LA/CA Post baccs for career changer?

[silvergiirl]

Hello! Looking for advice on post baccs in the Los Angeles area as well as general advice on becoming a more competitive candidate for med school.

Background: I’m 35 and have worked in education as a licensed teacher for the past 10 years. I have a dual BA in English & International Studies, 3.68 gpa. I did my MA in Education at Stanford a few years ago, 4.0 gpa. I have a couple years of public health work experience (from before I was a teacher) and I volunteered at a hospital for 7 months a few years ago when I first started considering this career shift.

So —

- Is a DIY or structured program better given my background? I’ve read good arguments for both.

- What affordable & respectable programs do you recommend in the Los Angeles area? Also open to programs outside LA if needed, preferably something I can do while working full-time. I’ve done some research but would love to hear from folks who have enrolled in (or decided not to enroll in) specific programs.

- What else do you recommend to become a more competitive candidate for med school? LA-specific recs would be great because I’m new to the area (originally from the east coast).

Please feel free to provide any other advice you think would help. Thanks!

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[Approach]

Your life experience/job will already make you a competitive candidate, at least based on my experience and those of other nontrads I've encountered since starting school. You need to prioritize getting great clinical experience though, however that may come (and sustained volunteering, even if its just a few hours a week).

You're starting in the ideal spot as your uGPA is good. It looks like you have no sGPA or maybe very few credits that count towards it. I was in a similar situation but did a DIY on the East Coast. Given that you want to work full-time, assuming cost is a factor, I recommend DIY. I can't personally speak to formal programs, but it's my belief that all the advice/guidance one needs exists on SDN and Reddit.

I've seen many people recommend UC Extension to California applicants, and just from a bit of googling, I see this as an example (class at 6 pm perfect for maintaining a full-time job.

 

[silvergiirl]

Thanks so much for your perspective! It’s encouraging to hear that my background will be an asset — I have moments where I think I’m crazy to pursue this, so any encouragement helps.

For clinical experience, would something like a clinical research internship be useful? Or is that something I should pursue later on, once I’m deeper into my post bacc? I often see folks online making a distinction between clinical, volunteer, and research experience, but when I dig deeper there seems to be a lot of overlap.

 

[Approach]

Thanks so much for your perspective! It’s encouraging to hear that my background will be an asset — I have moments where I think I’m crazy to pursue this, so any encouragement helps.

For clinical experience, would something like a clinical research internship be useful? Or is that something I should pursue later on, once I’m deeper into my post bacc? I often see folks online making a distinction between clinical, volunteer, and research experience, but when I dig deeper there seems to be a lot of overlap.

Assuming you do a DIY post bacc, here is my advice:

I recommend beginning a small volunteering gig as soon as possible as those hours can add up by the time you are done with a post bacc. It doesn't need to be clinical, but absolutely should be geared towards the underserved. Otherwise, make sure you feel comfortable with your courseload because STEM courses can be a bit of an adjustment depending on your background. Once you know what it takes to maintain a 4.0 (or at least near to it) in a post bacc, I'd move on to clinical stuff.

Finally, go after clinical experience. I'm not sure what a clinical research internship is, but I can vouch for myself and other nontrads having limited research experience and rounding that portion of our application elsewhere. In terms of clinical jobs some people work weekends in the ER as a tech/scribe or get new jobs, whatever works for you. Unfortunately a lot of the application is a numbers game, and you got to fill in the numbers somehow even as a nontrad. This is a grind no doubt and it will eat up most of your free time but it can be done!

I hope this all makes sense. I'm in exam week and procrastinating but scatterbrained.