Hello! New Non-Trad - About Me - Seeking Advice

[BongoBongoIsBack]

Hey guys, I'm totally new here. I'm fresh on the idea of becoming a doctor as a non-trad applicant. Over the next year, I'm looking to accomplish one, maybe two things. First is figure out if med school is right for me. Second, assuming it is, is to build a compelling application for 2026.

Looking for any general advice - and have some specific areas of confusion as well. About me / some jumbled thoughts:

• 3.95 GPA state school, double major in chemistry and physics; I graduated undergrad a couple years early and used that time to get a couple non-thesis masters degrees (4.0)
  • Should include all the pre-reqs... organic, biochem, biology, physics, calc, english, etc.
  • That does include 5's in all the relevant APs which I've read med schools don't like... but I have upper level coursework in each of bio, physics and chem so I would think (hope) I'm still OK
  • That said it might make sense to take a couple courses at CC this year like anatomy and physiology? I've read some schools "expire" courses after 5, 10 years... but unless almost all schools do this, I'd rather not waste time retaking a bunch of courses I've already excelled at - I think I can prove my chops in the MCAT anyways through self study.
• 10 years investment banking / hedge fund:
  • I lost my job in a shake-up and I'm not planning on returning to Wall Street despite offers to the contrary... I don't find it fulfilling.
  • Thankfully though, this finance stint bought me some time to reconsider life and maybe stomach the cost / opportunity cost of med school.
  • So... the thought is to see if med school is right for me... Why? Opportunity to have a meaningful impact on people and leverage my math/science aptitude. Sounds cliche, but the contrast I perceive in the "impact" attribute between medicine and finance is quite high. The stability doesn't hurt either - not going to pretend financials aren't a consideration. This path has crossed my mind many times but I've always laughed it off due to the time commitment... but my perspective has changed.
  • If it is right for me... no reason I can't take the next year to go all in. I don't have infinite money / resources, and I'm not getting any younger, so I do not want to have to wait for 2027.
• Clinical / shadowing: Absolutely nothing and no idea where to start. To get volunteering exp is it a matter of just reaching out to hospitals, hospices etc and offer my time? What kind of person do you reach out to? Should I try to find some sort of part time job at a hospital? If so what? How do you get started shadowing? Seems kind of weird to cold email doctors and say "Hey I'm an ex Finance guy can I just follow you around?". Is EMT a good place to start - can this be done inside of a year or would it take so many months to even get certified?. Really eager to get this part of the process going
• Volunteering... Have some stuff here and there but not what I need. Seems self explanatory. Would go for 200+, 300+ hours.
• MCAT... would start studying in short order. Historically a strong standardized test taker and academic self-starter though so I think I can do well.

Thank you!!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

If you're trying to apply in ~12 months, you need a clinical gig, preferably working with a doc, and at least one consistent volunteering gig yesterday. Med schools want to see longevity of activities. Most of the time, I try to discourage people who say they want to speed run premed in a year because they require coursework on top of everything, but if you gets some irons in the fire in the next month or two it might be doable for you. It's unnecessary for you to do random science courses at a CC imo, especially if you crush the MCAT.

For the MCAT, go check the MCAT subreddit. Tons of great advice on there. Basically get a copy of one of the book sets to quickly review everything, download Anki and whatever the current top MCAT deck is at this point, and buy UWorld and all the practice exams and do every single question. You have a year to take it, but I'd set yourself a strict 3 month study period at the most. If you grind much longer than that you're gonna get crispy and bored, and I doubt you'll need it anyway. Take the free diagnostic at the beginning of your study period then a practice exam once a week or every couple days once you feel like you're doing reasonably well on UWorld. T inake the real thing once they're all completed unless you're unhappy with your average score.

Basic low level healthcare roles such as a medical assistant or certified nursing aide may or may not require some basic licensing; if so, sometimes you can just challenge the licensing exam with self-study, sometimes a course is required. These courses are a couple hundred hours or so, nothing crazy long. Figure out your state laws in this regard. If you want to do an EMT, there are some accelerated courses you can cram into a couple weeks or a month, but you'll probably have to travel because they're pretty rare. Also confirm that you can get certified in your state if you do a program that's out of state. You can also consider something unlicensed like being a patient transporter or potentially a patient sitter. You'll get a lot of stories out of either of those gigs and hospitals are usually dying to hire people for that stuff. 3 12s in the hospital or a 40h outpatient job and you'll have around 2k clinical hours.

Shadowing docs is a pain, NGL. I cold emailed about 30 within an hours drive and got 2 eventual offers to shadow. You only need like 50ish hours and most docs will let you do a couple days, so 2 is a good goal to aim for. Include a PCP.

Pick a couple from the list: Habitat for Humanity, Food Bank, Homeless Shelter, Nursing Home/Hospice Companion, Community Center working with elderly/kids type stuff, other unique opportunities where you're working with disadvantaged individuals as a form of service. Do 1-2 4 hour shifts of each one you pick for the next year and you've got 200-800 hours of community service depending how hard you go.

Good luck!

 

[BongoBongoIsBack]

If you're trying to apply in ~12 months, you need a clinical gig, preferably working with a doc, and at least one consistent volunteering gig yesterday. Med schools want to see longevity of activities. Most of the time, I try to discourage people who say they want to speed run premed in a year because they require coursework on top of everything, but if you gets some irons in the fire in the next month or two it might be doable for you. It's unnecessary for you to do random science courses at a CC imo, especially if you crush the MCAT.

