Paramedic/Firefighter to Physician

[FFPMDMIA]

Hello everyone, I have been dwelling on this for quite some time. The older I get, the more unhappy I am with my current career. I’m a 32 year old male and have been a in EMS since 2012. I became an EMT-B at 19 years old and worked as an ER TECH for 1 year and an ambulance company for 3 years (simultaneously). My goal was always to become a paramedic/firefighter which I accomplished, I have been a paramedic/firefighter for a very busy career fire department since 2014 and have gained invaluable experience since then (over 110,000 calls per year in a 35 square mile metropolitan/underserved city).
I was always a mediocre student, I came from immigrant parents who barely finished up to the 8th grade. Both parents have their GED and do just fine on their own, however, I remember growing up living in efficiency apartments in low income housing, as well as 1 bedroom apartments with 6 family members. I was never exposed to proper education and I was the first person on my mothers side of the family to even go to college and make something of myself. As a result, I never received proper guidance on how to succeed in school, how to properly seek information. I received such misinformation from advisors; for example, getting an F in a course and retaking that same course with a C or better will replace the F, although true for the institution; for medical school, that F will forever remain on my transcript. Taking this information and running with it, whenever I couldn’t handle a class because of work or other things (worked night shifts in the hospital, and Fire department worked 24 hours shifts), guess what I would do? fail the class purposely to retake it with an A thinking I would be fine.
Obviously this effected my GPA which to this date, and for the past 2 years I have been scrambling to increase. Since I started school again, I have gotten nothing less than an A for every semester taking 5 classes per semester. I don’t find the material difficult, I find it time consuming. The “harder” the class is, the more time you must put in. My natural science GPA is a 4.0 excluding math.. cumulative right now is around a 2.7. To summarize, my question is, I want to become a physician, I no longer want to remain working as a firefighter paramedic, I am vested in my career, meaning if I leave, I will still be able to keep my health insurance (which is great) and part of a pension). I have a burning desire to continue my education and have a license that actually means something, something I have endless possibilities with. A paramedic/firefighter certification is very limiting. Moreover, I am also a business owner, not sure if that means anything but thought I would throw that in there.
Assuming I do well-great on the MCAT and continue how I am doing academically, would I have any chance of getting accepted into a US medical school? I understand what studying for the MCAT is, it’s hard, I’m not asking about the difficulties, I’m more so asking about the chances of getting into a medical school ASSUMING I continue on my current path, finish any pre-reqs necessary that I have left over and succeed in a high MCAT score.

TLDR; paramedic/firefighter with ER tech experience, over 12 years of total EMS experience, 10 as a paramedic for an extremely busy career fire department on an extremely busy rescue unit. mediocre student, raised in low income housing with parents that didn’t finish middle school, wants career change, 4.0 positive trend since last year, 2.7cGPA 4.0 natural science GPA (excluding math).
What are my chances if any, suggesting I continue positive trend and crush MCAT.
Thanks in advance!

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[gyngyn]

Although a gpa less than 3.0 will be screened out at some places, a steep upward trend will get noticed at others.
MD schools include math in the science gpa, DO schools don't.
A single strong MCAT is your best strategy.
Make a WAMC thread when the time comes!

 

[FFPMDMIA]

Although a gpa less than 3.0 will be screened out at some places, a steep upward trend will get noticed at others.
MD schools include math in the science gpa, DO schools don't.
A single strong MCAT is your best strategy.
Make a WAMC thread when the time comes!

Thank you for the reply, I appreciate the time you took to read my post. I’m in Florida, South Florida more specifically, I’m not sure how true or not, but I hear that Florida favors its residents as well as high MCAT for reinvented students.

Someone I went to paramedic school with was in a similar situation as me without the total amount of clinical experience, he did get hired in the same ED as me and we were both techs. At the time he wanted to become a career firefighter and paramedic. Long story short, he just graduated from a local medical school last year and is currently in residency, his stats upon matriculation were just barely a 3.1 cGPa GPA, good upward trend, and a 517 MCAT. Of course a very difficult road for anyone. Although he accomplished his goal and it gives me hope I can accomplish mine.

And thank you for the advice on the WAMC thread, I’m assuming that is something I should do after receiving my MCAT scores? Nonetheless, thanks for the reply, you were helpful.

