Older and I mean Older Premed (early 40's)!

[OhioMD]

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I am discouraged and frustrated and would really would appreciate input from people who have a role in admissions. I hope this information will help other pre-meds who are older than sand Or maybe I am the oldest 😱

Well, This will be my third time applying but the first time with competitive statistics. I have worked really hard to improve my app and finally have numbers I can write home about!

Anyway, I have innumerable EC's and have the energy of a 20-year old. I have routinely held 2 or more jobs at the same time in addition to participating in EC's. I have taken 8 classes a quarter on several occasions. I am lucky if I get 6 hours sleep. I have not been sick (even a cold in 3 years).

Well after speaking to several schools they have several sterotypes about older applicants and they tell me they are very difficult to overcome:

1) Older people apply because it is a mid life crisis, they are not interested in a career in medicine. Gosh...is that why I have spent thousands of dollars on app fees, went back to school to improve myself (more thousands of dollars) and had several medically related jobs?

2) Oder people are too tired and stressed out to handle medical school, they are too sickly. Many of my younger friends have been a whole lot sicker than me 🙄

3) They are professional students. Well for the most part I have taken classes in addition to holding a full time job.

Sorry for the rant but I am so discouraged. I am not sure where to demonstrate how I am so opposite the sterotype...in my essays or at the interview? And will my thoughts be accurately portrayed to the committee, will they even HEAR what I am saying?

Thanks for any thoughts from people familar with how the committee works, I hope this is helpful for other people applying on their last few breaths 😀

 

[lexrageorge]

Have you checked out www.oldpremeds.net? There are several forums where these issues are discussed, along with some online diaries from non-traditional medical students. You will find one diary from a surgery resident who is in her early 50's!!!!!

There is precious little data that indicates whether older applicants have a harder time than those on the bright side of 30 (never mind 40). Adcoms will want to see that your commitment and interest are genuine. Make sure your personal statement and, where applicable, your secondary essays highlight your desire and your non-numeric credentials (i.e., the shadowing, etc.). By definition, your situation will be different from most applicants, and you should certainly emphasize the uniqueness of your situation on your essays. For example, do not try to hide the fact you are making a career change; in fact, you can't. Instead, explain clearly and concisely your motivation for doing so, and why you are doing it at this particular time of your life.

Make sure your LOR's also reflect your desire. Can you get a letter from the physician you shadowed? That would carry some weight as well.

Finally, despite your excellent EC's, adcoms will still look at the numbers. They may take a more stringent approach with older applicants; the reasoning being if that if you are truly interested, you will work hard to do well in your post-bacc classes and to improve your MCAT. Of course, if you have mediocre GPA/MCAT, you will have an uphill battle even as a "traditional" applicant.

Have you considered any DO schools? They tend to be less focused on the numbers and are rumored to be more friendly to non-traditional applicants (again, other than average MCAT scores, I have no data to support or refute this statement). Make sure you apply to a good cross section of schools, including schools whose numbers are below yours. Make a list of all the schools you would be willing attend, and apply to all of them (note that this advice is considered heresy to some).

Remember that older applicants are a relatively recent development, so adcoms will have some biases. Some will indeed raise the acceptance bar for older applicants; others will be downright unfriendly. However, you cannot control that. What you can control is your own application. There are stories on oldpremeds.net of older applicants getting accepted to a variety of schools, some of which were considered to be unfriendly to non-traditional applicants.

 

[QofQuimica]

OP, you are not alone; check out the non-traditionals forum at the bottom of the forum page listing: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=110 . There are several of us who are out of our 20s, and even a few who are 40+. If you need some help or just want to talk, feel free to drop in.

 

[EMET_BUTS]

>>last few breaths

I am glad to hear that I am not the only one with these worries. The career student thing.... ouch.

But Q is correct... check out the non-trad forum. Really supportive folks over there.... including Q, of course.

👍 👍 👍

 

[mshheaddoc]

OP - I'm supposing you have been applying to just schools in your area and are having issues getting in? Sometimes location is a challenge for medical school.

As for those admission people, I wonder what type of schools you were applying to 😱 Those schools sound quite snotty to me and aren't really out to teach people about medicine. My own FP went to med school when he was 32. I know a few people who were 40 and starting med school.

I would suggest you evaluate the schools you are trying to get into and if those are the schools that stated older people don't know what they want from their life, I wouldn't apply there with that type of stereotype. Additionally DO's are often more about the personal during admissions than the stats (you have to have good stats but they are holistic in more ways than one! 😉 )

check out oldpremeds.org as suggestions and the non-traditional forum on this site. Take comfort in the fact you aren't alone.

