Non Trad Opinions wanted

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builtok

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Hi,

I am currently looking to apply to med school in about 2-3 years. Here is a brief description of me:

I'm 28 yrs old. Graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 2010 with a B.S. in pre-law with a 2.35 GPA. I also have an MBA from Oklahoma State University with a 3.75 GPA. I served in the Air Force for 5 years doing acquisitions purchasing cargo jets from Boeing. I just transitioned out of the military as a Captain and am now in a development program with Medtronic to be a spine medical sales rep and have 2 years left on my current contract.

After seeing a corpectomy surgery I felt an urge to become a surgeon. Most of my science classes are B's and C's. So I was wondering how other non-trads have gotten over this? Did you drop everything and go to a postbacc program or were taking classes at a local community college sufficient? Or did you not have to retake these science classes at all?

I appreciate your input.

Thank you!

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Stick a toe in that water. Go take one math or science class, reasonably difficult, like at night.

Get an A.

If you don't get an A, or hate it, walk away.

If you get that A, and you want to do that kind of studying, usually much worse, all day every day, like it's your job but you're paying to do it, for a really really really long time, then go get a volunteer gig such as 4 hrs/wk in an ED. Unless it's illegal to do so, it's fine to work in a client hospital.

If you don't like being around sick people, walk away. Also: if you can't stand being at the bottom of the hierarchy carrying a puke-filled container to a receptacle, walk away.

You can do these 2 things concurrently if you like.

And then come back and ask about GPA redemption. Before you quit your job. But hopefully you live in Texas. If you just can't wait to know more, then search SDN on "low GPA" and read forever.

Go study & push stretchers. "Surgeon" isn't part of the story for about 6-8 more years, if all goes well. No, it's absolutely not worth it to be miserable for 6-8 years to get there.

Best of luck to you.
 
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I second pretty much everything @DrMidlife has already said. Try taking one class and see how you do. If you do decide that medicine is what you want, it's going to take a ton of time, effort, and money to bounce back from your low undergrad GPA. It's not impossible but it won't be easy. Medical schools will see all of your past grades and MD programs, at least, will factor those grades into your cumulative GPA. (DO programs, on the other hand, allow for grade replacement, which may very well be the fastest way for you to bounce back, if you can retake your C's and turn them into A's.)

Shadow some doctors and volunteer ideally in a position that gives you contact with patients. Just being a patient can give you an overly rosy picture of what it's like to be a doctor. You want to make sure you know what you're getting yourself into and that you love it enough to stick through the crappy parts.
 
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@DrMidlife @thatwouldbeanarchy Thanks for your advice. I have definitely put some deep thought into this. I have been in more than 100 spine surgeries standing by the back table helping the scrub tech use my equipment, and as a rep we are expected to stand there during the entire duration of the surgeries whether its a quick two hour ACDF or a 13 hr complex scoli case. Every time I enter the OR I feel an adrenaline rush and feel a sense of excitement, and everyday I watch the surgeon wishing that I could be the one doing the surgery. This is not a decision about the money or the glory, but one of passion knowing that I would enjoy every grueling minute of doing surgery. It isn't an easy decision for me to walk away from this job which pays well when I am thinking about getting married. However, I do feel that if I do not at least try my best to become a doctor, I will most definitely regret it for the rest of my life.

So I'm curious about how people who have been in similar situations that have successfully become doctors. Did they just take night classes at a local community college at night? Or did they enroll into a full-time post bacc program? Or since they did well in their MS degree, did they just take the MCAT and apply?

Thank you all again for your input.
 
This thread is a good place to start: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...ntrads-already-accepted-to-med-school.675835/

Or since they did well in their MS degree, did they just take the MCAT and apply?
Unfortunately, with a below 3.0 undergrad GPA, you definitely need to do some repair. The consensus I've seen from adcoms on this site is that graduate GPAs don't hold nearly as much weight as undergraduate. The average undergrad GPA for MD matriculants is ~3.7. DO schools are slightly lower but not much.

I would keep browsing around this site for different perspectives on formal postbacs vs. DIY. Personally, I think that if you've already taken all or most of the prerequisites, a formal postbac may not be worth it. They can be very expensive. Taking night classes at a 4-year university would be preferable to a community college but that's not necessarily a hard and fast rule. You might want to contact some medicals schools that you know you'd want to apply to (your state schools, for example) and see what their policies are on CC credits.
 
You have to compete with about 60,000 of America's richest/least error-prone/most ambitious kids to get a seat in a US med school, and then 60% of you will get rejected. Each year.

