OTR looking towards Med School

[HueyNewtonOT]

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I have my many reasons why I am super excited to begin this journey and become a physician.

Anyone out there has gone through a similar transition? I'm an OTR, been practicing for over 2 years in rehab/acute care setting.

-27 years old black male
-2 years+ of experience in rehab/acute care working very closely to doctors of all specialities including -physiatry and neuropyschology
-thousands of hours of direct patient contact with the sickest of the sickest in the community

I am missing plenty of the pre reqs and have enrolled in the local CC where I am to begin to knock these babies down starting Fall.

Any advice on how to ramp up my process?

Thank you everyone

 

[Forever Geebs]

Ace prereqs. If possible, take the more difficult/challenging ones at a university.

Shadow a physician or two.

Volunteer in a non-clinical setting such as a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[HueyNewtonOT]

Ace prereqs. If possible, take the more difficult/challenging ones at a university.

Shadow a physician or two.

Volunteer in a non-clinical setting such as a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dope thank you.

Question--
I was in a similar position when entering grad school with some sciences missing and took them at a local CC prior to applying and was accepted to both of my schools which were top programs.

Med School I understand is a different animal. I am trying to be financially savvy. The local CC is a lot cheaper than the university. Does it make a HUGE difference to admissions if classes are taken in either space?

Thank you again

 

[twospadz]

Im a 27 year old Black male too. I will be a second year psychiatry resident in 1 month. I can offer some advice since I've been in the process. First, yes it does make a difference if you take your classes at community college. These grades will tell them if you are able to handle the course load of medical school. You can not fool the admissions committee. Trust me, they have seen it all. Try to at least take organic chemistry and the upper level sciences like Genetics and Biochemistry at a university. This will be enough to prove to them you are some what capable. If you take organic chemistry at community college, doing well on the MCAT will be extremely paramount.

Another thing, Ive seen people try to take community classes and then go to university. The leap in difficulty since they are not as acclimated is sometimes too much for them and then end up getting grades that make getting in very hard. I actually transferred from a easier small time university to a bigger university. It took me 2 semesters to get used to the rigorousness of the courses and the classes almost blew me out the water. Luckily I was able to excel after that. Others I know were not as fortunate. So just stating that shortcuts, can end up back firing on you. Trust me on this.

 

[HueyNewtonOT]

Im a 27 year old Black male too. I will be a second year psychiatry resident in 1 month. I can offer some advice since I've been in the process. First, yes it does make a difference if you take your classes at community college. These grades will tell them if you are able to handle the course load of medical school. You can not fool the admissions committee. Trust me, they have seen it all. Try to at least take organic chemistry and the upper level sciences like Genetics and Biochemistry at a university. This will be enough to prove to them you are some what capable. If you take organic chemistry at community college, doing well on the MCAT will be extremely paramount.

Another thing, Ive seen people try to take community classes and then go to university. The leap in difficulty since they are not as acclimated is sometimes too much for them and then end up getting grades that make getting in very hard. I actually transferred from a easier small time university to a bigger university. It took me 2 semesters to get used to the rigorousness of the courses and the classes almost blew me out the water. Luckily I was able to excel after that. Others I know were not as fortunate. So just stating that shortcuts, can end up back firing on you. Trust me on this.

Thanks for the advice.

For some more background academically..

Well from my initial BA, i have a mixed bag of some pre reqs in gen chem, orgo chem..as I didn't know the route I was going to take at the time. I then went to CC and did pretty well for science pre reqs required for masters program.. then earned my masters of science in OT from an ivy league school, which has a lot of upper level science based classes but are not the same ones required by MD programs..

I am starting back school this fall, but maybe that transition to at least take a few upper level in a four year will make some sense for me.

 

[twospadz]

Talk to a pre-med advisor. I am 100% sure she will echo some of the same things we talked about on this thread. And as I said before, it will be very important to do well in the upper level science classes since they will not rely on your previous grades for different reasons. Good luck