No Prerequisites - Road to Medical School

[FutureDr.Coleman]

Good Morning Everybody! I'm looking for some guidance on where to start to get to my dream of being a physician. A little bit of my backstory. I graduated college in 2019 with my B.A. in business administration. My cum gpa was a 3.198 and I have not taken any science courses. I have been trying to figure out how I should fulfill my prereqs for school. I'm battling between 3 options. 1. Post Bacc program, 2. Second Bachelors, and 3. DIY post Bacc. There is a post bacc program in my city, but the required gpa is a 3.2. It's a little on the expensive side but it does offer MCAT prep courses and does have a linkage program. The second option I've considered is getting a second bachelors in biology or chemistry. This option would be cost efficient with a state school, and I would have career options that I'm interested in, that I could do in the time frame that I'm not interviewing or in med school. The last option would be to diy the courses, which would be the cheapest out of all of them, but I feel like I would be missing a lot of valuable components like access to some prep courses and counselors at the schools. I also wouldn't have "first dib" access to courses, so it might take a while to fulfill them. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thank you guys for reading and helping me! Please let me know if there's any information I can add!

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[Goro]

Take some upper level science courses to get your GPA > 3.2 and then go for the program.

 

[deleted1066189]

Kinda curious, what made you decide to become a physician after 2019? Business major with no pre-reqs means you had a very different goal in mind originally?

 

[FutureDr.Coleman]

Kinda curious, what made you decide to become a physician after 2019? Business major with no pre-reqs means you had a very different goal in mind originally?

honestly being a physician was something that I’ve wanted to do since high school. I was in the pre med program that my high school offered for the first 2 years. But people told me how much of an opportunity cost it was and that I needed to go into computer science, which I did my freshman year, and then I switched to business because it didn’t like that. At the beginning of my junior year I realized I wasn’t doing what I truly wanted to do, but I was so close to finishing I figured I would stick with the program I was in. I started researching post Baccs and medical programs and some med schools do offer the combined degree programs with MBAs because eventually I would like to have my own practice.

 

[LunaOri]

In addition to taking the prereqs, you are going to need to start shadowing and doing volunteer work (those things you can start right now).

 

[8YearsLate]

I always vote DIY post-bacc because A) Accessibility of loans B) overall cost-effectiveness C) flexibility in schedule/classes D) why get a whole second bachelor's when you just need the chem/bio/orgo/physics and a few other suggested classes (i.e. calc, biochem, micro, etc)? I just don't see the benefit. As someone who had trouble getting a 3.5+ GPA in the past, you need to choose the track that will allow you to do that now. Think about A) the prereqs (bio or chem declared major may not let you access certain prereqs without paying out of pocket - the best option is a "biomed" or similar major that will allow you to hit them all without anyone raising eyebrows) and B) endurance/cost - you don't want to burn out your motivation or wallet before you actually get to the part where you're applying. Your prereqs will give you what you need in terms of MCAT (but you will still need a study program in place - self-made or otherwise) and you can find volunteer/shadowing opportunities yourself unless you literally just...don't look. Good luck!

 

[psydoc80]

I was in your same boat 25 years ago. I had a bachelors in business. GPA=3.3-3.4. i think it's more efficient to take the pre-reqs courses rather than go back for a brand new degree, esp a science degree. When you apply to med schools they look at your most current grades more than your old grades esp if you are able to make a big improvement. DYI initially is good as you can work it around your schedule and usually at community college level you face less competition and can probably earn better grades. I did 1/2 DYI part time while working FT. The second half, full time in a post-bac program at a state university. The reason for this was I wanted to have some research experience and get more volunteer experience/get to know the faculty for recs letters. I was able to get my grades up, got research experience, volunteer experience, and great recs letters. The entire process from taking the first pre-req course to matriculation in med school took me 6 years. My state school where I took the post-bac did not have a linkage program and no MCAT prep. I paid for Kaplan MCAT prep courses separately.
You may be able to do it faster than me if you are a better student. This is the path I took and it worked for me. I had undiagnosed ADD (I never took meds and still don't) so it takes me longer than average to learn.