Pre-Meds! What would you do??

[Mackchops]

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Hey y'all,

First, a bit of a disclaimer -- this is a bit of a silly question. I'm just curious of what you might think of doing if you were in a similar situation. It's nice to pick other people's brains every once in awhile.

Anyway, I'm graduating this semester and plan on going to Medical or Dental school at some point. Prior to this, however, I will need to complete some post-bac work as I've taken next to none of the pre-reqs. The problem enters when I consider that my girlfriend is a year behind me and we're pretty serious (going on 2 yrs. now). There aren't any post-bac programs anywhere near her for next year so I'm thinking of taking an EMT course this summer and finding a job in the area for a year or two (plus maybe while doing my post-bac??) to be near her. The pros and cons as I see them line up like this:

Pros to EMT:
-Near girlfriend
-Start receiving an income
-chance to take a break from school
-see if the health field is something I genuinely wish to pursue
-build up application/resume experience

Cons to EMT:
-Have to start paying off unsubsidized undergrad loans
-expensive training course
-after living expenses/ loan payments, little money will be left for savings
-potential to get stuck in a rut
-further delays admission to med/dent school

Anyway, sorry for the length. If I don't get any replies, I'll chalk it up to that 😉 But thanks for any words of wisdom you may have!

Matt

 

[DrJ2B]

Hey Matt!

I would go with plan A so you could find out more about the medical field and then make a more educated decision about whether or not you would like to pursue a medical career. Not only is the application process and post-bacc work rather expensive, but also medical school is about the people who are really passionate about medicine. I would not advise going on unless you are sure you want to pursue medicine. It takes a great deal of dedication and hard work. You do not want to have gone through all of that work and spent all that money to find out you were not all that passionate about medicine. It would not make sense to take all the classes and spend all that money without knowing whether you want to do it for sure. Those are my 2 cents. Good luck with everything! I hope you come to a decision after much consideration. Talk to or try to shadow some doctors as well. 🙂

 

[ih8biochem]

Can't you take the pre-reqs at the undergrad univerisity she's in now? By doing that, would you still be considered a post-bac and defer your laon payment for a bit longer? If not, the EMT option looks darn expensive. But if I were you, I'd stay and wait. Me and my girl (1.5 yrs) talked about it and she said she'd wait and meet me later if I went away for college. But she has a whole bunch of years left as an undergrad so consider yourself lucky if you need to go away for grad school. Fast tracking to med school and leaving your gf alone for a year would be all for naught if you don't get in your first time applying and that's a real likely possibily.

 

[AlternateSome1]

I would agree with ih8biochem, take the courses at the college. Just because a school doesn't have some official postbac program doesn't mean you can't make your own by taking the correct premed courses.

~AS1~

 

[SoulRFlare]

Take them at your/your girlfriend's school. It should be very easy...from what I understand, post bacc programs are accelerated and often designed to give you "automatic" entrance to a specific medical school as long as you maintain a certain gpa. they are nice but are by no means essential to getting into a good school.
To complete my pre-reqs, I simply went to a local university and set up a meeting with the professor responsible for the bio department cirriculum. He mapped out what courses I would need to take (including summers) and subsequently helped me to "fast track" into classes. I've been at it almost two years now, and I'll be starting med school in the fall.
Good luck!

 

[Mackchops]

Thanks for the advice, but unfortunately i don't really have the option of taking classes at my girlfriend's school. If I did, I wouldn't be considered a fulltime student and I would have to pay off the loans on top of everything else. Besides, I was hoping to do post-bac at a much cheaper school (undergrad is damn near 40k a year).

Has anyone gone the EMT route? I have a couple of friends who volunteer but have a very limited idea of what it would be like as a paying job? I'm thinking I could even follow my girlfriend wherever she goes when she graduates and work as an EMT there... maybe even get my paramedic certs.

Thanks a ton for the insight, y'all,
Matt

 

[PluckyDuk8]

I don't know if this info is applicable or going to help but here it goes...

It really depends on where you live if you are going to be able to get a paying EMT job in the first place. Lots of places have private companies which don't pay (so) well (at least in Chicago it's $9-11/hr), but one advantage that hasn't been mentioned yet is that once you have your certification you can work and study at the same time. Lots of the time you are sitting on your butt doing nothing sitting in the ambulance. Plus, you can get evening/weekend shifts where you are sitting doing nothing even more. Just make sure to learn the system where you are going to live (ie, how easy it is to get a job, how much they pay, how busy it is, etc.) so you can be well informed BEFORE you invest in getting your certification.

Try to find if they intensive summer EMT classes near you so you can get it done quicker. Eventually getting paramedic cert. in my mind doesn't make that much sense if you are on the track to become a doctor- spend your time, money and energy finishing your premed recs instead so you can get into med school.