Quitting Occupational Therapy Program for Medical School

[Margaret23]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hello!

I graduated in 2016 from a pre-med/Neurobiology program with a 3.8 GPA and 3.76 science GPA.
I have always had the desire to go to medical school but felt that I could never get in. So I applied and was accepted into an OT program. I respect OT but being in the program is making me realize how much I truly love medicine. I'm not going to list all of the reasons here but I think that I would be able to explain to the ADCOMs why I chose to leave OT school.

So my question is.....

How bad would it look, to medical schools, if I took a leave of absence from my program (currently in my first semester)? Would it show lack of commitment or indecisiveness?
My plan is to take a year or two to shadow, work in healthcare, study for the MCAT, and take higher level science courses.
OR
Remain in the OT program, work a few years and then pursue medical school? Not to mention carrying the massive debt from grad school (I'd rather invest in a medical degree versus something I'm not really interested in).
Also by then my prerequisites would be almost 10 years old (graduating in 2019 from OT).

How can I tactfully explain this to the director of my program?

Any advice would be awesome. I just don't want to make a mistake or go about this the wrong way.
Please and thank you!

 

[mk04447]

I wouldn't leave. Finish OT or get accepted to medical school first. Will be harder, but I wouldn't throw all my eggs into the medical school basket, the odds are against you. Study for the MCAT and take some practice tests to come up with your likely score, if decent you may have enough ammunition to support a more drastic course correction. I think you could find a few schools that don't care about the age of your pre-req courses with a really good score.

 

[Margaret23]

I wouldn't leave. Finish OT or get accepted to medical school first. Will be harder, but I wouldn't throw all my eggs into the medical school basket, the odds are against you. Study for the MCAT and take some practice tests to come up with your likely score, if decent you may have enough ammunition to support a more drastic course correction. I think you could find a few schools that don't care about the age of your pre-req courses with a really good score.

Thank you for your input! Definitely something to think about.
I’m not really worried about the age of my prerequisites but it’ll definitely be harder/take more time to study for the MCAT with some of my science course s being 10 years old.
At this point spending over 100K for a profession that I don’t see myself practicing doesn’t make sense. But I’ll definitely consider and reconsider everything before making a final decision. Thanks again!

 

[futuremdforme]

Why did you think you could not get into med school? If you think you have a solid shot, I would probably do the LOA if that's feasible... You'll need to make sure that you convey that you won't quit medicine (choose a volunteering gig you can stick with for your entire premed journey, shadow, etc).