Pre req input

[Straw Hat]

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Hey everyone, so once I get my residency status here in Florida I plan on starting some prereqs. My main question is how important do y'all think course load is especially with my kind of schedule.

1. I work as a nurse and my hospital is a 1 1/2+ hour drive away in Sarasota (3 days a week, and sometimes I don't have much of a choice the days I work).

2. I also volunteer in Sarasota on saturdays and I'm not giving that up. (Miracle League, about 10 weeks every fall and spring for 3-4 hours, helping cognitively and physically impaired kids play baseball. I did this off and on in high school and college. The connection… I played 2 years d2 baseball in college while I was healthy but recurring injuries kinda ended that, but I love helping and I love baseball so I don't want to stop doing this activity).

3. I plan on starting another volunteer opportunity called Guardian Ad Litem. My gf did a story with them and I think it'd be a helpful, interesting, and rewarding experience. They train you to interview and gather info from people affiliated with a child (teachers, healthcare providers, etc) who is a victim of abuse/disruptive home and you help represent their best interests in court. They can work around your schedule pretty well so I don't think there'd be much of a conflict.

So those are my main time commitments. Really, the nursing while only 3 days a week might hinder the times and courses I can take bc I might not always get the shifts I want and it's an hour and a half away in a city that doesn't offer great school options (the main school there has no grades and the others are mostly certificate program schools). The closest college is 5 minutes from my apartment and it's really the only option I like for the price and distance. Next closest is 25-30 minutes away. So if I stick with just that college my class choices might be limited too.

Is slow and steady, 1 course a semester, ok? My choice school is Edison State College which is a Florida public state college that offers 2 and 4 year undergrad degrees so I guess technically it's not a CC?

My previous degree is a BSN from Emory. Unfortunately while playing baseball and then transferring to Emory the most credits I've ever taken was 12-13. I just had no idea I wanted to go down this road, maybe didn't challenge myself as much as I could've, so I don't know if my history proves I can handle heavy course loads. My passion and life was baseball until I eventually found healthcare. My gpa before nursing school was a 3.4 with a lot of humanities and some science mixed in there. My last 2 years at Emory in nursing school I had a 3.915 and those were heavier, 14-16 credits with clinical. But that's a separate GPA on my transcript so I'm not sure the exact number when you add them both together.

I have Chem 2, Bio 2 (I did take Human Phys and Comp Vert Anatomy with lab so I might be able to replace Bio 2 with one of these), Orgo 1 and 2, and Physics 1 and 2 to take.

Sorry this is kind of long but thanks for any input and advice!

 

[Darth Doc]

Looks like you have 3 years to go before you are ready to take the MCAT and apply to med school. Looks doable to me. With your legit voluteering and clinical experience, you have all the ECs you need. Your GPA looks decent. So all you need is the classes you're missing (with good grades to go with) and a good MCAT score. I'm just someone who's been accepted to med school, but I've seen other nontrads who've worked full time and done a class a semester be accepted.

You wouldn't need the second bio until after you took the mcat IF the school you're accepted to requires it. You'll have the spring semester before you go to get that done.

 

[Chip N Sawbones]

Slow and steady is fine, as long as you can show that you are doing something else full time. That shouldn't be a problem for you. If the college offers 4 year degrees it isn't a community college, so you're fine there as well. Don't worry about Edison State not being a big prestigious school. That doesn't really matter for med school admissions.

If you want to speed things up a little bit and can arrange for 6 weeks or so away from work you could consider taking a class or two over the summer. Lots of state schools around the nation offer in-state tuition for everyone during the summer, condensing semester-long classes into 6 weeks.

 

[Quik]

Well, normally I would echo the advice of those above as it's a general theme here on SDN, but I did just meet with the director of an MD Admissions Committe today and got some other advice... As you are a nurse, I'm sure you've been exposed to the intense rigor of a heavy science load. How did you do? That is something the ADCOMs are looking for, proof you can handle the rigor of med school. However, for most of us, one science course per semester isn't going to prove that capability. As far as differentiating between a CC and a 4-year, it all depends on the course. General sciences (ie. bio I and II, Chem I and II, etc) are fine at a CC (most would agree anyway) as long as you do your upper division work at a 4 year.

