Hello all,
I have been lurking here on the forums for a little while now and was hoping to get some feedback and advice. I’m sure my story is repetitive, and I apologize, and while I have gained significant insight from this site and continue to do so, I wanted to see what the community thought as I start down this road.
A little about myself, I am a 26-year-old non-traditional student. Throughout high school and into my year at community college, while I was in many AP, honors and college classes and believe I had the capacity to excel academically, I did not apply myself, had no interest in school and of course sank my GPA. If I had only known how detrimental that would have been a few years down the road, things may have been different. But history is just that.
After failing out of community college I moved into a volunteer firehouse in Maryland where I went to another community college and finished my paramedic certificate. At the time I was only interested in becoming a firefighter, but medicine had always interested me. After becoming a paramedic and beginning to work as one, I truly came to love medicine. I have worked and still do currently, as a firefighter/paramedic in a very busy city.
I have recently gone back to school to complete my undergraduate degree. I am majoring in emergency management and expect to graduate at the end of the fall semester in 2020. However, having gone back to school with a few years of significant improvement in maturity and academic success, I have found myself wanting to do more in the medical field than I do in the fire department. I originally had started to set my focus on PA school, however, after paying close attention to their role in the ER when I am there and speaking to the PAs that I am friends with, I have found much more interest in the physician route. I did not think that would be possible considering the stats that I am starting out with, but the med students, residents, and physicians that I have spoken to have encouraged me to pursue this, specifically noting my upward trend (although currently brief) in grades thus far and mostly my significant clinical experience. I know that is very brief and not very thorough but that would be the basis for the Why medicine? Why now? that non-traditional students are posed with.
Although it is yet to be done, I am fully committed and anticipate continuing to maintain a 4.0 throughout my undergraduate and I hope to graduate with a cGPA of 3.2 in the fall. My plan from there is to apply to formal post – back programs, as I will not have completed any of the prerequisites. Also, up until this point, I have not really taken many science or math classes. My sGPA below is only a reflection of 4 classes I have taken, two of which are basic sociology and psychology and I was not sure if they would count towards my sGPA or not. Of course, I plan on increasing that GPA significantly.
My overall question is am I on the right track and should I be doing anything else? Outside of all this, I am working on gaining shadowing hours and have applied to volunteer a few hours in a large major hospital near my home. Also, although I did have 94 credits prior to starting this semester, only 21 actually transferred into my program. I am going to receive another 38 credits through the university for work experience as a paramedic. These credits will be Pass/Fail and, as I understand, will not count towards my cGPA. Would it be more beneficial to my cGPA to forgo the 38 credits and actually take graded classes, in a program, I am confident I can maintain a 4.0 or close to in, to help improve my cGPA. From what I have calculated, this will add about 3 semesters on and I would hope to graduate with closer to a 3.4. I have also considered that this will increase the number of semesters I have with strong grades from 5 to hopefully 8. After my undergraduate, I am looking to apply to post-bacc programs such as BM, JHU, Goucher, NYU, Columbia and Stony Brook. New York is where I grew up and that is my preference, however, I certainly would not turn down any acceptance. Another side note, all clinical and volunteer work has been, in what I believe, are underserved communities. Am I on the right track? Is this doable? I appreciate your feedback, advice and most of all your time.
2.74 – College classes taken during high school (2010 -2011)
1.11 – Community College (2011)
1.25 – Community College (2012)
3.07 – Paramedic certificate (2012)
2.67 – Paramedic certificate (2013)
3.57 – Paramedic certificate (2013)
4.00 – Continuing Paramedic Education (2017)
(94 credits total) 2.63 cGPA
4.00 – 1st Semester undergraduate starting with 59 credits (2019)
2.79 cGPA (current)
2.38 sGPA @ 13 credits. (2.29 without Sociology and Psychology) Includes College Sociology? and Psychology? taken in High School, an F in statistics in community college and an A in quantitative mathematics this semester.
3.2 anticipated cGPA graduating fall of 2020 if 4.0 is maintained Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall Semesters.
Clinical Experience: 7 years total as a paid fulltime Paramedic and Firefighter/Paramedic (Current Employment) both in very busy urban settings.
Volunteer Experience: 8 years (Current) with a volunteer fire department as a Firefighter/EMT. 5 of those years I lived at the firehouse through a live-in program and averaged, approximately, 100 hours a week. Currently and the last 3 years, I have averaged about 24 hours a month. I have also held multiple leadership positions.
Big Brothers Big Sisters: just starting out with less than a year of experience but averaging about 4 hours a week.