 

[Learfan]

You appear to have every problem and insecurity associated with a late in life decision to change careers. To you I can only say a few words. Welcome to the club and glad to know you.

I have been there and it feels real tense and insecure but changing careers can be done. I got in at 46. Not to Haaavad or Stanford but to an allopathic school in my state focused on training clinicians which is what I aspire to be. The situation is not perfect but it represents a way forward to a more positive and productive future with options that I cannot access on my present career path.

If I can answer any questions about the process and some of the issues likely to confront you just send a PM. The road may be difficult but you can get there if you are willing to make the investment. From your post it sounds like you are willing.

 

[medworm]

I know what you mean but feeling frustrated b/c afterall,
the whole endeavor is very expensive (opportunity cost).
I personally left a good-paying job to go back to school full-time
b/c as a woman I also had to consider childbearing and so forth.

Anyway, consider adding schools that "favor maturity". There's
no way to tell which ones are unless you talk to Admissions
(look them up in MSAR). So pick some schools you're interested
in and start dialing.

I called a bunch myself, and started the conversation with
a very professional and friendly tone: "Hi, good morning. I'm
an older applicant with this sort of experience and grades" ...
and found that some are very willing to offer advice on improving
your chances at their school. Don't be discouraged if others
reply with a cold tone.

Also, since my experiences are atypical "pre-med" and typical
professional experience, I kept stressing in my PS how relevant
those life/managerial skills are to the clinical practice. I gave
specific examples, not just "I'm old, so accept me."

By contrast, how many 20 year old can say that they work well
in teams, have negotiated through a real crisis, and so forth.

And juding from your experience, it might be a good idea to try
schools that are more clinic-oriented. The schools that like
research experience generally prefer your typical young, stellar
candidate.

Keep your spirits up. Good luck.

 

[Emergency!]

OhioMD - what schools have you applied to? I am 34 and was accepted at all of the Ohio Schools I applied to (OSU, WSU, UC, MUO and NEOUCOM). The only place where I got any kind of anti-older student vibe was OSU, and there was nothing said or done there that indicated that, just maybe a feeling on my part that I was somehow subpar. (Obviously not, as I ended up being accepted there and that is where I will be attending). My interviewers at the other four schools all indicated that they thought my background and experiences would be an asset to their classes. WSU, MUO and NEOUCOM are big on primary care. At WSU, MUO and UC I was told by at least one person that they like non-traditionals.

So - don't give up hope. Come visit us on Old Premeds !

 

[jules0328]

While I am nowhere near 40 yet, I am a non traditional student as well looking to apply to medical school, and somewhat older than my fellow undergrads.

To the OP, if you are not against osteopathic medicine, you really should consider looking into it. Although adcoms will never fully admit their discrimmination based solely on age, it is somewhat a factor that is weighed when they look at an applicant. But its all relative, as someone else previously mentioned, are you limiting yourself to your surrounding area schools? That may be an issue too! I know this process is horrible and extremely expensive. Like I said, if you arent against DO, look into it.

 

[humuhumu]

Well after speaking to several schools they have several sterotypes about older applicants and they tell me they are very difficult to overcome:

1) Older people apply because it is a mid life crisis, they are not interested in a career in medicine. Gosh...is that why I have spent thousands of dollars on app fees, went back to school to improve myself (more thousands of dollars) and had several medically related jobs?

2) Oder people are too tired and stressed out to handle medical school, they are too sickly. Many of my younger friends have been a whole lot sicker than me 🙄

3) They are professional students. Well for the most part I have taken classes in addition to holding a full time job.😀

Curious: where did you get the information regarding stereotypes? Is it based on conversations with adcoms or just (reasonable) speculation? As others have indicated, not all adcoms are created equal; some schools seem to look very favorably on nontrads.

Also, have you had a chance to be interviewed? Age really has as much to do with your health and attitude as with chronology, especially as you get up into your thirties and beyond. A 40-year-old can seem 10+ years older or younger, depending on his or her physical condition, state of mind, etc. Who knows, according to http://www.realage.com, you might still be in your twenties! 🙂

Incidentally, I don't see a problem with being a "professional student". Life is all about learning. Doctors in particular should never stop learning -- med school and residency are just the foundation of your medical education. A love of learning is a real asset in med school and beyond.

