Is my plan worth it?

[packerbear]

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Hello. I finished college two years ago. I'm 27. It took me seven years to finish. My academic record is terrible. I changed my major a dozen times, took about half the pre-reqs for med school (re-took some of them) and have a 2.0 GPA in them, a 2.5 overall GPA, and a 2.0 overall STEM GPA. Terrible. I should have taken some time off before or during college to decide what I wanted to do. But I didn't. Somehow I networked my way into a great role as a financial analyst in a Fortune 100 company. I've been there almost two years and am doing well. In a couple of months I will be commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps (I needed to get out of the cubicle life).

My question is this: Since I have gained some discipline through long-hour corporate work (and will continue to gain discipline as a Marine), if I were to take the remaining med school pre-reqs (I lack 5), do very well in them, and ace the MCAT (tough I know-this is a hypothetical) at night at a local university while in the Marines (4-5 years), would my application have any shot? It's a real dream to enter the medical profession. I can't see myself going back to sitting in a cubicle looking at a computer all day. I need to be active, helping and talking to people.

I know the great work experience and life/leadership experience from the military would look great, and I think I could make a case that I'm academically able to handle med school if I do well in the remaining courses and MCAT, but I'm just worried that my application would be rejected immediately because of my terrible GPA, even though it would be seven years in the past at the time of application.

If I have any legitimate shot at admission, I want to pursue it. I just don't want to go through all the trouble of taking lab classes while leading a Marine platoon for battle and dealing with my commanding officer's schedule during all that if my application is just going to get weeded out by some automated GPA/MCAT algorithm and never be seen by an actual human. This is hypothetical, but in your opinion, is this plan worth it at all? Thank you.

 

[candbgirl]

Only you can decide if it’s worth it. But understand there are NO guarantees applying to med school. Less than 50 percent of well prepared applicants are accepted each cycle. There are schools that reward reinvention so it is possible but it will take much hard work and many years to get you to the application phase.

 

[packerbear]

I guess what I'm looking for is confirmation that my application won't be weeded out by a computer based only on my GPA and that it will be reviewed by an actual human. I'm not sure if anybody can give that confirmation, though. If I know that my app will be seen by an admissions committee then I think it's worth it to me even though there's not guarantee of admission. If it won't even be looked at, then it's not. If someone on an admissions committee could reply that would be fantastic.

 

[packerbear]

Bump.

 

[deleted480308]

I can’t see you getting your gpa high enough to get past autoscreens without some sort of grade forgiveness (texas?), maybe apply through the .mil to nursing/Pa/dpt/usuhs

 

[packerbear]

I can’t see you getting your gpa high enough to get past autoscreens without some sort of grade forgiveness (texas?), maybe apply through the .mil to nursing/Pa/dpt/usuhs

Thanks for your reply. So you can confirm autoscreens are real? Can you provide more insight into the process? Thanks.

 

[deleted480308]

Thanks for your reply. So you can confirm autoscreens are real? Can you provide more insight into the process? Thanks.

They are absolutely real in many places

 

[Osminog]

An SMP program at a DO school may offer you a GPA exemption and accept you if you show strong interest, get a solid MCAT score, get lots of ECs, and get straight A's in your remaining pre-reqs... but that's the most you can really hope for at this point.

If you do pursue this path, you'll probably only be able to finish residency at age 40 at the earliest -- and that's only if you do everything nearly perfectly from here on out.

At the end of the day, only you can decide if all of this is really worth it.

 

[Osminog]

I take it back. If you plan on doing the post-bacc and MCAT prep over the course of 4-5 years, then you'd actually finish residency in your mid-40s.

That's just not worth it, honestly. Thank you for your willingness to serve our country, but frankly, your military commitment would make the pre-med recovery path extremely unpleasant and slow.

Have you considered Nurse --> NP?

 

[candbgirl]

Thanks for your reply. So you can confirm autoscreens are real? Can you provide more insight into the process? Thanks.

Although I don’t know for sure, I imagine schools that use auto screens set parameters for base GPAs or anything else actually. If you don’t meet the base your application will be kicked out without a human seeing it at all. A lot of schools automatically send secondaries no matter what your GPA is. In those cases at some point your GPA will be reviewed. If you don’t meet the base at that stage you might get thrown in the “hold” file without further review. There are so many applicants that schools can screen pretty much how they want.

 

[packerbear]

I take it back. If you plan on doing the post-bacc and MCAT prep over the course of 4-5 years, then you'd actually finish residency in your mid-40s.

That's just not worth it, honestly. Thank you for your willingness to serve our country, but frankly, your military commitment would make the pre-med recovery path extremely unpleasant and slow.

Have you considered Nurse --> NP?

Thanks for your input. I'm contracted into the military thing at this point (and happy about it). To me if I complete residency before age 45 and can have a 20 year medical career it's worth it (it helps that I would be debt free after med school because of the GI Bill and prior savings). I'm just nervous about autoscreens. If my apps get reviewed by some adcoms and I still don't get in, I would understand. But getting autoscreened out would just really make 4-5 years of exhausting logistical planning and hard work completely wasted which I would have trouble dealing with. And if I started taking classes in the USMC, I would quit after the first non-A grade because I know I would have no chance at that point. I'm also interested in PT school and I think I would prefer that to nursing.

 

[packerbear]

Thanks for your input. I'm contracted into the military thing at this point (and happy about it). To me if I complete residency before age 45 and can have a 20 year medical career it's worth it (it helps that I would be debt free after med school because of the GI Bill and prior savings). I'm just nervous about autoscreens. If my apps get reviewed by some adcoms and I still don't get in, I would understand. But getting autoscreened out would just really make 4-5 years of exhausting logistical planning and hard work completely wasted which I would have trouble dealing with. And if I started taking classes in the USMC, I would quit after the first non-A grade because I know I would have no chance at that point. I'm also interested in PT school and I think I would prefer that to nursing.

Although most PT schools flat out state on their sites that they require a minimum GPA of 3.0 which means I'm out of luck there...