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Looking for guidance. Far removed from undergrad/premed reqs.
- Thread starter CGM00973
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Hey man I graduated undergrad in 2000 and went to med school in 2012- I wouldnt worry too much about being far removed from undergrad. I would take at least a few half semester's worth of classes (taking a half load will allow you to keep working, presumably) to prove that you can still handle an academic setting (was a problem for me), acing them will bring up your overall GPA and prove maturity and growth and dedication.
For the MCAT, presumably you have money saved up, I would get the full class package through an MCAT prep course. They'll teach you all the material as the MCAT wants you to know it, and teach you test taking strategy; bonus you show schools that you are serious about taking this course in life.
As far as resources, this website is garbage, Reddit is garbage...physicians more than 2-3 years out of med school will have no clue about the current process and "advisors" are usually unhelpful if not harmful to the process (had one tell me not to apply because they could see the "writing on the wall") so the garbage websites are your best bet.
For the MCAT, presumably you have money saved up, I would get the full class package through an MCAT prep course. They'll teach you all the material as the MCAT wants you to know it, and teach you test taking strategy; bonus you show schools that you are serious about taking this course in life.
As far as resources, this website is garbage, Reddit is garbage...physicians more than 2-3 years out of med school will have no clue about the current process and "advisors" are usually unhelpful if not harmful to the process (had one tell me not to apply because they could see the "writing on the wall") so the garbage websites are your best bet.
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Sounds like a SMP would be overkill for you tbh. Also with your experience in research I don’t really think a 3.5 is going to hurt you even if it is 8-9 years removed. It’s valuable and it shows dedication to the field plus you have real world work experience.
I graduated in 2012 and went back to a community college in 2018 to do all of my science prereqs and ended up with an MD acceptance with a cumulative GPA of less than 3.0 and a MCAT score that was nothing special (509). At most take a couple of science courses and do any prereqs you might still need and focus mostly on scoring well for the MCAT and I think you’d have a good chance at a lot of MD schools that are non traditional friendly/your state school and a great chance at many DO schools.
I graduated in 2012 and went back to a community college in 2018 to do all of my science prereqs and ended up with an MD acceptance with a cumulative GPA of less than 3.0 and a MCAT score that was nothing special (509). At most take a couple of science courses and do any prereqs you might still need and focus mostly on scoring well for the MCAT and I think you’d have a good chance at a lot of MD schools that are non traditional friendly/your state school and a great chance at many DO schools.
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I didn’t have the prereqs so me taking them was for the first time, but I saved a ton of money doing them all at my CC. I will defer to the advice of some adcoms as they will likely know better if you would need to retake classes depending on how far removed they are.
I would suggest reaching out to school admissions offices you are interested in applying to as well and getting their perspective regarding if they would want more updated science courses/retakes. It may be school subjective but my med school accepted my zoology course as one of my biology prereqs that I took like 9 years ago without issue.
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I'll give you my old scores in my narrative since you'll understand.
I took the MCAT twice undergrad a year apart with self study. I got a 29 on it the first time. The second time I got either a 30 or 31...basically within expected variance.
I then took an 8 year research gap. I then had to re-take since my scores had expired. Since I was so far removed from the material, I decided to take a review course. I did almost all the things the review course recommended, especially the tons of practice tests leading up to the real one. I ended up with a 37 on that re-take.
You have to know your study style and gauge how you're doing on your practice tests, but consider looking into a structured review. It's n of 1, but it worked for me big time.
I took the MCAT twice undergrad a year apart with self study. I got a 29 on it the first time. The second time I got either a 30 or 31...basically within expected variance.
I then took an 8 year research gap. I then had to re-take since my scores had expired. Since I was so far removed from the material, I decided to take a review course. I did almost all the things the review course recommended, especially the tons of practice tests leading up to the real one. I ended up with a 37 on that re-take.
You have to know your study style and gauge how you're doing on your practice tests, but consider looking into a structured review. It's n of 1, but it worked for me big time.
