Non-trad between M1 and M2. Ask me anything!

[Kera]

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Hello fellow non-trads. I'm between my first and second years of med school. I benefitted from SDN as I was heading into med school, and I wanted to pay it forward. I am not an adcom member or a professor or any sort of official med school sage. I'm just a lowly med student happy to answer any questions you might have for someone on the other side.

 

[Andrew N]

Appreciate this. Can you explain your road to medical school? I always enjoy hearing how folks planned it out and made it happen. Especially when you've got a family and kids at home as I do in my case.


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[Kera]

I don't have a family and kids, so I can't personally speak to that (I know there are others here who can, though).

I double majored in a science and a humanities in undergrad but didn't realize I wanted to go to med school until about five years after graduating. My job took me around the world to a bunch of developing countries, so I became interested in medicine through global health (and even more so as I realized that global health is applicable to many communities within the US). I had to go back and take a few pre-med courses, but not all of them.

Since I didn't have outside financial resources, I did the whole work full-time + take courses + study for the MCAT simultaneously thing, and it worked out. (Note: I had a strong science background, was doing very well in my classes, and was doing very well on MCAT practice exams. I would not have attempted this trio otherwise, since numbers are still king in med school admissions.)

I think that about covers my path to medicine. I will say that there is a M3 at my school with 5 children under the age of 10 (!!) so people can and do complete medical school with kids. He's a rarity, but there are several people at my school with children.

Good luck!

 

[esob]

What did you do for "clinical" hrs and how many hrs did you have when you applied? I've got 3k+ hrs as a combat medic/flight medic/MLT but Lizzy says my hrs are too old to count anymore so I'm trying to find something else to do...

 

[Kera]

I was an EMT, but I went through that training way before I decided to go to med school. So I didn't really do anything clinical just for my application.

It sounds like you have more clinical exposure than most incoming students! The most common clinical work backgrounds in my class are scribing, working as an EMT, and working as a medical assistant in a doctor's office. But I'm not an adcom member so I can only speak to my experience.

 

[Newtonian21]

Hello fellow non-trads. I'm between my first and second years of med school. I benefitted from SDN as I was heading into med school, and I wanted to pay it forward. I am not an adcom member or a professor or any sort of official med school sage. I'm just a lowly med student happy to answer any questions you might have for someone on the other side.

Hi there! Thanks for sharing. My question is if you were to advise anyone who has the opportunity in undergrad to take a science class, what class has been helpful for your basic medical science courses you've taken so far in med school?

 

[ghostman]

Hi there! Thanks for sharing. My question is if you were to advise anyone who has the opportunity in undergrad to take a science class, what class has been helpful for your basic medical science courses you've taken so far in med school?

I'm not the OP, but I would say Anatomy and Physiology could potentially be helpful. You'll need to understand the neural pathways, kidneys, heart, lungs, GI tract, urinary tract in a fair amount of detail, so any exposure to it early on could be useful. You're not likely to touch on much pathophysiology or pharmacology in undergrad. Having said that, I didn't take any of those courses before going to med school and I did fine.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I was an EMT, but I went through that training way before I decided to go to med school. So I didn't really do anything clinical just for my application.

It sounds like you have more clinical exposure than most incoming students! The most common clinical work backgrounds in my class are scribing, working as an EMT, and working as a medical assistant in a doctor's office. But I'm not an adcom member so I can only speak to my experience.

It seems like EMT is fairly common in non-trads (could be SDN selection bias). Do you find that to be true in your class. Given my situation (currently active duty plus two kids), EMT is out of the question for me. I was an OR tech for almost 8 years before the Navy, but that ended in 2011. I'm hoping that will carry me through, plus the TCCC experience and duty corpsman experience I've had in the Navy. I'm just worried that so many applicants seem to be EMTs or scribes that being an OR tech might be bottom of the barrel.

 

[Kera]

Hi there! Thanks for sharing. My question is if you were to advise anyone who has the opportunity in undergrad to take a science class, what class has been helpful for your basic medical science courses you've taken so far in med school?

Immunology is for sure what I would recommend. It's like a completely new world and you really don't have to know it for the MCAT (other than macrophages and DCs eat stuff, B cells make antibodies), so it would have been nice to at least have known the players.

Other than immunology, I agree with the conventional wisdom that if you take the courses, great, but it's totally not necessary. I'm at the top of my class without having taken any med school-related classes in undergrad, and it hasn't been terribly difficult to get there.

 

[Crayola227]

I disagree with the above. I think a whole year of biochem would be more useful.