For the MCAT, go check the MCAT subreddit. Tons of great advice on there. Basically get a copy of one of the book sets to quickly review everything, download Anki and whatever the current top MCAT deck is at this point, and buy UWorld and all the practice exams and do every single question. You have a year to take it, but I'd set yourself a strict 3 month study period at the most. If you grind much longer than that you're gonna get crispy and bored, and I doubt you'll need it anyway. Take the free diagnostic at the beginning of your study period then a practice exam once a week or every couple days once you feel like you're doing reasonably well on UWorld. T inake the real thing once they're all completed unless you're unhappy with your average score.

Basic low level healthcare roles such as a medical assistant or certified nursing aide may or may not require some basic licensing; if so, sometimes you can just challenge the licensing exam with self-study, sometimes a course is required. These courses are a couple hundred hours or so, nothing crazy long. Figure out your state laws in this regard. If you want to do an EMT, there are some accelerated courses you can cram into a couple weeks or a month, but you'll probably have to travel because they're pretty rare. Also confirm that you can get certified in your state if you do a program that's out of state. You can also consider something unlicensed like being a patient transporter or potentially a patient sitter. You'll get a lot of stories out of either of those gigs and hospitals are usually dying to hire people for that stuff. 3 12s in the hospital or a 40h outpatient job and you'll have around 2k clinical hours.

Shadowing docs is a pain, NGL. I cold emailed about 30 within an hours drive and got 2 eventual offers to shadow. You only need like 50ish hours and most docs will let you do a couple days, so 2 is a good goal to aim for. Include a PCP.

Pick a couple from the list: Habitat for Humanity, Food Bank, Homeless Shelter, Nursing Home/Hospice Companion, Community Center working with elderly/kids type stuff, other unique opportunities where you're working with disadvantaged individuals as a form of service. Do 1-2 4 hour shifts of each one you pick for the next year and you've got 200-800 hours of community service depending how hard you go.

Good luck!

Beautiful - Thank You!

On volunteering, yes - I see a clear path to be consistent on both clinical and non-clinical hours. On clinical side I'm leaning towards hospice volunteering - Idk that one just stands out to me. To start - i'd like to get more broad experience too I guess. Non-clinical, was thinking food bank / soup kitchen. All-in towards a similar output you describe - I mean no reason I can't be doing 10+ hours a week total.

Sounds like you are saying, in addition to what would be a few hundred hours of clinical volunteering, I would need to get a low-level clinical job like an EMT too? I suppose that's a good idea to get more immersed in the path and make sure its for me. (Fact that any certification process is effectively "dead weight" time, and your point that this is a 1000+ hour commitment rather than a few hundred, does make me nervous in context of wanting to leave a ton of time for MCAT - so am curious what the floor here is - perhaps thats not an inspiring question).

Gotcha on shadowing. i guess they get that request a lot so its not totally weird. Prob best to start with friends and such.

Anything else you recommend doing to really confirm this is for me? Or is the answer just to process all the experiences above and I'll just know? I know I like science and want to more directly help people - but I don't know what I don't know

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Hospice is a great option. Very emotionally challenging at times but that's what makes it a great option both for your own persona growth and your application.

You need a real job working with patients and shadowing to really know if you want to do it. People get in without clinical jobs, but arguably outside grades and MCAT I feel that it's easily the most important aspect for an average application. You just can't be a doctor if you don't even know whether or not you like patients, and to know that you need to interact with them at a high volume for an extended period of time. You don't want to be 2 years deep into med school and realize you actually hate working with sick people. The advice is usually 150-250 hours of clinical as a floor which can include volunteer and paid.

Also, just my personal opinion, I think MCAT study period is very over hyped. I wasn't a science major and had only taken bio, gen chem, and physics when I took mine. No orgo or biochem yet. I taught myself enough to get a good enough score for a MD program and spent about 3 months of maybe 15-20 hours a week on it while working full time and doing all my premed activities. I honestly am not sure what people are doing when they say they study for 12 hours a day for months. Give yourself an end date and just grind to that point and take it. You'll get the grade you earned. 🤷‍♂️

 

[BongoBongoIsBack]

Hospice is a great option. Very emotionally challenging at times but that's what makes it a great option both for your own persona growth and your application.

You need a real job working with patients and shadowing to really know if you want to do it. People get in without clinical jobs, but arguably outside grades and MCAT I feel that it's easily the most important aspect for an average application. You just can't be a doctor if you don't even know whether or not you like patients, and to know that you need to interact with them at a high volume for an extended period of time. You don't want to be 2 years deep into med school and realize you actually hate working with sick people. The advice is usually 150-250 hours of clinical as a floor which can include volunteer and paid.

Also, just my personal opinion, I think MCAT study period is very over hyped. I wasn't a science major and had only taken bio, gen chem, and physics when I took mine. No orgo or biochem yet. I taught myself enough to get a good enough score for a MD program and spent about 3 months of maybe 15-20 hours a week on it while working full time and doing all my premed activities. I honestly am not sure what people are doing when they say they study for 12 hours a day for months. Give yourself an end date and just grind to that point and take it. You'll get the grade you earned. 🤷‍♂️

Thank you - that all makes sense!