Non-traditional career changer needs advice

[nontrad111384]

Hello everyone,

I recently found this website and have found the advice extremely helpful. I was wondering if I could get some advice about attending a formal post bac program with the ultimate goal of getting into medical school.

A little bit about me: I'm 24 yrs old, obtained my B.A. in Social Sciences (3.67 GPA), and recently graduated from law school with a 2.95 GPA. I have not taken any prereqs nor did I take Calculus in college (I took stats and logic instead). I've been committed to community service and public interest law to help the impoverished community. I have also been volunteering at a elderly home health care facility for the past 2 years.

The majority of my family members work as nurses and I've always wanted to pursue a medical career, but I ended up going the law school route to fulfill a promise to my father. Long story short, my dad was a young lawyer in his native country but had to give it all up when he married my mother, had my older brother, and moved to the US to attain a better standard of living. For as long as I can remember, he's pushed me to follow in his footsteps. Now I am sincere about following my dream of becoming a doctor. With that said, I had a few questions and would appreciate any insight.

1) If I plan on attending a formal post-bac program, what can I do to improve my chances of being admitted? I especially want to go to SFSU's formal post-bac program, so any specific advice would be greatly appreciated.

2) To help pay for any further schooling, I plan on working as an attorney for at least a year and a half and saving as much as I can. Will this negatively impact my chances of getting admitted into a formal post bac program? Will this make it seem as though I am not fully committed to the medical profession?

3) I've heard that "clinical volunteer work" looks great on an application. Does working at a elderly health care facility qualify as clinical volunteer work? I enjoy working at the elderly health care facility because I get to interact with the patients. I'm worried that if I volunteer at a hospital they will have me making photocopies all day.

4) Did anyone attend (or is still attending) the formal post bac program at SFSU? If so, please let me know how you felt/feel about your experiences there.

Thank you all for your time and consideration.

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[n3xa]

Hi -

I did my undergrad at SFSU and am quite familiar with the post back premed advisor as he was also involved in one of the fellowship programs I was in. I'd be happy to make a more thorough post later, as today is my first day of class (not med school).

 

[sindadel]

It sounds like you have potential for a great application! Nice undergraduate grades, good history of community service. The most important things now are for you to do well in your post-bacc classes, do well on the MCAT and apply early.

I think if in your work with the elderly, you are close enough to "small patients", it qualifies as clinical volunteer work - that's a quote from a school admin who's a regular on SDN. However, just to be on the safe side, why not add some shadowing of a few (4-5) doctors just to show that you have exposure to other sides of medicine. This does not have to be onerous in time - shadow each one for a shift over 6 months and that would probably be enough.

Regarding working, yes, I'm sure that's fine - of course you should use your degree to save up to help pay for med school. In fact, never using your degree would probably look worse. Just take care that you are able to do well in your requirements.

You might want to consider taking the courses piecemeal over 18 months or so while working since working full time while doing a post-bacc is pretty much impossible and you will be stuck with a gap year.

e.g.

Semester 1: chem 1/phys1/bio1 Semester 2: chem2/phys2/ochem1
May/June Year 1: MCAT
June Year 1: apply, finish secondaries promptly and wait for interview invites
Semester 3: english 1/bio2/ochem2 Semester 4: english 2/stats/biochem
August Year 2: Start Med School!

Hopefully I've covered all the courses.