Pre-Vet to Pre-Med

[aspiringvet7]

So I applied to veterinary school this past cycle and was waitlisted at 3 schools. I can still get accepted off of the waitlists, but I'm not sure if I would rather go to medical school. Basically, I'm just wondering how you got experience shadowing doctors, because I want to see if medical school is something I would be interested in. I'm also wondering if my stats are even good enough to consider medical school. Thanks in advance!

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[Isoval]

Moving from pre-vet to pre-med is certainly possible, but there are a few things you need to consider:

1) I believe some vet schools require the MCAT, but a vast majority require the GRE. Meaning...it's very unlikely you have studied for or have taken the MCAT, which is entirely different from the GRE. This should become priority number one for you. Start figuring out when you should be taking the MCAT and come up with a reasonable study schedule based on that time line.

2) What is your GPA right now? Depending on your GPA, some GPA repair or an SMP may be required.If you were competitive for veterinary schools, it's fairly unlikely that there will be any drastic changes, if any, needed prior to applying to medical school.

3) I have two recommendations for gaining clinical experience for your application: scribing and volunteering. Scribing is paid and is more clinical-intensive than volunteering, but both will get you the direct patient contact that you need. Most hospitals have a volunteer program. As for scribing, simply google scribing programs and pick one.

I should also mention that general, non-clinical volunteer experience is general paramount to medical school applications. I'm not sure how much of this you've done in preparation for veterinary school, but it's certainly something that you should consider before tossing out medical school applications.

 

[aspiringvet7]

Moving from pre-vet to pre-med is certainly possible, but there are a few things you need to consider:

1) I believe some vet schools require the MCAT, but a vast majority require the GRE. Meaning...it's very unlikely you have studied for or have taken the MCAT, which is entirely different from the GRE. This should become priority number one for you. Start figuring out when you should be taking the MCAT and come up with a reasonable study schedule based on that time line.

2) What is your GPA right now? Depending on your GPA, some GPA repair or an SMP may be required.If you were competitive for veterinary schools, it's fairly unlikely that there will be any drastic changes, if any, needed prior to applying to medical school.

3) I have two recommendations for gaining clinical experience for your application: scribing and volunteering. Scribing is paid and is more clinical-intensive than volunteering, but both will get you the direct patient contact that you need. Most hospitals have a volunteer program. As for scribing, simply google scribing programs and pick one.

I should also mention that general, non-clinical volunteer experience is general paramount to medical school applications. I'm not sure how much of this you've done in preparation for veterinary school, but it's certainly something that you should consider before tossing out medical school applications.

Thank you for your response.

1) I honestly don't know much about the application cycle for medical school. I took the GRE for veterinary school, so I would still need the MCAT. What is the application schedule like for medical school? As in, if I would want to apply for fall of 2020, when would I need to take the MCAT by?

2) My cum GPA is a 3.51. I graduate this May, and I expect it to increase slightly, but not much.

3) Clinical experience was super important for veterinary school applications, and I had 2,000+ patient contact hours. I'm not sure if this is similar for medical school or not.

I also had another question, I never got research experience during undergrad because it wasn't something I was interested in. Is this something I would need for medical school applications? Thanks again!

 

[Catalystik]

1) I honestly don't know much about the application cycle for medical school. I took the GRE for veterinary school, so I would still need the MCAT. What is the application schedule like for medical school? As in, if I would want to apply for fall of 2020, when would I need to take the MCAT by?

2) My cum GPA is a 3.51. I graduate this May, and I expect it to increase slightly, but not much.

3) Clinical experience was super important for veterinary school applications, and I had 2,000+ patient contact hours. I'm not sure if this is similar for medical school or not.

4) I also had another question, I never got research experience during undergrad because it wasn't something I was interested in. Is this something I would need for medical school applications?

1) To matriculate to med school in the fall of 2020, you'd need to engage in the application season that opens in early June 2019. You won't be ready for that timeframe.

2) The average acceptee cGPA is 3.72 for MD schools. It's about 3.48 for DO med schools.

3) Before applying, you'll want to accumulate at least a year's worth of active clinical experience with humans. The average is 1.5 years. You can do this through a job or through volunteering 3-4 hours per week at a site where you can interact with sick and injured folks. Also, fifty physician shadowing hours is typical and should include a primary care doc. As @Isoval said, you also need nonmedical community service. Humane Society volunteering can count toward that, if you have it.

4) Research isn't essential for DO schools or MD schools with a mission to train primary care docs.

 

[animalluver101]

As in, if I would want to apply for fall of 2020, when would I need to take the MCAT by?

So a good rule of thumb is to take the MCAT at the beginning (so like January) of the year you're going to start your application because then you'll get your score back early enough to decide if you'd need to retake it. The med school cycle is stupid long. Applications for next year's class will be opening in May and submissions start in June. Not sure if you'll be able to swing it. Best bet is to wait a year and get clinical experience and understand why you want to go into medicine. It's going to be just as hard as getting into veterinary school. I highly recommend checking out the AAMC's website for more information on the actual application cycle and they also have a school-by-school admissions requirement tool (that you have to pay for, unfortunately, but it's really useful if you want to check out how competitive you are compared to admitted students at that school). Hope that helps and good luck!