Law to Medicine - Is My Plan Enough?

[mdjd528]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hello, SDN! Long time lurker, new poster here. I am a 28 year old non-traditional applicant in CT getting ready to take the plunge. I've been researching everything pretty extensively for the past few years, and have developed a rough plan. I'm looking for critiques.

A little background:

As the title implies, I am a practicing lawyer. I have had a passion for medicine since a young child, but found a "second passion" for the precision and attention to detail required in law during undergraduate. I focused my legal studies on health and biotechnology law, and learned in a really unique way how intertwined law and medicine really are. I sat and passed the bar exam, relaxed for a while with only the stress of work to worry about, and then started to plan my shift back to medicine.

My undergraduate degree is in biomedical engineering. My cumulative GPA was again just over 3.1. My science GPA is something embarrassing like 2.8. My law GPA was about 3.1, but I know this doesn't matter.

Regarding the "extras," I have about 100 hours of volunteer work at a local hospital under my belt (some of which I did during law school); I was president of my law school's Health Law Association; I did research regarding both development of balance in infants and blood flow through the carotid artery under varying degrees of stenosis during undergraduate; and I have done around 50 hours of pro bono legal work for disabled veterans in my state. I have shadow hours from high school, but plan on adding more.

Prerequisite-wise, I am short General Chemistry II, and Organic Chem I and II. How a biomedical engineering program could not require these courses is beyond me, but hey...

My plan is this:

General Chem II in Spring of 2020 at a local community college;

Organic Chem I in Fall of 2020 at same local community college;

Organic Chem II in Spring 2021 at community college;

MCAT summer 2021;

SMP at the med school I'm shooting for in Fall of 2021.

What are your thoughts? Is this enough? What else can I do to improve my application? What weaknesses should I be sure to address, and how?

The shift is obviously a huge gamble for me, and I want to maximize my odds. Thanks for your help!

 

[esob]

Median GPA for AMCAS matriculants is a 3.72/3.65 (C/Science). Median Mcat ~511, and all of those numbers are likely to go up by the time you apply based on past trends. Additionally, taking your "gateway" prereqs at a community college will weaken your application. If you aced everything and destroyed the MCAT and applied broadly, especially to DO schools, you will have a shot. How was your LSAT? (ie, what percentile). Your past standardized test performance on something like the LSAT can help you figure out what your realistic chances of destroying the MCAT are.

Outside of that, moving to Texas and applying with Academic Fresh Start is the highest yield option you have at this point.

 

[mdjd528]

Thanks for the feedback. Right along the lines of what I thought. LSAT was 85th percentile, shooting around 510 on MCAT practice tests right now without those courses. Definitely won't bother applying under 515, which I believe is just a tad higher percentile-wise than my LSAT was. I've always been good at standardized tests.

GPA is definitely my biggest concern. It's as low as it is because a 3.1 in my program was respectable: it stacked the courses used to calculate sGPA all at once in freshman year, but with how difficult the rest of the simultaneous course load was (statics, dynamics, thermo - none of which are considered "science"), everyone pretty much just winged these. 3.1 is absolutely not reflective of my abilities, and I hope the SMP will show that.

CC is not the best, I know : /

 

[Stellaartwa]

Outside of that, moving to Texas and applying with Academic Fresh Start is the highest yield option you have at this point.

Woof, that seems pretty nuclear for a lawyer with a 3.1/2.8 who is planning on doing the remaining pre-reqs followed up by an SMP.

OP - with your grades, it's true that you will need to do either a one to two year informal post-bacc or an SMP. If you're comfortable with the cost & risk of the SMP, I think your plan sounds fine. CC is, of course, sub-optimal but if that's your only option, it shouldn't create a huge problem. You'll need to verify with each school you plan on applying to that they accept those CC credits. Some medical schools don't.

As to what's missing, you should start adding in some weekly clinical & non-clinical volunteering hours & try to start accruing shadowing hours. Shadowing physicians across various specialties once a month for a couple hours until you apply should suffice.

Finally, don't take the MCAT for granted. The only practice tests that you can trust to be predictive of your potential score are the AAMC practice tests. If you're hitting a 510 on AAMC practice tests without all the pre-reqs and with no recent studying, you're in a great spot. Continue to make sure you keep up with studying and practice questions. As you know, with your stats, the MCAT will make or break you.

In closing, I started with a much lower sGPA and a slightly lower cGPA and got a lot of love after 2 years of pb + killer MCAT. A SMP + great MCAT should get you there. You're "interesting" in a good way!

 

[esob]

Woof, that seems pretty nuclear for a lawyer with a 3.1/2.8 who is planning on doing the remaining pre-reqs followed up by an SMP.

The number of people that get into an MD school with those GPA stats (and not being URM) is what it is: almost non-existent. IMHO, SMP's are only good for programs that either guarantee you admission into their SOM, or one of the few that are highly reputable (which, to get into, you probably already have good enough stats to get into a school somewhere). Being an attorney won't matter with those stats, it's just honest feedback. Being military wouldn't matter, being a Ph.D. probably wouldn't matter. Famous actor, Olympian or maybe a fighter pilot might offset that GPA, but taking advantage of AFS would still be the highest yield option for OP. I'm not suggesting they do it; simply that it would lend the highest statistical probability of landing an MD acceptance.