 

[gyngyn]

Here are the data (by school) comparing IS and OOS: https://www.aamc.org/media/5976/download?attachment
Sadly, at 19%, FL is among the states less likely to matriculate IS candidates (at least for MD schools). Almost an equal number did matriculate OOS (18%), though. https://www.aamc.org/media/6016/download?attachment
The mean MCAT for successful FL applicants was 511.4 (SD 6.5). The mean gpa was 3.78 (SD 0.24). https://www.aamc.org/media/6076/download?attachment

 

[CaptivatedCranium87]

Hello everyone, I have been dwelling on this for quite some time. The older I get, the more unhappy I am with my current career. I’m a 32 year old male and have been a in EMS since 2012. I became an EMT-B at 19 years old and worked as an ER TECH for 1 year and an ambulance company for 3 years (simultaneously). My goal was always to become a paramedic/firefighter which I accomplished, I have been a paramedic/firefighter for a very busy career fire department since 2014 and have gained invaluable experience since then (over 110,000 calls per year in a 35 square mile metropolitan/underserved city).
I was always a mediocre student, I came from immigrant parents who barely finished up to the 8th grade. Both parents have their GED and do just fine on their own, however, I remember growing up living in efficiency apartments in low income housing, as well as 1 bedroom apartments with 6 family members. I was never exposed to proper education and I was the first person on my mothers side of the family to even go to college and make something of myself. As a result, I never received proper guidance on how to succeed in school, how to properly seek information. I received such misinformation from advisors; for example, getting an F in a course and retaking that same course with a C or better will replace the F, although true for the institution; for medical school, that F will forever remain on my transcript. Taking this information and running with it, whenever I couldn’t handle a class because of work or other things (worked night shifts in the hospital, and Fire department worked 24 hours shifts), guess what I would do? fail the class purposely to retake it with an A thinking I would be fine.
Obviously this effected my GPA which to this date, and for the past 2 years I have been scrambling to increase. Since I started school again, I have gotten nothing less than an A for every semester taking 5 classes per semester. I don’t find the material difficult, I find it time consuming. The “harder” the class is, the more time you must put in. My natural science GPA is a 4.0 excluding math.. cumulative right now is around a 2.7. To summarize, my question is, I want to become a physician, I no longer want to remain working as a firefighter paramedic, I am vested in my career, meaning if I leave, I will still be able to keep my health insurance (which is great) and part of a pension). I have a burning desire to continue my education and have a license that actually means something, something I have endless possibilities with. A paramedic/firefighter certification is very limiting. Moreover, I am also a business owner, not sure if that means anything but thought I would throw that in there.
Assuming I do well-great on the MCAT and continue how I am doing academically, would I have any chance of getting accepted into a US medical school? I understand what studying for the MCAT is, it’s hard, I’m not asking about the difficulties, I’m more so asking about the chances of getting into a medical school ASSUMING I continue on my current path, finish any pre-reqs necessary that I have left over and succeed in a high MCAT score.

TLDR; paramedic/firefighter with ER tech experience, over 12 years of total EMS experience, 10 as a paramedic for an extremely busy career fire department on an extremely busy rescue unit. mediocre student, raised in low income housing with parents that didn’t finish middle school, wants career change, 4.0 positive trend since last year, 2.7cGPA 4.0 natural science GPA (excluding math).
What are my chances if any, suggesting I continue positive trend and crush MCAT.
Thanks in advance!

I am in your same position except I am 36, been a fire medic for a decade now, had a rough semester and have a bad GPA I am working on bringing it up and doing what needs to be done. It is always nice to see someone else out there with the same ambitions with similar back grounds.

 

[FFPMDMIA]

I am in your same position except I am 36, been a fire medic for a decade now, had a rough semester and have a bad GPA I am working on bringing it up and doing what needs to be done. It is always nice to see someone else out there with the same ambitions with similar back grounds.

The way I see it, if you look at yourself on your deathbed and are not satisfied with what you’ve done in life, and say to yourself “I wish I could have done more.” Then do it now, while you can. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get it done. The good thing about the FD is that the “do whatever it takes attitude is instilled in us.” Now that I have time on the job and have seen and done ALOT (I’m sure you as well), I can actually say, this is a young man’s job. I’m super greatful for what the fire service has shown me and how it’s prepared me for other things in life unrelated to the fire service. But I think it’s time that I stimulate myself more intellectually and do whatever it takes to get this goal in my life completed. I wish you well on your journey and I’m confident you have the ability to get it done. Good luck brother.

 

[CaptivatedCranium87]

The way I see it, if you look at yourself on your deathbed and are not satisfied with what you’ve done in life, and say to yourself “I wish I could have done more.” Then do it now, while you can. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get it done. The good thing about the FD is that the “do whatever it takes attitude is instilled in us.” Now that I have time on the job and have seen and done ALOT (I’m sure you as well), I can actually say, this is a young man’s job. I’m super greatful for what the fire service has shown me and how it’s prepared me for other things in life unrelated to the fire service. But I think it’s time that I stimulate myself more intellectually and do whatever it takes to get this goal in my life completed. I wish you well on your journey and I’m confident you have the ability to get it done. Good luck brother.

