I meant to start this thread a few months ago, but better late than never. I wanted to share a quick summary of my story as a non-traditional applicant, in the hopes that those who are tentative or just starting their journeys might gain some insight into the process or at least be encouraged that success is within reach. I am neither the most successful nor the best qualified of the folks I've met here, though, so I'd like for all non-trad medical students to join in. If this thread becomes long/important enough, I'd like for it to become a sticky.
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I was a so-so student in college, graduating with a computer science degree and a GPA of 2.75/BCPM 2.65 in 1999. I was actually a pre-med chemistry major for my first two years, then changed course after nearly failing honors orgo during my sophomore year. I got every possible grade at school, from A+ through F, except for C- and D-. While my then-girlfriend, now-wife graduated the following year cum laude, my diploma would more appropriately be subtitled "thank the laude."
Roughly three weeks into my new career as an IT consultant, I knew that I had made the wrong choice and that I needed to find a different way to make a living. Unfortunately, ennui and increasing comfort with my income caused me to make only halfhearted attempts for the following four years. I would consider business school, then stop to read up on law school, then stop to consider medicine briefly, and so on, never settling on or committing to any one course. Meanwhile, I grew ever more miserable. The bitterness I felt towards my job leaked into my personal life, eventually putting significant strain into my marriage. Yes, we had a DINK lifestyle, a nice new townhouse in the suburbs, and plans to get "the big house" and start our family in the near future. But I hated every minute I had to devote to my job. I hated getting up early, getting dressed, driving in, sitting down, working, driving home, and trying to relax afterwards. It wasn't working, no matter how much I thought I might make it work. I couldn't divorce myself from my work, and my work was turning me into a terrible person.
Enough was enough, and a series of very painful personal challenges finally convinced me that I had to make a change or just submit to being miserable forever. I finally listened to the voice inside my head that I should pursue medicine, a dream that I'd had for years. In college, I dismissed it as requiring too much work; as a consultant, I dismissed it because it would cut into my family schedule. But I realized that nothing else would do, that becoming a physician was the only thing that would make me comfortable with myself. That, I reasoned, was enough to give up a lot to make my dreams come true.
I quit my job two weeks shy of my fifth anniversary with the company and started a year of post-bacc courses. The post-bacc program director was actually unwilling to let me into the program at first, agreeing after some badgering to let me enter only if I managed to get A-s or higher in both summer sessions of gen chem. I got two As. In the school year that followed, I took orgo, bio, and physics simultaneously, earning As except for two A-s. I completed the program with a 3.93 GPA, having earned second honors and first honors in the fall and spring semesters. I took the April MCAT during that spring semester, getting a 37R -- 12 verbal, 13 physical, 12 bio.
I began the medical school application process during the summer of 2005. Out of 15 schools, I eventually received five interviews. Each one of them led to an acceptance offer. In just over a week, I will be starting orientation at the ******* School of Medicine.
To say that I was scared about starting this life-changing process would be a grave understatement. I was absolutely terrified about voluntarily giving up my salary, taking on significant debt, and sitting in class with over a hundred smart, motivated students all seven years younger than me. I had no idea how (or if) I would transition from employee to full-time student, and I honestly did not think that I would do all that well at first. Even if I managed to do well as a post-bacc, I didn't know how I would pull off the MCAT. Assuming I did well on the MCAT, I had no idea how my old GPA would affect the admissions process. I figured that if I managed to clear all of these hurdles, I would be lucky to hold one firm acceptance offer by April 2006. As it turned out, I had five by November.
I was scared, but I was also determined to make the most of the opportunity I'd given myself. I worked myself to the bone, applying myself much harder than I ever did in college. I was the dork in the third row with questions, I was the one who went to office hours every week. I was also the one who forged some personally rewarding relationships with my professors, which naturally led to some great referrals.
Ironically, I think the hardest part of my journey was, and will continue to be, balancing my academic workload with the rest of my life. I will be 29 this December, but I'm non-traditional in more than age. I'm married and I have a beautiful eight-month-old daughter. We've got a mortgage, a dog, two cars, bills, taxes, friends outside of school, and everything else you'd expect to find in a normal young family's life. I can't expect to make it through med school if I end up neglecting my family; at the same time, I can't expect to succeed if I don't continue to press my nose to the grindstone. In addition, the process of paring down my life and my family's life to one more affordable on loans has cost us a number of things. The material items that we would normally take for granted, the time that I normally would have had to help my wife and raise our children -- these things are being pinched, and these things matter a lot. I have absolute faith that we can make it through, but I wonder just how much I will have sacrificed at the end. Money is one thing, of course, but family is another and time is priceless.
It is with all of these doubts that I went through the process, and I expect to continually be challenged as I progress through my medical education. That's the rub of being non-traditional, I suppose. At the same time, I have managed to excel as a student and prove to myself that I do have what it takes to become a physician. I'm incredibly excited to be where I am today, and I can't recall a time when I was happier than I am now. I can't wait to don my white coat and show those 22-year-olds what these old bones are capable of doing!
Nothing like getting a phd in a field that consists of failed experiments 90% of the time to prepare me for the med school app process!
! I'll be starting a post-doctoral fellowship next week and I am at a crossroads: I have to complete my pre-reqs (g-chem,o-chem,physics) and am not sure if I should take classes on my own or apply to a post bacc. I hope to have a great success story to share in the next year or so. Good luck to all...!
