Alex012500
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- Aug 27, 2025
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- Pre-Medical
Hello all,
You may or may not have seen a previous version of this thread, but I realized it came across in a way I didn’t intend and lacked some vital information. This will be a long thread, so I appreciate it if you stick with me through to the end.
I am 25 years old, live in Chicago, White male but first generation college student on both sides of my family.
In 2018, I started college at LUC and was a nursing major. As my first semester came to an end, I realized that my A and P class grade was not going to be good. After talking to a professor of the lab portion of the class, I was advised to drop and retake over the summer. For financial reasons, at the time, this summer retake was not possible and I ended up switching majors to Biochem.
I excelled in my second semester of freshman year as well as the first semester of my sophomore. I took a WF for anatomy (I believe this prof did me a little dirty telling me to drop as I only had a C- at the time, but I do believe she was trying to help) that freshmen year, and managed to finish the first semester of my sophomore year with a 3.1 ish cgpa.
Onto the fun stuff. I began working that first semester sophomore year (2019) at a grocery store nearby, and I managed to balance work and school pretty effectively. Second semester comes around and its going well, then COVID hits.
Most of the people 40+ at my job (most of them) took medical leave from work; the company I was at was very good with looking out for their workers and offered this as soon as the virus became serious in the US. It was down to a couple college kids like myself, and mostly people close to 20-30 years of age at the store. They upped my hours from 15-30 , and I felt a moral obligation to make sure to show up. This was not an underprivileged community, however, I will say there were lots of old people and my store was the only one taking all of the mandates (6ft, masks) serious right st the beginning so most of the people scared of the virus felt safe shopping here. I have tons of stories of working at that time, feel free to ask if you want.
Obviously, school went completely online. My hours being hiked sky high along with the new class system made studying and being successful in school near impossible for me. I was not one of the people excited to use this change to get good grades, I went to school in person for a reason and was devastated.
My grades tanked that second semester of sophomore year, and continued down all the way through my senior year. I was never able to get my footing back after the online classes and honestly kind of gave up. I just wanted to graduate, didnt care about GPA at all. I failed, failed and failed.
Senior year summer, I finally got a kick in the ass to get my **** together. I took care of the rest of my classes with a relatively solid (3.0) GPA that semester.
Somehow, I think the job market was decent at the time, I landed a really good job as a molecular technologist at a clinical laboratory right after graduating. I soon got bored (after a year or so) and began to look at options for a career change. I took prereqs for engineering school, got a 3.5 in calcIII and diffyq semester, and got into a MS CHEME program starting in fall 2024z
While continuing to work full time, I took transport phenomena I and II and thermo all in one semester and got a 3.3. This was the hardest ive ever worked. Next semester i dropped the ball a bit and got a 3.0 while still continuing to work.
However, for the first time since that sophomore year I was proud of myself. I realized what I had pulled off spoke to my abilities as a student.
This summer (2025) I began thinking maybe, just maybe, I could pull off med school. It has always been my dream, I. see no other job as fulfilling.
I applied for a job within my company and met with a high level exec about it. He basically told me i was not at all qualified but the conversation went to what I wanted to do with my life. I hadnt really figured that out yet, but he asked me what would make me most proud and to envision myself at 60-70 years old with my children. He asked me what I see myself having my retirement party for that makes me happiest. This was the epiphany moment for me.
I started shadowing, volunteering. Racked up 20-30 hours of hospital volunteering so far and absolutely love every moment. Learning patient’s stories is my favorite part.
I shadowed a GP for about 100 hours so far, snd am lucky to start shadowing a cardiologist soon, im extremely excited.
I have begun studying for the MCAT now and have put my CHE degree on hold for the moment.
Post grad my GPA is 3.4 with 24 credits, my ugpa is 2.4 with 130.
I am asking for any advice on how to get into a program before im 30. What would you do that im not, what would you do differently?
In 2018 I entered college excited and ready to take on this new chapter in my life, by the end of 2022 when I graduated I felt hopeless and lost, heres to finding my purpose and ambition again.