 

[Kera]

It seems like EMT is fairly common in non-trads (could be SDN selection bias). Do you find that to be true in your class. Given my situation (currently active duty plus two kids), EMT is out of the question for me. I was an OR tech for almost 8 years before the Navy, but that ended in 2011. I'm hoping that will carry me through, plus the TCCC experience and duty corpsman experience I've had in the Navy. I'm just worried that so many applicants seem to be EMTs or scribes that being an OR tech might be bottom of the barrel.

I haven't seen that to be true in my class, but my class sample size is 1, so take that for whatever it's worth. Maybe 15-20% of us were EMTs, which is a lot but by no means overwhelming.

 

[Kera]

I disagree with the above. I think a whole year of biochem would be more useful.

This tells me coursework is highly dependent on institution, because at my undergrad, biochem was a completely, completely different class than med school biochem. Undergrad biochem was all about memorizing structures. I honored med school biochem and probably couldn't even draw you glucose at this point.

 

[Eccesignum]

Hey, thanks for doing this! Incoming M1 with a question!

What are they telling you about specialties at this point? I keep hearing conflicting information...on one hand, that it's normal to have no idea what they really want until mid-M3/M4...on the other hand that if you haven't done research in your chosen field, presentations, joined the clubs, made your connections very early on, you're going to be behind by match time. But if you don't know yet in M1 what you want, how can you be doing research and all that in the field you're going to head into?

I'm having a bit of anxiety over this, as my interest is spread over quite a few different things right now, and I'm sure that'll even change radically as I go along. So what do people do?

 

[Kera]

Hey, thanks for doing this! Incoming M1 with a question!

What are they telling you about specialties at this point? I keep hearing conflicting information...on one hand, that it's normal to have no idea what they really want until mid-M3/M4...on the other hand that if you haven't done research in your chosen field, presentations, joined the clubs, made your connections very early on, you're going to be behind by match time. But if you don't know yet in M1 what you want, how can you be doing research and all that in the field you're going to head into?

I'm having a bit of anxiety over this, as my interest is spread over quite a few different things right now, and I'm sure that'll even change radically as I go along. So what do people do?

I'm in the same boat! Ultimately, I just chose one and rolled with it. As my interests shift, I may be able to shift the research too; there are so many opportunities in med school. And at the end of the day, in my experience at least, PDs are humans who have been through this process themselves and understand that not everyone knows they're interested in urology on Day 1 of medical school. Harvard Derm may be out, but that wasn't on my list anyway.

I also think you'll find a surprising number of people who figured things out early in M3 and actually got a lot of research done during M3 year. And, if you *do* find yourself interested in Harvard Derm after not having taken steps in that direction initially, you can always take a research year.

My anxiety about this decreased over the course of the year, and I wish I could go back and tell my last-year self how I feel now. The pre-med machine encourages a lot of box-ticking, but I've found that if I'm interested and engaged, my resume will take care of itself.

I'm not sure that this was the most helpful post, but I hope it allayed some of your fears. Remember that everyone else is feeling the same way. Have a great time next year! Med school's a blast.

 

[Tannersousa]

Thanks for doing this I have thousands of questions but ill stick to my most feared. Do you know anyone your in school with that did 2 years of community college then transferred to a 4 year.
I'm from Massachusetts and we have something called the mass transfer program where you get guaranteed acceptance into a 4 year "sister" school of you have 60 credits and a good gpa. A lot of people say that CC classes look really bad when applying to any medical school but CC is literally my only option so I'm shooting from the hip and hoping I can get in in 3 years. I'm in need of a success story

Thanks in advance.

 

[Kera]

I don't personally know anyone who went to a community college, but I'm sure they're out there! Sorry I can't be of more help with this. There are other participants on this board who know far more about the admissions side of things than I do.

 

[Crayola227]

SDN search function to find my posts on the matter

 

[FCMike11]

Hello fellow non-trads. I'm between my first and second years of med school. I benefitted from SDN as I was heading into med school, and I wanted to pay it forward. I am not an adcom member or a professor or any sort of official med school sage. I'm just a lowly med student happy to answer any questions you might have for someone on the other side.

Hey bud. Fellow non-trad here in the application cycle now.

How long would you say it took you to flesh out exactly what study plan worked for you?

 

[TheGreatDekuTree]

Thanks for doing this I have thousands of questions but ill stick to my most feared. Do you know anyone your in school with that did 2 years of community college then transferred to a 4 year.
I'm from Massachusetts and we have something called the mass transfer program where you get guaranteed acceptance into a 4 year "sister" school of you have 60 credits and a good gpa. A lot of people say that CC classes look really bad when applying to any medical school but CC is literally my only option so I'm shooting from the hip and hoping I can get in in 3 years. I'm in need of a success story

Thanks in advance.

