How long is this entire process?

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RunnerChick

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Hi everyyone, before I ask my question I would just like to thank everyone here for their awesome help. This is my second post and I really appreciate all the help I got with my first question. All right, so I graduated from college at the age of 22...just turned 23 last month. I am interested in going to medical school and was wondering how long this entire process would take. I know it depends on your course load and all but let's say I started taking classes in Sept. 05, full-time. When would I have to take the MCAT in order to apply and how old would I be by the time I enrolled in school? All help is appreciated. Thank you. :luck:
 
RunnerChick said:
Hi everyyone, before I ask my question I would just like to thank everyone here for their awesome help. This is my second post and I really appreciate all the help I got with my first question. All right, so I graduated from college at the age of 22...just turned 23 last month. I am interested in going to medical school and was wondering how long this entire process would take. I know it depends on your course load and all but let's say I started taking classes in Sept. 05, full-time. When would I have to take the MCAT in order to apply and how old would I be by the time I enrolled in school? All help is appreciated. Thank you. :luck:
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Did you take any premed prerequisites in college? If not, a postbacc program typically takes 1 or 2 years (It can be done in a year and a summer if you kill yourself). Then unless you want to push for the August MCAT and be a late applicant, there's often a recommended "glide" year during which you would take the MCAT (ideally the April after you finish the prereqs) and apply. Thus if you have no sciences at all, it will be a two or three year process before you start med school. Med school is 4 years. Then you will need to do an internship and a residency which may vary in length dependent on your desired specialty, but will be a number of years.
 
Hi, yes I took two general chem classes and a bio course. However, I intend to retake them...Bs and Cs...not good. Anyway, seems like I won't be starting till I am 27...but I guess if u want to be a doctor, then put up with the crap and be a doctor. Thank you for your help. I intend to look into post-bacc. programs and also research the difficulty level of taking the pre-med courses on my own. How else could one make one's application a little jazzy? Research? Hmm...thank you for your quick post! 😀
 
i'll be twenty seven when i start so no worries.

get yo pre-reqs done and do good, don't worry about the cat and applications, etc. yet- you'll just go crazy :scared:

you may consider taking the other pre-req courses first before repeating the ones you've completed already. never know, you could get all A's from here on out and ace the mcat, then you may be in a situation where you don't necessarily have to repeat them.
 
RunnerChick said:
Hi, yes I took two general chem classes and a bio course. However, I intend to retake them...Bs and Cs...not good. Anyway, seems like I won't be starting till I am 27...but I guess if u want to be a doctor, then put up with the crap and be a doctor. Thank you for your help. I intend to look into post-bacc. programs and also research the difficulty level of taking the pre-med courses on my own. How else could one make one's application a little jazzy? Research? Hmm...thank you for your quick post! 😀
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I'll be 31 when I start, and there are some people on here who are in their 40s, so don't worry, 27 is young. :laugh: As far as research is concerned, if you want to be a researcher, it's essential to do research, but if you want to be a clinician, you might want to get some clinical experience instead. Ideally you can use your experience to "prove" that you really do have a goal in mind and you can use it to tell the committee how medical school fits into that.
 
You guys are so wonderful. This entire site is amazing. All right, I know I know...27 is young but I guess when u start thinking about the big picture of "life" and the "social clock" it kinda makes everything fuzzy. You know, like graduate at age X, marry at age Y, have children at age Z...so on and so forth. Anyway, thank you guys again. Good luck with all of your work too! 😀
 
I didn't do a post-bac program. I really didn't know those were offered anywhere. Basically, I set up my own where I could get in-state tuition. I went part time the whole time pretty much. I finished my MA in July 2001 and returned home to do pre-reqs for med school...below is what I did... (I had taken Intro to Bio lab I, Intro to Chem lab and Intro to Chem I in my first undergrad career, I took Calc I in high school and Calc II in college)

Fall 2001 - worked (no classes)
Spring 2002 - Intro to Bio I (3 hrs.), Intro to CHem II (3 hrs.) and worked
Summer 2002 - O-Chem I (3 hrs) and worked
Fall 2002 - O-Chem II (3 hours), Intro to Bio II (3 hours), Intro to Bio II lab (2 hours), Spanish I (4 hours) - and worked, my only full time semester
Spring 2003 - O-Chem II (again - don't ask), Cell Bio (3 hours), O-Chem lab I (2 hours) and worked
Fall 2003 - Principles of O-Chem (grad class I audited), Physics I (5 hours), Death, Dying, and Quality of Life (Phil. class, 3 hours) and worked
Spring 2004 - Physics II (5 hours), O-CHem II lab (2 hours) and worked
Fall 2004 - 3 hours BIO seminar, Medicine and Disease in the US (HIS class, 3 hours) and worked
Spring 2005 - Research Credit (3 hours) and worked

I did it slow because of work, I am adjunct faculty. Obviously it can be done much faster. I took the MCAT in April 2004, applied ED to Kentucky in July and heard Sept. 16.

PM if you have other questions.
 