Two things I don't see any of on your list is research and leadership. While they are not required metrics, they are certainly application boosters that most of your competition will have. There are plenty of anecdotes out there which imply that research isn't that important, but if there's an entry field for it on the AMCAS application, I'd do what I could to fill it.

 

[Straw Hat]

Awesome. Yeah I'd prefer to take it slow, make sure I do as well as I can, and continue enjoying other activities and volunteering while I still can.

I'm not too interested in research unless my hospital floor decides to start looking at implementing improvements or something via some sort of research group. I remember in school we had a group of doctors/nurses talk about coming up with simple solutions to behavioral problems. They gave dementia/sundowning patients a baby doll to hold and they became much calmer and easier to treat because their instincts kicked in. They thought they were really holding a baby and didn't want to drop it. Now that's something that I think would be cool to research/implement on our floor since they can sometimes be very difficult to treat.

I feel like my experience in nursing, volunteering, and collegiate baseball is plenty of leadership experience though/I think I can give more than enough examples of leadership from them? I can probably join my unit practice council if that counts for anything as well. I think they mostly just look at ways to make the unit run smoother

Another option is after my contract ends in a little over a year I could drop to part time or just commit all my time to knocking out my last few classes.

Thanks for the input everyone. Feel free to keep it coming!

 

[Quik]

I can probably join my unit practice council if that counts for anything as well.

Another option is after my contract ends in a little over a year I could drop to part time or just commit all my time to knocking out my last few classes.

Thanks for the input everyone. Feel free to keep it coming!

Joining your unit practice council would definitely help. When going over my CV, the admissions director was impressed with the work related leadership quite a bit more than some of the extracurricular leadership; probably because it has a bit more meaning in the real world. I would expect clinical leadership would be even more impressive. Go for it.

I agree with the research bit. We have to prioritize our time in this whole ordeal and decide what's the best use of it. If it's something you're not really interested in, it's probably not a good use of your time.

Good luck!

 

[Jewels86]

Dear OP,

I too am a nurse (BSN type as well, grad degree too), ER and work an overnight shift. I'm 100% exhausted after a two night shift and still will have another to go. 13 hours (to include time I badge in until out in the AM) is my world, which I'm pretty certain is your world too. ER is crazy; anything comes in and everything stays. I wore a pedometer one shift and I walk 7.7 miles every evening; not an average, every shift. Some days are more, rarely less.

My point: slow is the only way this will go. If I was only volunteering or working an 8-5 shift, yes, I can tackle two courses. But this is it. The universe (nor CC classes) does not cater to our overnight world, except Vegas 🙂

Don't feel bad about doing it slow and steady!! Just do it.

 

[Straw Hat]

As exhausting as that sounds, I wish I could've started out in the ER. Pretty much every person I've talked to, management or just fellow nurses, has said how my personality is well suited for the ED. And I turned down an ED position to come to Florida 🙁 But I really like the floor I'm on as well so I guess it worked out.

But anyways, slow and steady it is! Thanks for the help.

It looks like they don't have too much offered during the summer except maybe physics. I know Human Phys and Anatomy is generally not recommended since you get it in school and it's usually a nursing pre req (I never took it) but that is offered in the summer as well and both are taught by physicians (one retired).. could be good for LORs since it's both a science and physician letter?

 

[Darth Doc]

I know Human Phys and Anatomy is generally not recommended since you get it in school and it's usually a nursing pre req (I never took it) but that is offered in the summer as well and both are taught by physicians (one retired).. could be good for LORs since it's both a science and physician letter?

Some MD schools do require it or highly suggest it. I recommend A&P because that's information you'll need for the biology section of the MCAT, and yes, LORs if you do well in those classes would probably help you.

 

[DocWinter]

This is so refreshing - I gotta say, when I see the kids come on here and try to mastermind a plan to take all prereqs and the MCAT in a 12 or 16 month span, I just facepalm.

Good luck to you OP. A solid plan and success in your future.

I did my PB in 2.5 years, with MCAT. I wish I had taken longer, given my work and volunteer schedule