Is this a workable schedule?

[heartoftexas]

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Hi all....

The spring class schedule for my school came out this week. CHEM I is going to be available in the spring, which is contrary to what I was told by the head of the department a few weeks ago. I am waiting to hear whether CHEM II will be offered in the summer, but if it will be, my timeline could change drastically.

Those of you who have BTDT, please tell me what you think of this possible schedule. I do not work outside the home. I have three young children in school every day from 8-3 (well, one of them is just three days a week, but I can easily study when I have just him). So essentially, I am able to focus on school from 8-3 and after 8 p.m. during the week, and as needed on weekends. I am a very efficient when it comes to studying and getting my work done.

Spring 2009

BIOL 1406

CHEM 1411

MATH 1342 - internet


Summer I 2009

BIOL 1407


Summer II 2009

CHEM 1412 (if available -- waiting to hear on this)


Fall 2009

PHYS 1401
CHEM 2423

Spring 2010

PHYS 1402
CHEM 2425

Summer I 2010

BIOL 2401
TPR


Summer II 2010

BIOL 2402
TPR

TAKE MCAT

This would enable me to go ahead and apply for matriculation in 2011. It would be late in the cycle, but I would at least have a chance. I'm not getting any younger, you know. 😀 If I don't get in, I could always apply again the following May at the beginning of the cycle (and retake MCAT if necessary).




Am I insane??? The part that worries me the most is taking A&P and TPR and prepping for MCAT at the same time. Would it be wiser to take TPR in the spring (although then I'd be taking it with Physics II and Orgo II) and continue to prep for MCAT over the summer?

Decisions, decisions. I have a meeting scheduled with the director of admissions for my target school on 1/5, and I will certainly ask his opinion on this (mainly the timing issue...worth it to apply really late in the cycle or not?) but I thought I'd ask y'all as well.

If you made it this far, you deserve a virtual cookie. 😳

 

[dec0y]

I've only got a minute so i'll be brief (although i did read your post--not so brief 🙂 )

1) only you can decide if it is workable. people have certainly done harder schedules before, but may not have had the emotional comittments that you do (e.g. kids, wives, husbands, you get the idea).
2) You dont need A and P for admission to medical school, so hopefully this eases your concerns about timing a bit.
3) What is your current gpa and what do you expect it to be when you finish your post-bacc work? How much time can you commit to the mcat? Do you plan on getting clinical experience?

Take a piece of paper and make two columns. On one side write down what you have already done/are in process of completing, research, volunteering, accomplishments that a medical school would appreciate, things you are proud of --the personal statement material. In the other column write down all of the things that you need to complete BEFORE you apply--be specific (x hours of volunteering, courses a-b-c, research etc.)

Compare the two columns, and let us know what you find.

There is so much more to the application than getting classes done quickly, but if you can give us a bit more info im sure you will get some awesome responses.

 

[heartoftexas]

Thanks, dec0y.

I have to take two advanced bio courses for admission to the schools I am applying to, hence the A&P.

GPA...this is an interesting answer. My UG GPA is ~3.2 something and my law school GPA is ~3.1 (which stinks because I was actually top 20% and cum laude; the grade curve at my school is B-, though, so GPAs are generally lower). I will be applying to med school, however, under the Texas Academic Fresh Start statute, which removes grades older than 10 years from the calculation of your GPA for application purposes. So, right now, I have a 4.0. I do not expect to have less than a 3.75 after finishing my prereqs.

I will commit as much time as I need to to MCAT, and one reason for my post was to see if taking A&P and TPR/studying for MCAT in the summer is too much.

I will have plenty of volunteering/shadowing experience (planning to start volunteering regularly next summer after getting through 17-hour semester), and I have a ton of non-med volunteer and community leadership experience (board memberships, fundraising, legal community service, etc.).

I guess I was mainly looking for input on whether taking those particular classes together would be too much, or whether the ones I have slated for summer school are too intense for summer school.

Thanks for your thoughts. 🙂 Brevity is not a strength of mine!