I also didn't do a formal post-bacc. My insane schedule:

Fall 2003: Retake of College Algebra and Trig (due to many, many years w/o math), General Chemistry w/ lab, part-time work (10 quarter hours)

Winter 2003-2004: Pre-calc, Biology I w/ lab, Gen Chem II w/lab, Physics I w/lab, part-time work (20 quarter hours)

Spring 2004: Calc I, Biology I w/lab, Gen Chem III w/2 labs/week, Physics II w/lab, part-time work (20 quarter hours)

Summer 2004: Organic Chemistry I and II with labs during an 8 week session, no work (8 semester hours)

Fall 2004: Physics III w/lab, Microbiology, Biochemistry, part-time work, ill for 3 of 4 first four weeks of quarter (pneumonia), got married first weekend of quarter, commuting 3 hours/day 5 days/week (15 quarter hours)

Other misc. stuff: Finished Ochem on Monday, took the MCAT that Saturday. Worked on the AMCAS a little during Ochem, finished it in October. My applications (including secondaries) were complete end of October/middle of November. Have interviewed at 4 of 5 schools, been accepted to 1, waiting to hear from the other 3 post-interview (should be any day), and no word post-secondary from the 5th school. Grades above: All A's except for an A- in Ochem lecture and a C in biochem.

I DON'T recommend this schedule. I think if I had to do it again, I would take more time. I managed to do fairly well on the MCAT (10 PS, 10 BS, and 11VR) despite very little MCAT prep (although, in a sense, my entire year of coursework was a MCAT prep). I feel very fortunate to have done that well with as little prep as I did.

I was also fortunate that my job as an EMT allowed me to study when we weren't on runs and, oddly enough, on many of my shifts, I was able to study nearly all day.

If you have a post-bacc program close to you with ties to a medical school, that may be your best option. If not, do the post-bacc on your own. As far as whether or not to re-take the gen chem, I guess it depends. If you feel like you have a decent enough foundation in gen chem to not be lost in ochem, I think I would not retake them. Instead, I would concentrate on doing very well in the rest of the pre-reqs and take a couple of upper level bio or chem classes instead. If, however, you remember nothing from Gen Chem, retake them (or at least audit them). You will need that information on your MCAT.

Good luck.
 
Wow...every post I have read has been very helpful. Also, the amount of motivation that everyone has demonstrated has been very impressive. Reading about your level of motivation has only increased mine. I am very grateful for all of the posts and have definitely gained some valuable insight. Thank you sooooo much! Congrats on being accepted into one of the schools that you applied too! I was blown away to read that you were going to school, working and also managed to hold down a relationship and get married. Super intense. Good luck with everything! You will amaze yourself! 👍
 
I apologize if this has already been said, I just read through the initial and first followup post real quickly.

It takes a full year plus AFTER you take the MCAT exam before you can start medical school. As I understand it, the glide year is the academic year following the MCAT exam in which you send out apps, interview, and possibly take other courses. Regardless, whether you take the April or August MCAT, it will be one + years before you can begin med school unless you opt for an offshore med school.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on this if anyone has different info.

Thanks and GOOD LUCK!! There are lots of people around here and on oldpremeds.org (you're significantly younger than most of us I think!) who are around for support. :laugh:

Larry
 
larry said:
I apologize if this has already been said, I just read through the initial and first followup post real quickly.

It takes a full year plus AFTER you take the MCAT exam before you can start medical school. As I understand it, the glide year is the academic year following the MCAT exam in which you send out apps, interview, and possibly take other courses. Regardless, whether you take the April or August MCAT, it will be one + years before you can begin med school unless you opt for an offshore med school.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on this if anyone has different info.

Thanks and GOOD LUCK!! There are lots of people around here and on oldpremeds.org (you're significantly younger than most of us I think!) who are around for support. :laugh:

Larry
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I guess that's accurate -- just shy of a year. (the "plus" is optional 🙂 ). I took the August 17 2004 MCAT and will be starting med school this coming August 11, 2005.
 
hey runnerchick. thanks for posting this. have you decided if you will do a formal postbac or set your own up? will you be working during this time? i'm just looking for ideas.
thanks
 
hey there,

well, i am thinking about not working during that period of time. i have a small business right now which is doing all right and i think i can manage with that. i am very interested in doing some sort of research (clearly, i haven't narrowed this down yet to one specific category), but i am leaning towards peds. children are sooo much fun but i also know med schools are interested in ur bedside behavior so i might do something geriatric too. honestly, i do not think i am going to go to tanzania to volunteer at a hospital there like other pre-meds have done but i intend to do something meaningful in the states. i think that if ur looking for ideas a good way to begin would be by discussing the matter with other pre-meds and med students. maybe even faculty at a local med school if you have one near by. also, i would ask myself what i find really interesting and what i may be good at (even though i don't find it interesting) and try to combine the two and possibly guide myself in that direction, with respect to polishing my application. well, that is all i can think of right now. good luck with everything! 👍
 
hehe, sorry dude, i totally didn't even answer your question. I am looking into post-bacc programs but have not done more than that. So, really, i have no answer at the time. I am leaning towards doing a post-bacc more than going on my own. however, i think there are some classes i might take even though they are not a part of the post bacc program.
 
thanks and good luck. it seems like you have good tentative plans! i spoke with an undergrad advisor today and also got some good ideas. my next step is to work on finding a good volunteer experience this summer.
 
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