 

[OhioMD]

Thanks to all of your replies. I will definitely review the forums you suggested and pm some of you as suggested. I really appreciate your support!

I am busy but will start the learning today! I actually think the bias relates to people over 40 versus people in their 30's. I think your thirties is the perfect time to apply. Many adcoms seem to welcome people in their thirties.

I actually was told the bias from adcoms where I had interviewed last year, they indicated some of the committee have "concerns" about applicants over 40 years old. But the one Dean I met in person did concede that I was the opposite of any sterotype they had!

I am frustrated but not deterred...I fought a long hard battle to have competitive numbers. And I also realize it is my responsibilty to be an advocate for myself.

Actually it will be good practice since some day I will be an advocate for my patients (hopefully before I reach 65 )

I will enjoy reading about all the success stories about people being accepted in their 40's and hope to share my story soon 👍

Maybe people can share on this thread or on the nontrad forum...I will enjoy hearing about other people's victories

DO is definitely a possibility but I had assumed MD schools accept people over 40 as well...that is assuming they bring their own walkers

You guys are super and really have boosted my spirits!!! 😀 😀

 

[samenewme]

I'm 41 and applying this year. Keep an eye on the oldpremeds forums and I'll let the world know how it goes. 😉

 

[OhioMD]

Hi All

I wanted to update the thread I started. Well...I got accepted by 3 MD schools this year! This was the third time I applied and I was really discouraged (as you can tell from the original posting). I am very grateful for the opportunity to finally be able to work toward a cherished goal.

I will be posting details on what I did this year to be successful. I will post the story on the non trad forum in the next couple of days. I want to share information and be a source of inspiration for all older applicants.

I will also be sharing my experiences (a free guidebook) with other older pre-meds at my school and other pre-professional offices and would love to hear stories of other older applicants on this board. I hope to share as many success stories as possible. Of particular interest are applicants 35 years old and older.

Please PM with details of your story and if you want your name mentioned or let me know if you rather remain anonymous. Or feel free to post your story on the board and I will PM you to see if I can include your story in the guidebook.

Once it is written, I will make it available to everyone on SDN who may find it helpful. It is focused toward older applicants but it contains wisdom that would be useful for any applicant.

I have been crazy busy this past year and had to deal with the death of my father so I could not be active on this board. But I will say the information, wisdom and, encouragement on this board helped me perservere toward my goal.

Keep The Faith! 👍

A 43 year old soon to be medical student (hooray!!)

 

[lynn42]

Hi All

I wanted to update the thread I started. Well...I got accepted by 3 MD schools this year! This was the third time I applied and I was really discouraged (as you can tell from the original posting). I am very grateful for the opportunity to finally be able to work toward a cherished goal.

I will be posting details on what I did this year to be successful. I will post the story on the non trad forum in the next couple of days. I want to share information and be a source of inspiration for all older applicants.

I will also be sharing my experiences (a free guidebook) with other older pre-meds at my school and other pre-professional offices and would love to hear stories of other older applicants on this board. I hope to share as many success stories as possible. Of particular interest are applicants 35 years old and older.

Please PM with details of your story and if you want your name mentioned or let me know if you rather remain anonymous. Or feel free to post your story on the board and I will PM you to see if I can include your story in the guidebook.

Once it is written, I will make it available to everyone on SDN who may find it helpful. It is focused toward older applicants but it contains wisdom that would be useful for any applicant.

I have been crazy busy this past year and had to deal with the death of my father so I could not be active on this board. But I will say the information, wisdom and, encouragement on this board helped me perservere toward my goal.

Keep The Faith! 👍

A 43 year old soon to be medical student (hooray!!)

CONGRATULATIONS OhioMD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 👍 👍 👍 What an accomplishment!!! Great job! I wish you all the success in the world and think you will be an inspiration to many! Congrats again!

 

[Orthodoc40]

Hi All

I wanted to update the thread I started. Well...I got accepted by 3 MD schools this year! This was the third time I applied and I was really discouraged (as you can tell from the original posting). I am very grateful for the opportunity to finally be able to work toward a cherished goal.

I will be posting details on what I did this year to be successful. I will post the story on the non trad forum in the next couple of days. I want to share information and be a source of inspiration for all older applicants.

I will also be sharing my experiences (a free guidebook) with other older pre-meds at my school and other pre-professional offices and would love to hear stories of other older applicants on this board. I hope to share as many success stories as possible. Of particular interest are applicants 35 years old and older.

