Introduction - Chance me/Options

[futuremedic]

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Hello everyone! Hippiechick suggested I head over here, so I thought I'd ask you guys...

Chances!

- top Ivy undergrad (Harvard/Yale/etc.) degrees in economics and computer science - 3.8 GPA
- currently finishing an elite PhD in England in social science (American citizen, though)
- community college/post bacc pre-med courses (assume 3.5 - 3.8ish GPA?)
- decent MCAT -- I tend to test well and I think the verbal and writing sample would be easy for me; I'm weak on physical sciences, but probably because I haven't taken any courses since high school!
- non-traditional older student
- female, minority ethnicity

Do I have a chance at the tippy top schools? Would it make sense to move to a state that has low tuition and gain residency? Does finishing the PhD make a difference to this?

Does it matter if I got to a community college for my prereqs, or do I have to do a post-bacc or take classes at a top four-year university (more $$$)?

So many questions... 🙂

 

[Courtjester8]

Lets approach this one step at a time.

Prereqs: The question of CC vs. university comes up a lot on this thread and consensus seems to be it all depends on the school with DO schools being a lot more lenient than MD schools. If your plan is to just cover the prereqs then apply, I'd suggest not going with CC. People have mentioned that the prereqs are fine for DO schools however, they like to see advanced coursework done elsewhere as an indicator of whether or not you can hack it.

Now, to address the unsettling part of your post. You essentially just assumed you'd do decent on the MCAT (which i guarantee is different than any standardized test you've ever taken), assumed you'd get grades between a certain range (by the way, a 3.5 doesn't fly well at allo schools). The last time you took science classes according to this was high school. Take your prereqs, Ask advice about your prereqs. Ask what the prereqs are. Ask how to approach the prereqs. You have two years of prereqs ahead of you, with no knowledge about how you'd do on the mcat, never mentioning anything else other than how fancy your Ph.D. is (which you SHOULD finish assuming time and money aren't an issue). I think I've made my point.

The next question you should be asking is what you should be doing other than prereqs to beef up your app. The simple answer to this is clinical experience, volunteering, and research.

Everyone on this section of the forum (non-trads) loves to help people. But you need to slow down. Can you get into the tippy-top schools? Work on making yourself a worthy enough applicant to get into a medical school and work from there. Applying to med school is a slow and often painful labor of love. Do you even have the love?

Read the wonderful links Q keeps at the top of the forum. A lot of the information you are looking for is already there. Fill in some gaps, then lets chat.

-cj8