You may or may not have seen a previous version of this thread, but I realized it came across in a way I didn’t intend and lacked some vital information. This will be a long thread, so I appreciate it if you stick with me through to the end.
I am 25 years old, live in Chicago, White male but first generation college student on both sides of my family.
In 2018, I started college at LUC and was a nursing major. As my first semester came to an end, I realized that my A and P class grade was not going to be good. After talking to a professor of the lab portion of the class, I was advised to drop and retake over the summer. For financial reasons, at the time, this summer retake was not possible and I ended up switching majors to Biochem.
I excelled in my second semester of freshman year as well as the first semester of my sophomore. I took a WF for anatomy (I believe this prof did me a little dirty telling me to drop as I only had a C- at the time, but I do believe she was trying to help) that freshmen year, and managed to finish the first semester of my sophomore year with a 3.1 ish cgpa.
Onto the fun stuff. I began working that first semester sophomore year (2019) at a grocery store nearby, and I managed to balance work and school pretty effectively. Second semester comes around and its going well, then COVID hits.
Most of the people 40+ at my job (most of them) took medical leave from work; the company I was at was very good with looking out for their workers and offered this as soon as the virus became serious in the US. It was down to a couple college kids like myself, and mostly people close to 20-30 years of age at the store. They upped my hours from 15-30 , and I felt a moral obligation to make sure to show up. This was not an underprivileged community, however, I will say there were lots of old people and my store was the only one taking all of the mandates (6ft, masks) serious right st the beginning so most of the people scared of the virus felt safe shopping here. I have tons of stories of working at that time, feel free to ask if you want.
Obviously, school went completely online. My hours being hiked sky high along with the new class system made studying and being successful in school near impossible for me. I was not one of the people excited to use this change to get good grades, I went to school in person for a reason and was devastated.
My grades tanked that second semester of sophomore year, and continued down all the way through my senior year. I was never able to get my footing back after the online classes and honestly kind of gave up. I just wanted to graduate, didnt care about GPA at all. I failed, failed and failed.
Senior year summer, I finally got a kick in the ass to get my **** together. I took care of the rest of my classes with a relatively solid (3.0) GPA that semester.
Somehow, I think the job market was decent at the time, I landed a really good job as a molecular technologist at a clinical laboratory right after graduating. I soon got bored (after a year or so) and began to look at options for a career change. I took prereqs for engineering school, got a 3.5 in calcIII and diffyq semester, and got into a MS CHEME program starting in fall 2024z
While continuing to work full time, I took transport phenomena I and II and thermo all in one semester and got a 3.3. This was the hardest ive ever worked. Next semester i dropped the ball a bit and got a 3.0 while still continuing to work.
However, for the first time since that sophomore year I was proud of myself. I realized what I had pulled off spoke to my abilities as a student.
This summer (2025) I began thinking maybe, just maybe, I could pull off med school. It has always been my dream, I. see no other job as fulfilling.
I applied for a job within my company and met with a high level exec about it. He basically told me i was not at all qualified but the conversation went to what I wanted to do with my life. I hadnt really figured that out yet, but he asked me what would make me most proud and to envision myself at 60-70 years old with my children. He asked me what I see myself having my retirement party for that makes me happiest. This was the epiphany moment for me.
I started shadowing, volunteering. Racked up 20-30 hours of hospital volunteering so far and absolutely love every moment. Learning patient’s stories is my favorite part.
I shadowed a GP for about 100 hours so far, snd am lucky to start shadowing a cardiologist soon, im extremely excited.
I have begun studying for the MCAT now and have put my CHE degree on hold for the moment.
Post grad my GPA is 3.4 with 24 credits, my ugpa is 2.4 with 130.
I am asking for any advice on how to get into a program before im 30. What would you do that im not, what would you do differently?
In 2018 I entered college excited and ready to take on this new chapter in my life, by the end of 2022 when I graduated I felt hopeless and lost, heres to finding my purpose and ambition again.
