How "old" will you be?

[scota]

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flighterdoc,

lol! I do feel old when some of my buddies get into med school right out of college! Anyway, I know 25 is not old! Good luck!

 

[mshheaddoc]

I'll be 27 and applying to med schools after my post bacc program!

 

[learss]

Hopefully, I will be 27 when I start medical school. Just in time for my 5-year college reunion. 🙂

 

[chopper]

I will be 34 when I start pre-req's...so 36 when I start 🙂

I was thinking last night...I'm going to be 40 years old regardless. Either I'll be 40 and be a doctor, or 40 and still marketing cheap crap to the masses. Then today I read almost the exact same thought somewhere else on this board. Finally, my head is in the right place!

Oh and one last thing...I was inspired even more my Reagan's passing last week. I was young when he was in office, I didn't realize he took the oath of office at 69! Imagine, starting a whole new life at 70! In the time it'll take us to get through school + residency, Reagan defeated communism (not to start a political debate, but just to illustrate accomplishment agree/disagree - I'm not advocating here...). Who else at 70 years old believes in themselves enough to tackle something like that? Surely at 36, I can handle medical school 🙂

Great way to think about it - exactly how I finally got off my a*& and back into post bac. But I thought about myself as a 70 year old - and being 30 didn't really seem all that old.

32 now, applying this summer. Hope to start when I am 33 next fall.

I saw a story recently about a woman who had a similar experience (not medical related, but following her passion kind of a thing). She said that people need to keep their eyes on their compass and not their watch. If they only look at the watch, they may be getting somewhere fast, but maybe way off the beaten track. If you focus on the compass, however, you might not get to your destination right away, but you'll get there eventually, and enjoy the journey so much more. I thought that was a good way to look at it.

 

[r_salis]

I saw a story recently about a woman who had a similar experience (not medical related, but following her passion kind of a thing). She said that people need to keep their eyes on their compass and not their watch. If they only look at the watch, they may be getting somewhere fast, but maybe way off the beaten track. If you focus on the compass, however, you might not get to your destination right away, but you'll get there eventually, and enjoy the journey so much more. I thought that was a good way to look at it.

That's a great perspective. 🙂

 

[smokeycat]

I will be 31 when I start school (if I get in for fall 2005) or I will be 32 (fall 2006). 😀

 

[medic170]

I'll be 29 years old when I start MS1. I'm glad to see there are plenty of other old farts among us 😀


medic170=aged like a fine wine

 

[cornflake_girl]

hi everyone! first, kudos to all those who have posted their ages and experiences as "older" med applicants/students.... i just turned 30 in april and got an M.S. in tumor bio and am now a PhD student at UCLA but am on a leave of absence.... i've been doing cancer research and started off doing this b/c i wanted to develop treatment options for cancer patients .... i love doing the research but am really disappointed with the politics of research - especially the grant process and the nepotism in publishing.... that's a whole other thread....

so i decided that going to med school would give me the opportunity to at least meet with patients on a daily basis and impact lives in that way.... but i know that i'm older now and i haven't seen g chem, o chem, and physics since '92-'94 so i signed up for a princeton review course....

the review is going really slow - i've also got to work at the same time - and i'm worried that i may not be ready in time for august '04 MCAT....

what did other "older" students do to review the sciences? do you guys think i need a post bacc program to review? or just recognize it will probably take me longer to review than students that just took the courses?

thanks so much for the help!

 

[paco]

A friend of mine in the 4-5th year of his EE PhD took a leave of absence for three months and signed up for a Berkeley review course (studying every day of those three months for a solid 7-8 hours). He hadn't taken chemistry or physics since freshman/soph years in college and had never taken a single biology class since high school and ended up with a 38.

If you have the time and the determination, I think you can do it.

 

[BaLeavaMD]

I'll be 27 when I start med school in 2005!

 

[Tippy007]

I will be 32 when I start school in 2005. I had a career in a health care related business previously, which is why I'm an old fogey. Age really should not sway you, especially in your mid-twenties. You might wind up practicing until your 85 years old. Don't even give it a second thought. Instead focus on stuff that you can control, such as grades in your post-bacc, MCAT, and volunteer/work experience.

 

[blufox80]

Ill be 25 if all goes well. 🙂

 

[karlin009]

I will be 27

 

[ap7dgs]

I'll be 27 when I start med school in 2005!

I like your signature line! That is what has motivated me to try and get into dental school. I graduated undergrad back in 98, but got disappointed and depressed when I got rejection letters then. However, time has allowed me to realize, with Him, that i can do anything i put my mind to and to never give up. I'm 29 now. So, i'll probably be 32 when i enter dental as i will be attending a post-bacc program to make me look better for the adcoms! Stay blessed!

 

[Crake]

Will be 27-28 when I begin. Damn.

 

[karlin009]

Don't worry guy and gals.....we will get there. 🙂

 

[Yahweh]

By what measures does one account for age?

 

[TiggidyTooth]

By what measures does one account for age?

# of days since your birth and divide by 365 for approximation. leap years screw it all up.

This pearl of wisdom has been brought to you by

TOoth

 

[elephunt]

I'll be 27, assuming I matriculate in 2005...glad to hear from all of you other folks!