 

[Newmanium]

Thanks, dec0y.
GPA...this is an interesting answer. My UG GPA is ~3.2 something and my law school GPA is ~3.1 (which stinks because I was actually top 20% and cum laude; the grade curve at my school is B-, though, so GPAs are generally lower). I will be applying to med school, however, under the Texas Academic Fresh Start statute, which removes grades older than 10 years from the calculation of your GPA for application purposes. So, right now, I have a 4.0. I do not expect to have less than a 3.75 after finishing my prereqs.

You're probably already aware - just want to clarify for anybody else (I was curious, looked it up) that the Texas Academic Fresh Start only works for applying to public Texas med schools through TMDSAS. Any other university, such as Baylor, and it doesn't apply.

Interesting statute though - makes sense, I don't know why they hold grades from 15 years ago against people (or *for* people, I'm guessing there are lots of loser 40-year olds out there with 4.0s in undergrad).

 

[girl82]

Thanks, dec0y.

I have to take two advanced bio courses for admission to the schools I am applying to, hence the A&P.

GPA...this is an interesting answer. My UG GPA is ~3.2 something and my law school GPA is ~3.1 (which stinks because I was actually top 20% and cum laude; the grade curve at my school is B-, though, so GPAs are generally lower). I will be applying to med school, however, under the Texas Academic Fresh Start statute, which removes grades older than 10 years from the calculation of your GPA for application purposes. So, right now, I have a 4.0. I do not expect to have less than a 3.75 after finishing my prereqs.

I will commit as much time as I need to to MCAT, and one reason for my post was to see if taking A&P and TPR/studying for MCAT in the summer is too much.

I will have plenty of volunteering/shadowing experience (planning to start volunteering regularly next summer after getting through 17-hour semester), and I have a ton of non-med volunteer and community leadership experience (board memberships, fundraising, legal community service, etc.).

I guess I was mainly looking for input on whether taking those particular classes together would be too much, or whether the ones I have slated for summer school are too intense for summer school.

Thanks for your thoughts. 🙂 Brevity is not a strength of mine!

I thought to be eligible for fresh start you had to complete a whole new bachelor's degree? I took a similar schedule to you (maybe even a little harder because I took more electives and only did one summer with three upper level sci classes). Its doable but I had very little time outside of school/ECs. You have to really watch out to make sure your personal relationships don't suffer. Good luck!

 

[gman33]

I thought to be eligible for fresh start you had to complete a whole new bachelor's degree? I took a similar schedule to you (maybe even a little harder because I took more electives and only did one summer with three upper level sci classes). Its doable but I had very little time outside of school/ECs. You have to really watch out to make sure your personal relationships don't suffer. Good luck!

I sort of thought the same, but I'm not too sure as Texas was never on my radar.
My understanding was that they don't look at any of your old grades, hence it's like you never took any of those classes and need to take 90+ UG credits or whatever the school requires.

Somebody provide some more info, or OP call the school and make sure before you get too far.

 

[heartoftexas]

Yep, I am aware that FS only applies to Texas public schools. That's all I'm applying to. 🙂

I have emailed multiple times with the assistant to the director of TMDSAS and talked at length on the phone with the director himself. The statute is *very* ambiguous -- and I am a lawyer. 😕 He agrees, and told me that the reason it reads so poorly is that in its original form, it did not include any provision regarding graduate/professional school. That section was added by a couple of legislators at the last minute. The mechanical process for applying to med school under FS is not clearly detailed at all in the statute. I wanted to make damn sure that I understood it before I started down this road. So I asked, and reasked, and clarified, and confirmed until I was sure!

