Hi! I'm 29 and will be starting med school this fall.
I started post bac premed classes at 24 (or 25? can't even remember now! anyway a few years out of college). I always knew it would take me a few years after graduating from college to figure out what I wanted to do for graduate studies (same for all my friends)... and I did, it was just a field I never expected! Doing all the pre med classes in 2 years was overwhelming while also working FT, and I enjoyed my work and didn't want/couldn't afford to cut back to PT, so stretched it out over an extra semester. After that I spent semester on a research grant abroad while doing med school apps... and then 2 years living abroad with my now-husband. Needless to say, I deferred a year after acceptance to make that timeline work.
All this, starting with entering the workforce and exploring different jobs before moving into graduate studies, all seemed natural to me, not "non-traditional." My husband and I will probably be having children while I am in med school, and that also feels natural, as I always new that I would have both a family and a demanding career I loved. I imagine a lot of your feel this way.
It seems that there are more and more people like us in the medical field, and I think that medicine most definitely will be positively impacted by us non-traditionals! Is it time to find another term, or does it not really matter? I always felt irked on the secondary applications when they just assumed that you were still in college, and if not they ask what you did during your "time off." HUH?? Working and living your life is considered time off to med school admissions committees? As though being in school is the only "time" that counts. In fact in undergrad I remember we were always talking about going out into the "real world" and leaving our undergrad "bubble."
Anyway, just wanted to express this and am curious about what others on the "non traditional" forum feel?
