Pre-med w/ goal of being ER physician

[soelman]

I am currently an EMT-B, soon to be a Paramedic, and then proceeding through pre-med and med school, with the goal to be an ED Physician. I not only am curious as to which route to take (Osteopathic or Allopathic) when I get to med school, but also as to which major I should choose for pre-med. I am confident in my ability to score very highly on all tests when they come.
I am a little older (27 by time I can start) than the average pre-med student and I have heard that osteopathic schools look more favorably on non-traditional students. Is there any truth to this? Also, I have heard that less traditional majors, such as humanities majors (Sociology, etc.) have a better shot at acceptance to any med school.
One other option I have seen is UofM Flint, which offers a non-degree pre-med program, which has all the credits for a degree and all the pre-req classes for a med school, but without a degree. Does this seem like a viable option to anyone? I am not looking for shortcuts, but I am hoping to test out of a lot of classes that I feel confident in so I can get GE's out of the way, and this might be a good option if it is acceptable to most medical schools.
Any advice anyone can give would be wonderful

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[Rendar5]

You'd probably get a lot of helpful responses by posting this in the pre-med forum (pre-allo or pre-osteo). Just to let you know though that your college major by and large has extremely little to no impact on getting into medical school and in terms of education after that. The only thing that matters is if you get good grades in your major (and perhaps have something interesting to say about why you picked it for an interview). DO v MD is an old old topic with lots of flame wars, but by and large, best advice is to go to the place you can get into that is the best fit for you.

One of the mods here is probably going to move this thread for you into a forum where you can get better and more complete answers to your questions.

 

[willow18]

Agree with Rendar on all points; just go where you fit best location-wise, etc. Do whatever major you would enjoy most. And keep an open mind; you may very well change your mind career wise once exposed to other fields in medicine, or your organic chemistry class. Not sure about DO being a better route for the 'aged', and it prob. won't help if you tell them you wanna be an EP.

 

[EMbrand]

hey soelman - congrats on making the big decision to pursue med school. . . i am non-traditional myself and am about to complete this long journey (EM resident now). Anyhow, I think you can apply to both DO/MD programs and see what pans out. . . a word of caution from what i read in your post though - I am not sure all programs would accept anyone without a bachelor's degree. Now if you already have graduated college and are just returning for pre-med classes, UofFlint might be a great option. I did the whole post-bac approach as well (taking the premed classes afterwards). I think med school admissions committees are more interested in an interesting background/story than their major - just have a cool story to tell w/ good numbers. Do something "different". Sounds like you already have. PM me w/ specific ?s if you need