Undergrad GPA (mediocre-to-below-average private liberal arts college): 3.77 (took 1 science course, Environmental Science, and got a B+, took no maths)
No math makes me want to encourage you to take math before you start prereqs. You need to be able to solve equations, and you don't want physics to be the first time you see sohcahtoa. I recommend at least algebra & trig, and preferably some stats. Since your GPA is good, and since you'll follow with a structured postbac, you can take math at a community college, if convenient. And get A's for the love of all that's holy.
Then I decided to go to law school. I did well on my LSAT (99th percentile) and ended up going to Penn. In law school my grades were average (we don't do GPAs, and they'd be pretty meaningless b/c of grade inflation anyway, but I was a B+ student).
Nobody will care about your law school grades. People might be happy you went to Penn.
I have no clue how high or low I should be aiming. I'm open to any program/option that would get me into a highly rated MD program. Any info, even where to start to look, would be helpful. Thanks!
Get an MSAR on aamc.org (also available on Amazon or whatnot). This will show you stats by school, to size up your competition. "Highly rated" matters in law school but is a completely different animal in med school. "Hard to get into" is our "highly rated," and frankly, they're all hard to get into (60% of all apps are rejected). You can look at USNews ratings if you must.
Also, I don't know if my HS info is helpful (I've seen it in other posts), but my GPA was a 3.25-3.4 there, and I scored over 1400 on my SAT, and over 700 on a math SAT II.
Nothing you did in high school is relevant, but some SMPs and even some med schools want to see your SAT scores to get a better view on your longitudinal test taking ability. Cincinnati comes to mind. The good postbacs will want your SAT scores.
With an advanced / professional degree you should have no problem getting into medical school or post-bac.
In the sense that an adv/prof degree won't
hurt you, this is true, but don't kid yourself. A law degree, and even some years in practice, will be viewed as a nice extra-curricular activity by med school admissions committees. See the nontrad forum for our resident gang of former lawyers.
Your undergrad GPA is fine but you might want to start volunteering at local clinic or hospital to get a better understanding about medicine.
Not might. Must. As soon as possible.
I am pretty sure they're going to ask you why you change your career from law to medicine.
Damn sure. Even after you write your entire personal statement about why you want to move from law to medicine, you'll be expected to talk about it in interviews.
Get some medically related volunteer experience under your belt and I'd say you're a top candidate for the best postbac programs in the country -- Goucher, Scripps and Bryn Mawr.
I don't get Scripps being considered a top program, because its linkages are tepid. Now, I wouldn't choose a school for its linkages, but why would Scripps be putting effort into maintaining a linkage w/Western if it's a top program? I think people are choosing Scripps just to avoid moving cross country to Bryn Mawr or Goucher.
Global: I need to figure out why I want to change fields, too 😛 I'm guessing the answer "The practice of law is tedious, and I like watching House and Gray's Anatomy, so I figured 'Why not!?'" won't necessarily fly.
You have to believe your own narrative. It's never too early to start working on your personal statement (that explains why you want to go to med school).
I should also add (can't believe I forgot) that my undergraduate record is less pristine than I may have led on: I bombed in my first year of college (but later repeated those courses and got As). Also before I returned to my original college, I signed up for 3 courses at another school. I quickly realized I wasn't ready to go back, and believed I had withdrawn from the courses only to realize later (when I applied to law school) that I received 3 Fs. Will that have a substantial impact?
Substantial in that your GPA isn't what you think it is. For US MD schools, repeated coursework and F's are averaged into your cumulative GPA. You have to submit every transcript you ever got, and enter your coursework line by line. What your transcript says your GPA is doesn't make any difference. It'll be worth the effort, as in now, to contest those F's.
Newman: Where does one look for medically-related volunteer experience? Are some volunteer opportunities better than others?
Pick the biggest hospital in your area, one that serves the indigent etc. and look on their webpage for volunteering. Get in the ER as soon as you can (do other departments later). Expect to work 4 hours a week cleaning stretchers and carrying supplies, in order to earn the right to observe trauma and ask people questions. Use this gig as your stepping stone to more interesting stuff, such as shadowing doctors and maybe getting involved in clinical research. If you can put in a couple years, it's worth a recommendation letter. This is a hoop. Jump through it. Love the hoop. Love the jumping. Be a freaking Jack Russell.
A lot of people do international aid work, which at the premed level is voluntourism. You'll pay thousands for the opportunity to do stuff you can't legally do in the US without any training, such as take vitals and histories. This is a purchasable med school app asset, imho, but I did get a lot out of the trips I went on.
Anything that is community-oriented is goodness. Special Olympics, literacy, homelessness, mentoring, Habitat for Humanity. Teach blind kids to ski or sail. This is on top of clinical volunteering.
Best of luck to you.