I do NOT have to complete another bachelor's in order to apply. Contrary to what many believe (and I have chatted with people on other forums who have been told erroneous information by undergrad pre-med advisors...things I specifically asked the TMDSAS director about), using FS does NOT erase your degrees or prevent you from listing or discussing your accomplishments. Adcoms will know I have an UG degree and a law degree. I can tell them I was cum laude, Law Review, list my awards and honors, etc. (some people have been told that they basically cannot mention anything having to do with prior academic work if they use FS -- not true at all). The only effect FS has is to remove grades in coursework older than 10 years (the way you calculate the 10 years is a little squirrelly, but I won't go into it unless somebody really wants to know) from the calculation of your UG GPA. Also, it prevents you from using any prereqs older than 10 years as for med school. It is all or nothing in that sense. As in, I have to retake freshman English even though I've already had it (the English classes are the only MS prereqs I have taken, though!).

I WILL have to complete 90 hours before matriculating. Yeah, that's a lot. But the reason I chose to go ahead and do FS is that I need 40-something hours of prereqs and even if I make straight As in those prereqs, it hardly raises my UG GPA (which isn't bad, but is not nearly med school caliber). I figured out that to get my GPA to a 3.5, I would have to take 60-something hours and make straight As. If I do it this way, I can "start fresh", take 60 hours, apply, and then take the remaining 30 during the glide year. Makes more sense to me to start with a clean slate and have the ability to make a B or two somewhere in there and still maintain a high GPA.

I am not in a huge hurry because I do not want to enter med school until my youngest child is more self-sufficient. He is two now, and I would ideally matriculate when he enters first grade (although this new possible schedule might move me up a year).

So, for me, FS actually makes a lot of sense. I can definitely see where it is not for everyone. I am not giving up an income to go to school, I am not in a huge hurry to get there, and I have a good prior academic record and accomplishments that I can report on my application, so it is not as if I will be trying to to "hide" a 2.0 GPA.

Once again, I bore everyone with a long-winded post (refer to earlier paragraph where I admit to being a lawyer). 🙄

 

[dragonfly99]

Man I don't know...I don't know that I'd be so hot on going to med school with 3 kids and a law degree. I think I'd be tempted to just take my existing degree and use it for something (i.e. health policy law or advocacy) and/or just go get an NP degree or something. In all honesty, I'm an internist and there are NP's and PA's who do 90% of what we do, and work in all areas (like on surgical teams, cardiology clinic, etc.). People think that docs get all the glory, and don't get me wrong, I love being a doc, but I think a lot of nontrads don't really understand the opportunity cost of what they are getting themselves in to. I mean, 2nd and 3rd years of med school and residency can be pretty hellish at times. I think to do 30 hours continuously on call several times/week with kids at home would be TOTALLY awful. When you are in the hospital you do nothing but work and when you are home you are just TIRED and only want to sleep and eat. There are residencies with better hours and "night float" where you don't have to be there all night, but at those programs you generally have to make up for not having 30 hour call days in other ways (i.e. work until the evening most days even if not on call). Either way the hospital is going to get the work hours out of you. I'm not trying to totally discourage people, but I just think people should think damn hard about what they are getting in to. Also there are the big student debts to think about...

 

[heartoftexas]

Those are all valid points and considerations, dragonfly. You are the second physician in as many weeks to tell me not to pursue this. Conversely, I have several physician friends, including a woman with small children (the first one was born during her residency), who have told me it is absolutely doable. Of course, everyone's personal experience and circumstances are going to influence their thoughts on something like this.

I have spent many hours thinking about how this would change my life. I always assumed I would be president of the PTA, on the school board, chairing fundraisers, driving every field trip, etc. That is pretty much where I am now and, while I love it, I know it is not what I am meant to do for the next 16 years. I don't know if something in between where I am now and MD will satisfy me. I think about this a lot. I think about the effect on my kids and my marriage and the state of cleanliness of my house. 😉

For now, I am committed to taking my prereqs and MCAT and seeing where I find myself. Like I said, I don't work, so I'm not giving up an income, and the cost of going to school is very reasonable.

As for student debt, we are fortunate that Texas in-state tuition is VERY reasonable. Since I would only be borrowing for tuition and books, my debt load would not be bad at all (and we would borrow only what we needed). So there's that.