Non Traditionals Students

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busupshot83

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I heard that Osteopathic schools are more likely to accept non traditional students. Is this true?

If so, how does one define a "non trad. student?"

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Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are non trads. Whether they are accepted or not depends on how dedicated they are to the field of medicine as reflected by their EC's, GPA & MCAT. Their knowledge of the osteopathic profession would also be crucial to their likelyhood of acceptence. A bridge program never hurt either.

Basically a non trad is someone who isn't fresh out of college (or perhaps started college late) all pumped up and ready to dive head first into a difficult profession. See Lawyer, PA, EMT, business dude...etc. Basically, not the majority of folks you bump into in the pre-allo/osteo forum. I say this not to berate but to illustrate.
 
Originally posted by VentdependenT
Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are non trads. Whether they are accepted or not depends on how dedicated they are to the field of medicine as reflected by their EC's, GPA & MCAT. Their knowledge of the osteopathic profession would also be crucial to their likelyhood of acceptence. A bridge program never hurt either.

Basically a non trad is someone who isn't fresh out of college (or perhaps started college late) all pumped up and ready to dive head first into a difficult profession. See Lawyer, PA, EMT, business dude...etc. Basically, not the majority of folks you bump into in the pre-allo/osteo forum. I say this not to berate but to illustrate.

keep illustrating son, thanks
 
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could it be that more nontrad's just prefer DO? just asking a question not making a statement?

It seems this way with the limited number of people I have talked with about this...

DrDad
 
I'll say that I made the decision to be a doctor (career switch, nontrad) knowing zilch about D.O., but my school of choice became D.O. I think, for me, it seems like a better fit. It may just be the school itself though. IMO: I think the philosophy shaped the school into a fit for me.

As per the op, it seems that most schools want the best fit for their class, trad or non.

I will make this point. My uncle who is an ER nurse said, "The thing I've noticed about D.O.s is that it seems like they were something else before they were a D.O."

btw: his wife who is a pt answerd the same question with, "D.O.s are real people."
 
i hear that too
 
Yes, DO schools are more responsive to older students which are considered non-traditional. Allopathic schools are more apt to discriminate against students that are 30 years or older. Now don't flame me because I know many older students who matriculate at MD schools yada yada. But we all know Osteopathic schools are more open minded to and like diversity in their class than allopathic schools. That's the general notion I have gotten. DO schools seem to think work experience and age are assets whereas Allopathic schools see it as some form of deficiency.
 
I'm a non-trad student and found that both MD and DO schools were equally receptive to older students, but I think it also depends on what schools you talk to. I think in general, the schools believe that older students have more maturity, life experience, and have more thoroughly stopped to think about the decision to go into medicine. We aren't just following the course set out by our parents, or by a decision we made in our sophomore year of undergrad when we had to declare a major and decide the rest of our coursework. Not that there is ANYTHING wrong w/taking the traditional route at all....don't whomp on me for my statement please. I WISH I could have done it the traditional way, because I would be a doctor already. From what the various schools have told me, an older student can sometimes be chosen over a younger one with the same stats, because the older studens are thought to be more dedicated.

Personally, I don't think I am necessarily more dedicated than my younger counterparts, or that i'm more mature or thought this out any more than they did. I'm just relaying the info told to me by several schools. But I'm not convinced that there is a difference between the way MD schools see non-trad students and the way they are seen at DO schools. I just wanted to go to a DO school b/c i wanted to learn OMM and be taught w/the underlying philosophy that the body is a unit.
 
Originally posted by DoctorInSpace
I'm a non-trad student and found that both MD and DO schools were equally receptive to older students, but I think it also depends on what schools you talk to. I think in general, the schools believe that older students have more maturity, life experience, and have more thoroughly stopped to think about the decision to go into medicine. We aren't just following the course set out by our parents, or by a decision we made in our sophomore year of undergrad when we had to declare a major and decide the rest of our coursework. Not that there is ANYTHING wrong w/taking the traditional route at all....don't whomp on me for my statement please. I WISH I could have done it the traditional way, because I would be a doctor already. From what the various schools have told me, an older student can sometimes be chosen over a younger one with the same stats, because the older studens are thought to be more dedicated.

Personally, I don't think I am necessarily more dedicated than my younger counterparts, or that i'm more mature or thought this out any more than they did. I'm just relaying the info told to me by several schools. But I'm not convinced that there is a difference between the way MD schools see non-trad students and the way they are seen at DO schools. I just wanted to go to a DO school b/c i wanted to learn OMM and be taught w/the underlying philosophy that the body is a unit.

I would have to disagree with this. I'm a non-traditional student and I wasn't given the same consideration that from MD schools that I received at DO schools. And it seems like every non-traditional student that is accepted to an MD school has amazing numbers to justify their selection. In my case, I noticed my age was another hurdle I had to overcome with MD schools.
 
bansheeDO,

I guess we just had different experiences w/different MD schools. I didn't even want to go to an MD school but got all the info just in case. I hope more people post their experiences to get a better feel for what is out there.
 
I am also a non trad student. I scored 34 on my MCAT (twice) and has a 3.7+ GPA with a sound research background(I went to grad school). And had good extracurricular experiences. I applied to both MD and DO schools but I didn't hear anything from MD schools, yet every DO schools that I applied sent me interview intitations.
 
OK prettymean, just one question:

Why did you retake the MCAT when your first attempt yielded a 34? Do you aspire to academia or are you a masochist. No offense intended and congrats on the pair of 34's. Just wondering why you repeated?

Reading this post makes me wonder about adding more osteo schools to my list in case allo's ignore me.
 
To the OP: try www.oldpremeds.com

It is an excellent resource for non-traditional students and you will find lots of people there who can give you firsthand experiences of being "non-traditional" and making a career change to medicine.

And they won't give you cutesy, flippant responses about the Toothfairy and Santa Claus. :)
 
I have to admit, I only applied to DO schools except St, Georges when I applied to med school because I had heard the same thing and the Director of Surgery at the hospital I was at was a DO so I figured it couldn't be too bad. I wanted to make the change from Medical Technologist to Physician because in my 7 years as a tech there was a definite food chain that ended with either administration or a Physician. I like people too much to be in administration so I chose Physician.
 
I repeated MCAT because I thought I could do better. You know how egotistic premeds can be sometimes.
 
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