Pre-Med Student...Worried about my chances

[beastykato]

Here is the deal. I'm worried about my chances getting into medical school and I'm trying to find out how to strengthen my chances. My gpa isn't stellar but it's not bad. I'll have a 3.5 bio gpa or so most likely when I graduate and a >3.5g gpa overall. I'm not here to dwell on what my stats are though I just want to know what I should do to make myself more competitive in the future.

I was a pre-pharmacy major but after working in a pharmacy for 2 years now I have come to find it's a very monotonous career. I hate to offend people going for it but at the least in the area I'm in the pharmacists are not very respected and work long hours. At my pharmacy they have to fill 500+ scripts a day with only one pharmacist there and no overlap coverage. Needless to say, not the life for me.

The desire for patient contact that I thought was in pharmacy when I started has led me to pursue medical school instead. I have no clinical or volunteer hours yet though and also just got involved in clubs at college now in what will be my last year. I have also signed up to volunteer at the local hospital too.

I have tried to get jobs as a medical assistant or similar in my area but I have been unable to find a place that trains on the job. I simply don't have time to complete my biology degree and go to another school for job training.

So, what do you guys do to get jobs in the medical field? Is there a good job to get experience for acceptance to medical school that I am overlooking?

Most importantly, I have a child on the way that is due feb. 6 and I need to have a backup plan if I am not accepted into medical school. I need to have a good job to support my child regardless of what happens with my education. I was thinking of pursuing a masters degree in nursing for people with a 4 year degree but I don't even know if one of those exists in my area near pittsburgh yet. I would really appreciate some ideas on this front. I could always try to apply to pharmacy school too, while I know that would be a very sound financial career, I feel like that may not be the best path to take if my true desire is to get into medical school.

Any advice is appreciated and thanks in advance!

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[camaras2480]

Here is the deal. I'm worried about my chances getting into medical school and I'm trying to find out how to strengthen my chances. My gpa isn't stellar but it's not bad. I'll have a 3.5 bio gpa or so most likely when I graduate and a >3.5g gpa overall. I'm not here to dwell on what my stats are though I just want to know what I should do to make myself more competitive in the future.

I was a pre-pharmacy major but after working in a pharmacy for 2 years now I have come to find it's a very monotonous career. I hate to offend people going for it but at the least in the area I'm in the pharmacists are not very respected and work long hours. At my pharmacy they have to fill 500+ scripts a day with only one pharmacist there and no overlap coverage. Needless to say, not the life for me.

The desire for patient contact that I thought was in pharmacy when I started has led me to pursue medical school instead. I have no clinical or volunteer hours yet though and also just got involved in clubs at college now in what will be my last year. I have also signed up to volunteer at the local hospital too.

I have tried to get jobs as a medical assistant or similar in my area but I have been unable to find a place that trains on the job. I simply don't have time to complete my biology degree and go to another school for job training.

So, what do you guys do to get jobs in the medical field? Is there a good job to get experience for acceptance to medical school that I am overlooking?

Most importantly, I have a child on the way that is due feb. 6 and I need to have a backup plan if I am not accepted into medical school. I need to have a good job to support my child regardless of what happens with my education. I was thinking of pursuing a masters degree in nursing for people with a 4 year degree but I don't even know if one of those exists in my area near pittsburgh yet. I would really appreciate some ideas on this front. I could always try to apply to pharmacy school too, while I know that would be a very sound financial career, I feel like that may not be the best path to take if my true desire is to get into medical school.

Any advice is appreciated and thanks in advance!

Your GPA will be fine. Volunteer work will be needed, and you have already signed up, good job. Try to get involved in clinical shadowing as well.

From what I see, your MCAT will determine your future at this point. If you score 30-32, you will have a good shot at getting into 'low' tier US MD schools. Your backup would then be DO schools. If you score 26-29, you will still have a respectable shot at DO schools. I suppose backup plan would be PA or nursing here. Of course, 33+ would be fabulous, and 25- would be trouble.

Point being, the ball is in your court - or maybe I should say the MCAT's court.

Congratulations on the baby

 

[Stratego]

Participating in college clubs won't help you unless you take on a leadership role, or use it as a springboard to providing community service. So if you are pressed for time, those should not be a priority.

For medically related jobs that don't require certification, consider being a medical scribe (I think CA does require some training), small private practice medical office assistant or receptionist, nursing home aide, hospital transporter. You could aslo do clinical research and have it count for both "Research" and as clinical experience.

This being the pre-allo part of SDN's forum, you likely won't find much expertise here on a backup plan entailing nursing or pharmD training. But poke around in the specialized subforums regarding those areas.

 

[Phosphorus Ylide]

For medically related jobs that don't require certification, consider being a medical scribe (I think CA does require some training)

For our own scribe program, the training is very minimal and medical experience is not a prerequisite. What you do have to show is a strong commitment to pursue a medically-related career and have fairly decent grades. You get to work with various different physicians every shift and many of them are more than willing to teach you things during downtime such as how to interpret certain tests, what classic clinical symptoms are, and talk about their medical school experience in general.