes in a 4 year university. This isn't required at all, but will look better.

Since you are an RN, you have a lot of doors open for volunteering and clinical experience. You will need volunteering experience at some point during your journey, so I would work on that.

Lastly, it isn't a good idea to focus on just one school. Since you are in Texas, you can apply to all medical schools in the state for a one relatively cheap fee. But generally even the most well rounded applicants apply to many many schools, and get accepted at a few. So, I would not focus too much on medical school, but rather your career as a whole.

Hope this helps!

 

[RNmadeMD]

Hey bud thank you for the reply. Well I got my bachelors already this would just be specifically for my pre requisite science courses.

 

[calivianya]

You didn't mention if you work nights or days. IMO, way easier to complete the requirements at a four-year university if you work nights... I just scheduled my classes mostly Monday through Thursday, with an early Friday morning class (one, max) if I had to, and then worked 12s Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

Skip the community college and just get your classes from a university. It looks way better on your application.

Also, don't think your RN experience will carry you through... it won't. You will still be expected to tack on the community service and research if you want to be truly competitive for MD school, and you will have more opportunities, research especially, at a university.

 

[SpoiledMilk]

As a nontraditional premed with a BSN already, taking your prereqs at a CC is fine. Make sure you ace all of them because TX medschools love high GPAs, crush the MCAT, and have the requisite ECs.
TMDSAS schools will accept credits from CC and will not have issues with them as long as your MCAT score is competitive.
There are 6 UT-Health schools and 4 others that currently fall under the TMDSAS.
Here is the link to TMDSAS' schools and the prereqs: TMDSAS Medical: Education Requirements

GL!