I have been lurking here on the forums for a little while now and was hoping to get some feedback and advice. I’m sure my story is repetitive, and I apologize, and while I have gained significant insight from this site and continue to do so, I wanted to see what the community thought as I start down this road.
A little about myself, I am a 26-year-old non-traditional student. Throughout high school and into my year at community college, while I was in many AP, honors and college classes and believe I had the capacity to excel academically, I did not apply myself, had no interest in school and of course sank my GPA. If I had only known how detrimental that would have been a few years down the road, things may have been different. But history is just that.
After failing out of community college I moved into a volunteer firehouse in Maryland where I went to another community college and finished my paramedic certificate. At the time I was only interested in becoming a firefighter, but medicine had always interested me. After becoming a paramedic and beginning to work as one, I truly came to love medicine. I have worked and still do currently, as a firefighter/paramedic in a very busy city.
I have recently gone back to school to complete my undergraduate degree. I am majoring in emergency management and expect to graduate at the end of the fall semester in 2020. However, having gone back to school with a few years of significant improvement in maturity and academic success, I have found myself wanting to do more in the medical field than I do in the fire department. I originally had started to set my focus on PA school, however, after paying close attention to their role in the ER when I am there and speaking to the PAs that I am friends with, I have found much more interest in the physician route. I did not think that would be possible considering the stats that I am starting out with, but the med students, residents, and physicians that I have spoken to have encouraged me to pursue this, specifically noting my upward trend (although currently brief) in grades thus far and mostly my significant clinical experience. I know that is very brief and not very thorough but that would be the basis for the Why medicine? Why now? that non-traditional students are posed with.
Although it is yet to be done, I am fully committed and anticipate continuing to maintain a 4.0 throughout my undergraduate and I hope to graduate with a cGPA of 3.2 in the fall. My plan from there is to apply to formal post – back programs, as I will not have completed any of the prerequisites. Also, up until this point, I have not really taken many science or math classes. My sGPA below is only a reflection of 4 classes I have taken, two of which are basic sociology and psychology and I was not sure if they would count towards my sGPA or not. Of course, I plan on increasing that GPA significantly.
My overall question is am I on the right track and should I be doing anything else? Outside of all this, I am working on gaining shadowing hours and have applied to volunteer a few hours in a large major hospital near my home. Also, although I did have 94 credits prior to starting this semester, only 21 actually transferred into my program. I am going to receive another 38 credits through the university for work experience as a paramedic. These credits will be Pass/Fail and, as I understand, will not count towards my cGPA. Would it be more beneficial to my cGPA to forgo the 38 credits and actually take graded classes, in a program, I am confident I can maintain a 4.0 or close to in, to help improve my cGPA. From what I have calculated, this will add about 3 semesters on and I would hope to graduate with closer to a 3.4. I have also considered that this will increase the number of semesters I have with strong grades from 5 to hopefully 8. After my undergraduate, I am looking to apply to post-bacc programs such as BM, JHU, Goucher, NYU, Columbia and Stony Brook. New York is where I grew up and that is my preference, however, I certainly would not turn down any acceptance. Another side note, all clinical and volunteer work has been, in what I believe, are underserved communities. Am I on the right track? Is this doable? I appreciate your feedback, advice and most of all your time.
2.74 – College classes taken during high school (2010 -2011)
1.11 – Community College (2011)
1.25 – Community College (2012)
3.07 – Paramedic certificate (2012)
2.67 – Paramedic certificate (2013)
3.57 – Paramedic certificate (2013)
4.00 – Continuing Paramedic Education (2017)
(94 credits total) 2.63 cGPA
4.00 – 1st Semester undergraduate starting with 59 credits (2019)
2.79 cGPA (current)
2.38 sGPA @ 13 credits. (2.29 without Sociology and Psychology) Includes College Sociology? and Psychology? taken in High School, an F in statistics in community college and an A in quantitative mathematics this semester.
3.2 anticipated cGPA graduating fall of 2020 if 4.0 is maintained Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall Semesters.
Clinical Experience: 7 years total as a paid fulltime Paramedic and Firefighter/Paramedic (Current Employment) both in very busy urban settings.
Volunteer Experience: 8 years (Current) with a volunteer fire department as a Firefighter/EMT. 5 of those years I lived at the firehouse through a live-in program and averaged, approximately, 100 hours a week. Currently and the last 3 years, I have averaged about 24 hours a month. I have also held multiple leadership positions.
Big Brothers Big Sisters: just starting out with less than a year of experience but averaging about 4 hours a week.