That said, being an attorney will probably help get OP into a DO school as long as they have a decent MCAT.

 

[Stellaartwa]

I respect your opinion @esob but I admit I have a more optimistic view. I may be biased as I got into med school with a worse academic record than OP. Additionally, my non-traditional background was discussed at all of my interviews so I have to assume it played a role.

As anyone with a clue can attest, big scores on the MCAT are much easier said than done, however, if OP can achieve her predicted 514 that would put her in the 514-517/3.1 group which boasts a 42% MD acceptance rate. Those numbers don’t inform us about URM status, post-bacc or other exceptional experiences but they’re pretty encouraging nonetheless.

I think a lawyer with a successful showing at an SMP, lots of RECENT clinical and non-clinical volunteering, shadowing and a good MCAT has done everything possible to maximize their chances for both MD as well as DO schools.

 

[Goro]

Hello, SDN! Long time lurker, new poster here. I am a 28 year old non-traditional applicant in CT getting ready to take the plunge. I've been researching everything pretty extensively for the past few years, and have developed a rough plan. I'm looking for critiques.

A little background:

As the title implies, I am a practicing lawyer. I have had a passion for medicine since a young child, but found a "second passion" for the precision and attention to detail required in law during undergraduate. I focused my legal studies on health and biotechnology law, and learned in a really unique way how intertwined law and medicine really are. I sat and passed the bar exam, relaxed for a while with only the stress of work to worry about, and then started to plan my shift back to medicine.

My undergraduate degree is in biomedical engineering. My cumulative GPA was again just over 3.1. My science GPA is something embarrassing like 2.8. My law GPA was about 3.1, but I know this doesn't matter.

Regarding the "extras," I have about 100 hours of volunteer work at a local hospital under my belt (some of which I did during law school); I was president of my law school's Health Law Association; I did research regarding both development of balance in infants and blood flow through the carotid artery under varying degrees of stenosis during undergraduate; and I have done around 50 hours of pro bono legal work for disabled veterans in my state. I have shadow hours from high school, but plan on adding more.

Prerequisite-wise, I am short General Chemistry II, and Organic Chem I and II. How a biomedical engineering program could not require these courses is beyond me, but hey...

My plan is this:

General Chem II in Spring of 2020 at a local community college;

Organic Chem I in Fall of 2020 at same local community college;

Organic Chem II in Spring 2021 at community college;

MCAT summer 2021;

SMP at the med school I'm shooting for in Fall of 2021.

What are your thoughts? Is this enough? What else can I do to improve my application? What weaknesses should I be sure to address, and how?

The shift is obviously a huge gamble for me, and I want to maximize my odds. Thanks for your help!

Your plans are sound. Get in more volunteering and shadowing

 

[esob]

I respect your opinion @esob but I admit I have a more optimistic view. I may be biased as I got into med school with a worse academic record than OP. Additionally, my non-traditional background was discussed at all of my interviews so I have to assume it played a role.

As anyone with a clue can attest, big scores on the MCAT are much easier said than done, however, if OP can achieve her predicted 514 that would put her in the 514-517/3.1 group which boasts a 42% MD acceptance rate. Those numbers don’t inform us about URM status, post-bacc or other exceptional experiences but they’re pretty encouraging nonetheless.

I think a lawyer with a successful showing at an SMP, lots of RECENT clinical and non-clinical volunteering, shadowing and a good MCAT has done everything possible to maximize their chances for both MD as well as DO schools.

I think you are right that if OP can get in the 514-517 range that they will have good luck. I had a median MCAT and my age (I'm super old, unlike the 24 yr old non-trads who think they are passed their prime, lol). I also think that OP is fine for DO schools. However, my median MCAT and a 3.5+/3.8+, veteran, published research (with a top institution), lots of recent and past clinical hrs, etc, etc, etc, got me nothing from AMCAS schools, even though everything was the same for TMDSAS. I'll have to go back and count the total hours but I know at least the last 150+ hrs I have taken, including all of my prereq's, have been straight A's. If that's not an upward trend, I don' t know what is, lol. So, I'm a little skeptical when I hear people talk about putting in 1 year of straight A's which brings their GPA to a 3.0 and are expecting to have MD schools beating down their door to hand out invites.

I guess anything can happen though, as I've recently subscribed to the quantum theory of olfaction, so somewhere, in some universe, there is a 50 yr old with a 2.0 and no clinical experience or volunteer hrs getting into Harvard with a full ride 😀

 

[baccpost]

If you're in Western CT, can't you move over to the dark side and get in-state tuition at a SUNY school? Or go to one of the CT State schools (or UConn if you're nearby)? You might also want to take Biochemistry or Biological Chemistry in addition to, or instead of OChem II.