Hey there! I'm not the OP but I did start at a community college, transferred to a state school, and am beginning M1. A lot of people told me that CC looks bad but it's simply not true. Add it to your list of premed fear mongering (it will get long) and keep pushing through. You got this!


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[tnedoots]

There are several schools that specifically say that they "prefer" pre-reqs to be taken at a 4 year institution. Several schools say they accept CC classes. And some do not say either.
I took many many many units a CC level, about half of my pre-reqs, too. I got interviews at schools that specifically said they "prefer" 4 year institutions.
I think that, all things being equal, you should avoid CC classes. However, if you have taken CC pre-reqs, don't let it sway you from applying to any particular school.

 

[medic0114]

Hello all, wanted to ask a question about the whole EMT as an applicant. I have been a paramedic for about four years and have about 15k-20k hours of experience as I have worked 2-3 jobs throughout my undergrad/postbacc studies. With many applicants who are EMTs, how does my paramedic education/experience set me apart?

 

[medmed2018]

I had to go back and take a few pre-med courses, but not all of them.

I am assuming that you completed some of your pre-med courses during undergrad and some post-grad.

Regarding your undergrad pre-med courses, did you encounter many schools with strict pre-requisite deadlines
(ex. pre-requisites must be completed within five years of submitting the application)?

During your interviews, did anyone express concern that you completed some of the pre-reqs a few years before?

Thank you and congratulations!!!

 

[tnedoots]

Hello all, wanted to ask a question about the whole EMT as an applicant. I have been a paramedic for about four years and have about 15k-20k hours of experience as I have worked 2-3 jobs throughout my undergrad/postbacc studies. With many applicants who are EMTs, how does my paramedic education/experience set me apart?

I had some experience in emergency services, not EMT/paramedic, but close. The question of how it sets you apart is kind of vague and esoteric, at best. It shows clinical/medical experience which is important. You can use it in your primary and secondary apps to answer the "why medicine" questions, or any of the other questions. I wouldn't worry about what sets you apart as much as I'd worry about how you can use your life experience to make you the best applicant you can in person and on paper.

The admissions process is also vague at best, once you have the basic pre-reqs fulfilled.

 

[Kera]

Hey bud. Fellow non-trad here in the application cycle now.

How long would you say it took you to flesh out exactly what study plan worked for you?

I'm still working on it! I'm not sure I'll ever reach a point where I feel totally comfortable, but the transition wasn't bad for me. I'm constantly tweaking based on the class and the material, but I'm still using the system I started with. One of the worst things to do IMO, which I was pulled into for a few months mid-year, is constantly trying to switch things up with the hopes of finding the Holy Grail of studying. It doesn't exist. Constantly switching means you're not sustaining anything and lets things fall through the cracks. Luckily I realized this before I did too much damage and reverted to my original plan. It may not be perfect, but for me the time spent searching for perfection is better used studying!

Study hard and you'll be fine!

 

[Kera]

With many applicants who are EMTs, how does my paramedic education/experience set me apart?

Unfortunately I'm not sure since I'm not an adcom member.

My sense is that it's interesting, but it won't make up for any deficiencies in other parts of your application since *everyone* has some sort of similar interesting experience. Well, nearly everyone, anyway. You may be the former paramedic, the guy to right might be the one who created the fistula outreach program used by the government of <insert developing country here>, and the guy to the left might be a former medical malpractice lawyer. Everyone has something, and it sounds like EMS might be *your* thing.

 

[Kera]

I am assuming that you completed some of your pre-med courses during undergrad and some post-grad.

Regarding your undergrad pre-med courses, did you encounter many schools with strict pre-requisite deadlines
(ex. pre-requisites must be completed within five years of submitting the application)?

During your interviews, did anyone express concern that you completed some of the pre-reqs a few years before?

No and No. Maybe it was just the places I applied to, but I never ran into any trouble. Good luck!

 

[medmed2018]

No and No. Maybe it was just the places I applied to, but I never ran into any trouble. Good luck!

Yay! That's great news! Thank you! Good luck to you as well!

 

[petomed]

What is your annual total cost of attendance? How much are you anticipating being in the hole for after completing residency? How many years do you plan on taking to repay? I will be 31 upon matriculating, these are the most nagging questions I have. Thanks for offering yourself up!

 

[Schwester]

Yay! That's great news! Thank you! Good luck to you as well!

Sorry if I’m barging in, but I did encounter a few (ex: BU wants EVERY prereq—not just sciences—within the last 10 years). MSAR has this info for some schools, but some don’t supply it and you have to check their websites and/or contact the admissions offices individually.

I was never questioned on it by the schools without prereq expiration, though.