I agree, I spent 8 years in the Marine corps and with firefighting I definitley feel like I have the drive, the horrible gpa in my past has haunted me and with my family I was the sole provider and was always focused on them and not myself so much. Luckily my wife has her own practice now and I am in a spot where I can focus a ton of attention on myself and follow my own dreams. Best of luck to you too man.

 

[DivorceLawyer2011]

Hello everyone, I have been dwelling on this for quite some time. The older I get, the more unhappy I am with my current career. I’m a 32 year old male and have been a in EMS since 2012. I became an EMT-B at 19 years old and worked as an ER TECH for 1 year and an ambulance company for 3 years (simultaneously). My goal was always to become a paramedic/firefighter which I accomplished, I have been a paramedic/firefighter for a very busy career fire department since 2014 and have gained invaluable experience since then (over 110,000 calls per year in a 35 square mile metropolitan/underserved city).
I was always a mediocre student, I came from immigrant parents who barely finished up to the 8th grade. Both parents have their GED and do just fine on their own, however, I remember growing up living in efficiency apartments in low income housing, as well as 1 bedroom apartments with 6 family members. I was never exposed to proper education and I was the first person on my mothers side of the family to even go to college and make something of myself. As a result, I never received proper guidance on how to succeed in school, how to properly seek information. I received such misinformation from advisors; for example, getting an F in a course and retaking that same course with a C or better will replace the F, although true for the institution; for medical school, that F will forever remain on my transcript. Taking this information and running with it, whenever I couldn’t handle a class because of work or other things (worked night shifts in the hospital, and Fire department worked 24 hours shifts), guess what I would do? fail the class purposely to retake it with an A thinking I would be fine.
Obviously this effected my GPA which to this date, and for the past 2 years I have been scrambling to increase. Since I started school again, I have gotten nothing less than an A for every semester taking 5 classes per semester. I don’t find the material difficult, I find it time consuming. The “harder” the class is, the more time you must put in. My natural science GPA is a 4.0 excluding math.. cumulative right now is around a 2.7. To summarize, my question is, I want to become a physician, I no longer want to remain working as a firefighter paramedic, I am vested in my career, meaning if I leave, I will still be able to keep my health insurance (which is great) and part of a pension). I have a burning desire to continue my education and have a license that actually means something, something I have endless possibilities with. A paramedic/firefighter certification is very limiting. Moreover, I am also a business owner, not sure if that means anything but thought I would throw that in there.
Assuming I do well-great on the MCAT and continue how I am doing academically, would I have any chance of getting accepted into a US medical school? I understand what studying for the MCAT is, it’s hard, I’m not asking about the difficulties, I’m more so asking about the chances of getting into a medical school ASSUMING I continue on my current path, finish any pre-reqs necessary that I have left over and succeed in a high MCAT score.

TLDR; paramedic/firefighter with ER tech experience, over 12 years of total EMS experience, 10 as a paramedic for an extremely busy career fire department on an extremely busy rescue unit. mediocre student, raised in low income housing with parents that didn’t finish middle school, wants career change, 4.0 positive trend since last year, 2.7cGPA 4.0 natural science GPA (excluding math).
What are my chances if any, suggesting I continue positive trend and crush MCAT.
Thanks in advance!

I’m no expert on admissions, but I’d have to believe your significant paramedic experience would get attention of various admissions committees. That’s very impressive! I am a lawyer and when I applied to med school I was quite worried that my lack of medical experience (and my age - I am 40) would have been disqualifying. Ultimately I figure if you can pull a solid MCAT, when combined with your upward trend, you should have a great admissions cycle.

 

[FFPMDMIA]

I agree, I spent 8 years in the Marine corps and with firefighting I definitley feel like I have the drive, the horrible gpa in my past has haunted me and with my family I was the sole provider and was always focused on them and not myself so much. Luckily my wife has her own practice now and I am in a spot where I can focus a ton of attention on myself and follow my own dreams. Best of luck to you too man.

I’m happy for you, get it! And thank you for your service. “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.”

 

[FFPMDMIA]

I’m no expert on admissions, but I’d have to believe your significant paramedic experience would get attention of various admissions committees. That’s very impressive! I am a lawyer and when I applied to med school I was quite worried that my lack of medical experience (and my age - I am 40) would have been disqualifying. Ultimately I figure if you can pull a solid MCAT, when combined with your upward trend, you should have a great admissions cycle.

Thank you for your insight! You have had an impressive professional/educational career, and despite not having medical experience, your professional experience and wisdom take a huge role I believe in garnering attention from adcoms. Congratulations on your MD acceptance, you’ll make an amazing physician. Nice to see others pursuing their dreams regardless of the level of success they have obtained. Again, congratulations and good luck!