Non-trad route: Elem teacher looking to go to med school. Advice please!

[aminator01]

I would love some advice if anyone can give it. I am 26 years old and am finally thinking about med school. I know I'm a little late in the game, but I want to start moving quickly! Here's a little background:

I am an elementary school teacher.
Graduated from a liberal arts college in 2008 with a 3.89 GPA.
Majored in mathematics, minored in psychology and education, earned a teaching certificate in New York and Connecticut.
I have not taken many prerequisites at all: my last chem courses were about 8 years ago (in high school-- though they were through UConn and I did well in them, but I don't remember much of it). I took a year of physics in 2004/05 and got As in both courses.
I am a volunteer EMT, though it's something I just started doing in March 2012.
In college I did Big Brothers Big Sisters for 3 years, and was the president of the program at my school for one year.
I also volunteered at a local school for underprivileged youth during college and helped build for Habitat for Humanity. I have always been interested in volunteer work.

I know I'm going to need to take chemistry and biology courses... is it okay to take them at a local community college? And do I need to repeat the physics courses too since they are so old? I'd like to apply next year, for matriculation in 2014.

I know I need to do really well on the MCAT. What score would I need to aim for with my background?

What else should I be working on over the next year? Obviously I am going to continue volunteering as an EMT. I am looking at where I can take chemistry and biology courses. I believe my math background should be sufficient.

I have never done any research. I didn't go to a research based college, and don't even know where to start with research. How important is this for an applicant?

I would like to eventually work within the field of pediatrics, combining my teaching background with my interests in the medical field.

Thank you so much for any advice you can give me!

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[piojita63]

Hello! I am also a "former" teacher. I have a K-12 music certificate, but I only worked high school for the years that I worked after graduating. I also did my master's degree in education, so I have a soft spot that told me to post a reply when I read your post. A lot of people advise against community college credits, but I think that as long as you do well in them, and the rest of your application is sound, you should be good. For a lot of us "non-traditionals", community college is the only way. I did a combination of studying abroad and community college to complete my pre-reqs. I am currently waiting for the results of my last MCAT attempt and I am going to apply DO this cycle.
Anyway...enough about me. I think you are in a great position to become a future physician. Community college advisors can help you pick out the right classes for you...the bios, chems, etc... and eventually you will study for the MCAT. I would guess that with a decent gpa, a 25+ is great for DO, and a 29+ for MD...but these are only approximates...we hope that adcoms would look at applicants as a whole and not just a set of numbers. Personally, I have found that my experiences as a teacher have made me a "well rounded" applicant (whatever that means) and I hope adcoms see that too. PM me if you need any more moral support from a fellow teacher! So happy to see another teacher on this forum!

 

[aminator01]

Thanks for your response! Definitely nice to find a fellow teacher on this forum

I'm looking for places to take my chem classes, trying to do them over the summer, but I'm a little late and everything within my state is full! I tried emailing one of the professors for permission to enroll over the class capacity, but his response was that it is a school policy not to over-enroll. So I'm a bit frustrated to say the least.

As I said in my previous post, I haven't taken a chem class in 8 years... would you suggest taking Organic Chemistry (if I can find an open course) without retaking General Chemistry? My Gen Chem grades were both Bs I believe, ahhh that was so long ago. Do you think I really need a refresher in the course before taking Organic? I'm not sure how much builds on prior knowledge.

Thanks again.

 

[411309]

Honestly, imo you don't really need a good understanding of general chem to do well in organic chem. The two are a lot different. you may want to refresh yourself on doing stuff like lewis dot structures though; you have to understand those to be able to do orgo. For the most part though I would say you would be ok doing orgo without a strong basis in GC. I was a dumb underdgrad student, never tried much and was lazy and barely squeaked by GC and ended up getting a B+ in orgo 1 (not bad considering I was super lazy at the time). so yea, I think youll be fine.

 

[piojita63]

I agree with ColeSmalls. You don't need to be a super star at general chemistry to understand orgo....and I like the advice about Lewis structures. I would review that and bonding. You should do fine if you put your mind to it. I really liked organic chemistry, though I was a bit scared of the orgo on the MCAT, hehe.
That can really be frustrating if the classes are full and you want to start right away. If there is nothing else available in your area have you considered an online class? Again, like CC classes, some frown upon it or argue that the experience isn't as great as brick-and-mortar, but it might get you going and then you can sign up for orgo 2 (or whatever) in person early. Often, a transcript doesn't show that a class in online or not, some even have in-person labs with online course content. Maybe you could research those. Really, really last resort you could go abroad and get your entire pre-med done in a year like I did, haha. I wouldn't recommend it though. After I was done I had to jump through a few hoops to get my credentials legal, but I have a complete pre-med and the worldly experience was great!

 

[flodhi1]

Don't worry about the required MCAT score right now. At this time you should focus on your pre-reqs and doing well in them. Also don't rush into this, you're already trying to apply in 1 year when you don't even have the pre-reqs. Research is not essential unless you're applying to top-tier medical schools and you can substitute it with extensive clinical experience. However, it would obviously be better to just get some research done. Community college is an okay place to do some of the pre-reqs not all (you can do all but you better pray that your MCAT score is stellar). I would suggest that you go to a University do your pre-reqs there and also look into research opportunities.

 

[aminator01]

Thanks for the advice. I'm not tooooo concerned about the prereqs because I've already taken General Chemistry I & II and Physics I & II. I want to take the chemistry courses again as a refresher before taking Organic Chemistry, since it's been about 8 years since I took them. I'm not sure if I need to retake physics... it would basically be just to help me with the MCAT. I did get As in both physics classes when I took them.

If I can find chemistry courses for the summer, then my schedule for the school year would just be Organic Chemistry I & II and Biology I & II. I believe I have everything else. Does it matter when I took the physics and chemistry classes? They are less than 10 years old, so I am assuming they should be fine for my transcripts.

What else would you suggest doing over the course of the next year? I know I want to find a research opportunity, and I'm going to look for shadowing opportunities as well. I will be continuing volunteering as an EMT, which is great because I have lots of patient contact time. My first EMT call was a cardiac arrest; I did CPR and helped to save his life!

Any other advice is greatly appreciated!! Thanks!