An undergrad GPA of 2.35 means you should not try to go to med school in any rational sense, because undergrad numbers are what are used to compare you to those shiny kids, and their GPAs are on average 3.6+. The 3.6 kids are in the game. You're not in the game. Any rational person would advise you to consider being a scrub tech. At this point there's no evidence you could handle harder classes than that, such as nursing.

So the suggestion that you need to go see if you can get one A is that you could take the first of a thousand steps that take you through multiple years of very strong (3.7+) full time undergrad academics in mostly hard science before you can think about applying to med school. You need to understand why getting one A isn't a bad idea before you take any further steps.

You're seeing yourself in that OR. You're not in that OR until you do:
1) 2-3 more years of full time undergrad at a performance level you've yet to demonstrate (MBA is not comparable)
2) An MCAT score that beats about 55,000 of your competitors
3) A whole lot of things the kids do, like shadow doctors and push stretchers and wipe puke off old people
3) Probably another year of grad work in the sciences, at a med school (this is called an SMP, special masters program)
4) Fight like hell to get a med school to take you seriously despite having cumulative undergrad GPA below most cutoffs.
5) Then don't screw up med school. This is not a joke.
6) Then don't screw up the residency match. This is not a joke.

It's extremely difficult to finance this endeavor, and you would be doing it instead of building a career or a retirement plan.

Get it? You have to decide if this is your fight. You are highly unlikely to win. So go get an A and see if you can even get your gloves on.

Best of luck to you.
 
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You have to compete with about 60,000 of America's richest/least error-prone/most ambitious kids to get a seat in a US med school, and then 60% of you will get rejected. Each year.

An undergrad GPA of 2.35 means you should not try to go to med school in any rational sense, because undergrad numbers are what are used to compare you to those shiny kids, and their GPAs are on average 3.6+. The 3.6 kids are in the game. You're not in the game. Any rational person would advise you to consider being a scrub tech. At this point there's no evidence you could handle harder classes than that, such as nursing.

So the suggestion that you need to go see if you can get one A is that you could take the first of a thousand steps that take you through multiple years of very strong (3.7+) full time undergrad academics in mostly hard science before you can think about applying to med school. You need to understand why getting one A isn't a bad idea before you take any further steps.

You're seeing yourself in that OR. You're not in that OR until you do:
1) 2-3 more years of full time undergrad at a performance level you've yet to demonstrate (MBA is not comparable)
2) An MCAT score that beats about 55,000 of your competitors
3) A whole lot of things the kids do, like shadow doctors and push stretchers and wipe puke off old people
3) Probably another year of grad work in the sciences, at a med school (this is called an SMP, special masters program)
4) Fight like hell to get a med school to take you seriously despite having cumulative undergrad GPA below most cutoffs.
5) Then don't screw up med school. This is not a joke.
6) Then don't screw up the residency match. This is not a joke.

It's extremely difficult to finance this endeavor, and you would be doing it instead of building a career or a retirement plan.

Get it? You have to decide if this is your fight. You are highly unlikely to win. So go get an A and see if you can even get your gloves on.

Best of luck to you.

@DrMidlife Thanks for your honest response. I will take a class the following semester as a non matriculate student and see how I do and make an appropriate decision.
 
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Mods, another one over here to sticky!!!!

You have to compete with about 60,000 of America's richest/least error-prone/most ambitious kids to get a seat in a US med school, and then 60% of you will get rejected. Each year.

An undergrad GPA of 2.35 means you should not try to go to med school in any rational sense, because undergrad numbers are what are used to compare you to those shiny kids, and their GPAs are on average 3.6+. The 3.6 kids are in the game. You're not in the game. Any rational person would advise you to consider being a scrub tech. At this point there's no evidence you could handle harder classes than that, such as nursing.

So the suggestion that you need to go see if you can get one A is that you could take the first of a thousand steps that take you through multiple years of very strong (3.7+) full time undergrad academics in mostly hard science before you can think about applying to med school. You need to understand why getting one A isn't a bad idea before you take any further steps.

You're seeing yourself in that OR. You're not in that OR until you do:
1) 2-3 more years of full time undergrad at a performance level you've yet to demonstrate (MBA is not comparable)
2) An MCAT score that beats about 55,000 of your competitors
3) A whole lot of things the kids do, like shadow doctors and push stretchers and wipe puke off old people
3) Probably another year of grad work in the sciences, at a med school (this is called an SMP, special masters program)
4) Fight like hell to get a med school to take you seriously despite having cumulative undergrad GPA below most cutoffs.
5) Then don't screw up med school. This is not a joke.
6) Then don't screw up the residency match. This is not a joke.

It's extremely difficult to finance this endeavor, and you would be doing it instead of building a career or a retirement plan.

Get it? You have to decide if this is your fight. You are highly unlikely to win. So go get an A and see if you can even get your gloves on.

Best of luck to you.
 
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