 

[lemonlite]

almost 27

 

[TiggidyTooth]

27 god willing. The nice thing to look forward to is all the men in my family just get better looking with age 😀 so hopefully I'm not the anomaly in that trend. Keep you're collective chins up!!

Tooth

 

[VeganSoprano]

26, if I get in vet school on the first try.

 

[messenjah]

I have about a 3.16 undergrad gpa, but about a 3.4-ish TOTAL gpa when you combine all of my post bacc in there too. i have also taken the mcat, 30 P, but after having taken those post bacc classes and practice tests on the mcat, i think i could reasonablly do around 33-35 level. i have also been out of undergrad college for about 3 years, and am 25 right now. i would like to apply next summer possiblly.

question is, will my post bacc (was done on my own, not a formal program) be added into the gpa that they will look at? or will my undergrad gpa kill me in the admissions process? I am planning on taking more classes to prep more for the mcat and possible help my gpa get to about a 3.5 if possible. will that be in vain???

i have taken a large number of post bacc classes, that i think might be able to add up to another undergrad degree. if i were to do that, would they still be considered post bacc??

can anyone offer advice on what to do? what will the adcoms think?? if i could get a 35 or so mcat, are top tier schools possible or still completely out of the question??

thanks!

 

[ItsNotATumor]

I started medical school at the quarter century mark.

 

[lpressley130]

I'll be 43. 😎

 

[Ottercreek]

Finished my PhD in Oncology a year ago, and decided to follow my dream of medicine (suprised the wife went along with it 😍 ).

I think these threads are reassuring, as I have several friends who are finishing up their fellowships !!

 

[Tamala]

I will be 26 when I start Dental school if all goes well, if not I will be 27.

 

[dbutz02]

I'll be 21 if things go well.

 

[bringinit247]

I'll be starting my post-bacc in the Fall of 2005 at the age of 24. People tell me I'm nuts for going back and doing this, but this thread has really helped reassure me that it's never too late, and there should be no statute of limitations on doing what you want to do. Thank you Post-Bacc Forum posters!

 

[elephunt]

No way, bringinit, you're not too old! Sheesh, you're a young whippersnapper! You may be a few years older than your compadres once you get to med school, but who cares? Compared to 75 years or so of regretting not giving med school a shot, I prefer being a couple of years behind everyone else. Life is too short not to do what you love!

Good luck to you! 👍

 

[Sancho]

did the post bac at 26
27 now, over the hill toward 28(looking for the brake to stop this mad train) as I wait to start M1 next month. So I've almost got 10 years experience at being 18-at least thats what it feels like, which is good, I tell myself.

 

[bestofluck]

i'm 23 and will be starting post bac this fall. I'll be 24 later this year though.

 

[supercut]

I'm 43 years-old, currently a 3rd year student, and frequently wonder why more people closer to my age do not choose to enter medical school

There are a few areas in medicine where age is against you. Surgery for example is a sport for younger players than myself. While I got stellar evaluations in my surgical rotation and honors in the course, six weeks of 100+ hour weeks convinced me that life as a surgeon is a destiny for other students. Yes, there technically is an 80 hour work week, and the 80 hours reported on the timecard is strictly enforced. The reality is most surgical residents work far in excess of 80 hours, and it seems like most attending surgeons do as well. As the director of surgery pointed out, the vast majority of surgeons retire by age 55. Who wants to keep waking up at 2 a.m. and doing a lap appendectomy in their 50's.

Yeah, surgery is a sport for younger players. Unless you are older and decide you like it enough to put up with the disadvantges.

I'm a 43 yo PGY 2 in surgery (started med school at 38). I'm at a program where we do pretty good with the 80 hours. It's harder for the chiefs to comply, but I don't think anyone worked 100 hours a week last year. I pulled a couple of 90 hour weeks last year. But the vast majority of the time, I was at 75-80 hours. I anticipate some difficulties this year. We have home call on a couple of rotations, and that can get tricky if you have a busy night. But still, the vast majority of my time this year will be 80 hour weeks.

I'm not the average 43 year old though, as I'm becoming more active rather than less active, especially in the past year. I'm making the most of my limitied time off.

Surgery is definitely not for everybody. I think its absolutely the best job in the world. If it's not for you, fine. Just don't rule it out based soley on your age. There's more of us older folks in surgery than you would think.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Me be 28 when I finish med school. It's cool how there are people of various ages in med school. That's what I really appreciated when getting to know my classmates when I started med school...meeting many people from various backgrounds and experiences.

 

[DrHuang]

if all goes well, ill be 22 when i start but will turn 23 a month afterwards

 

[ChantillyLace]

I was wondering how "old" other SDNers will be when they begin medical school. It is not my intention to put anyone down, I'm just curious.

I'll be 25 when I start! When I started college, I had no idea what I wanted. I took all sorts of classes, many not having anything to do with my major. The positive side of this is that I've learned how school "works", and I can definitely get A's in those science pre-reqs 😉.

I'll be 26 when i start 🙁