Please PM with details of your story and if you want your name mentioned or let me know if you rather remain anonymous. Or feel free to post your story on the board and I will PM you to see if I can include your story in the guidebook.

Once it is written, I will make it available to everyone on SDN who may find it helpful. It is focused toward older applicants but it contains wisdom that would be useful for any applicant.

I have been crazy busy this past year and had to deal with the death of my father so I could not be active on this board. But I will say the information, wisdom and, encouragement on this board helped me perservere toward my goal.

Keep The Faith! 👍

A 43 year old soon to be medical student (hooray!!)

Okay now we want to know where you're going!!! ?!!! Congrats! I'm getting ready to reapply & dying for the fully inspired story....

 

[MeowMix]

Congratulations! and well done for persevering. I hope you are very successful in med school.

You would also help out the community by posting your stats on mdapplicants.com, if you have not already. There are so few of us over-40s on there that every one helps.

 

[Learfan]

Congratulations. See, it can be done. I just finished the MS1 year as the second oldest student in my class and suceeded in getting much better grades when compared to most of the younger people.

Now go out there and show them how its done.

 

[lpressley130]

Well...I got accepted by 3 MD schools this year! This was the third time I applied and I was really discouraged (as you can tell from the original posting). I am very grateful for the opportunity to finally be able to work toward a cherished goal.

OhioMD - I will be looking forward to reading your updates about your journey! Congratulations and thanks for the inspiration!! 🙂

 

[MeowMix]

Congratulations. See, it can be done. I just finished the MS1 year as the second oldest student in my class and suceeded in getting much better grades when compared to most of the younger people.

I, on the other hand, just finished MSII as the oldest student in my class and succeeded in getting fairly mediocre grades compared to the young pups with photographic memories. 😀

 

[humuhumu]

I, on the other hand, just finished MSII as the oldest student in my class and succeeded in getting fairly mediocre grades compared to the young pups with photographic memories. 😀

I think it's hard to generalize about the performance of young vs. old students. I've seen older students excel and struggle; same with younger students. As far as I can tell (i.e., in my experience as a teacher of first-year students at UVM), age is a very poor predictor of academic success...

 

[babycapybara]

hey i keep trying to get into oldpremed.net or .org and it says access forbidden. what is the correct address? anyone else have this problem...?

 

[njbmd]

hey i keep trying to get into oldpremed.net or .org and it says access forbidden. what is the correct address? anyone else have this problem...?

Hi there,
Follow this link: Old Premeds This should get you to the front page and then you can click on the Forums etc.

njbmd 🙂

 

[OhioMD]

Thanks for all the well wishes...this is such a wonderful community! 😀

Feel free to PM and I will tell you my school name..

Anyway here is what I did right this past couple of years:

1) Retook all my the med school pre-reqs (yes, that is right...all of them again!). For two reasons: poor grades when I took them 20 years ago and they were 20 years old.

I toook 6-7 classes a quarter while working part-time.

Post-Bac GPA: 3.8
Overall GPA: 3.1 (Yes....I had a very poor undergrad GPA)

2) Improved my MCAT score from 27 to 29 (10,9,10)

3) Got clinical experience as a nurse aide in a nursing home (I have worked there for 1.5 years)

4) Have done clinical research for the past year

5) Thought very long and hard, why am I doing this to myself? (!) And figured out how to articulate that in essays and in interviews.

6) Spoke to several admission offices to get suggestions and contacted them once I had submitted my secondary.

I think the key for an older applicant is to show them that you have investigated why medicine by having clinical exposure for a least one year. Of course you need to have competitive numbers and recent coursework to show you can handle the work. I had alot to prove so that is why I redid the pre-reqs.

Make sure you can articulate what has lead you to this path in a logical and effective manner. Also what you hope to accomplish in medicine that you cannot do in your current work.

I also got the idea that they are concerned about the stamina of older applicants so I made it clear in my esssays and interviews how I could multi-task on limited sleep!

I will post more details soon, I wanted to share some insights with you all!

Again I would love to hear other success stories....it is really nice to hear about other people reaching goals. Or feel free to PM to me. I hope to share not only my story but other people's stories to future older applicants.

Well...I need to get back to work!

 

[chrisjohn]

See, retaking classes, an average MCAT, clinical exposure, and mulitple applications = Success!

Sweet!

 

[epmd10]

See, retaking classes, an average MCAT, clinical exposure, and mulitple applications = Success!

Sweet!

Congratultions OhioMD!!