Recent Grad: "What Now?"

[JoeyCrush]

---

Members do not see this ad.

First off. Wow. This website is wonderfully rich with information and insight.

Anyway, here is my situation. I've recently graduated from University of Wisconsin-Platteville majoring in Social Studies. The whole graduation process and post-experience has really made me reflect on what I want to do with my life - truly reflect. Perhaps I should have reflected upon this sooner, but regardless, here i am creating a discussion in the Non-Traditional forum. My reflection has led me to become curious towards medicine and what it would take to get me onto the right path. Now, i'm not certain I want to pursue it, but I am curious. I believe understanding what it will take to get redirected onto the right path is definately important to consider when and if I do decide for certain.

I finished school with a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 GPA scale. From what I've read, I'm certainly going to need to return to school and take courses I would need to gain entry into med school and make a large effort towards readjusting my GPA. Additionally, in returning to school as an undergrad... should I strongly consider transferring or return to University of Wisconsin-Platteville? It wouldn't seem as though UWP would be on many med schools' radar.

As you can tell, I've somewhat developed a few of my own thoughts on how to proceed, so I seek others opinions and advice on how I should proceed if I decide to follow this path.

 

[Crelal]

I would recommend shadowing a physician and beginning volunteer work in a hospital/clinic setting- being in Milwaukee should lend itself to that fairly easy.

If you are finding you enjoy it, and after more research are committed to the long path ahead of you, then take the plunge and enroll in courses.

The 3.0 is going to need work, no doubt about it. Work on entrance requirements and science courses to prepare you for the MCAT.

But truly, you need to get involved in the field to figure out if it is where you want to be.

And no offense to Platteville, but you would be better off at UWM with prereqs- it is a name that will be more easily recognized by ad coms and if you can rock classes there, they will know how to compare it to other programs.

Good luck!

 

[BennieBlanco]

First off. Wow. This website is wonderfully rich with information and insight.

Anyway, here is my situation. I've recently graduated from University of Wisconsin-Platteville majoring in Social Studies. The whole graduation process and post-experience has really made me reflect on what I want to do with my life - truly reflect. Perhaps I should have reflected upon this sooner, but regardless, here i am creating a discussion in the Non-Traditional forum. My reflection has led me to become curious towards medicine and what it would take to get me onto the right path. Now, i'm not certain I want to pursue it, but I am curious. I believe understanding what it will take to get redirected onto the right path is definately important to consider when and if I do decide for certain.

I finished school with a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 GPA scale. From what I've read, I'm certainly going to need to return to school and take courses I would need to gain entry into med school and make a large effort towards readjusting my GPA. Additionally, in returning to school as an undergrad... should I strongly consider transferring or return to University of Wisconsin-Platteville? It wouldn't seem as though UWP would be on many med schools' radar.

As you can tell, I've somewhat developed a few of my own thoughts on how to proceed, so I seek others opinions and advice on how I should proceed if I decide to follow this path.

I agree with the last poster. You need to understand the job and what it involves and make sure you desire it badly.

TO DO:
-Volunteer a bit
-Shadow more (this is better because it is seeing medicine practiced as opposed to changing bed sheets and cleaning stuff)
-Read a lot on here, many have asked similar questions
-Go to amazon and buy 3 or 4 well reviewed books on what it's like.

See an education theme running here???

CAN you do it?

Sure.

Are you willing to dedicated 10 years to training and maybe 2-3 years not making progress if you didn't get accepted the first or second time?

Tougher question.

It's one thing to see medicine practiced, think you would enjoy the job and be fascinated by it AND a completely other thing to be will to make huge sacrifices and toil year after year for an imperfect offering.

SO, make sure you want it badly and that you know what's up before you just start figuring out logistics. (what school, how high does my GPA need to be, what do I need on the MCAT, how will this look on my app?)

First ask (am I cut out for this? Would I be willing to apply again if I didn't make it the first 2 years? Can I not imagine doing another job? Do I really want this bad? What is the career like? What do other doctors love or hate about this job?)

The last question is tough because a lot of doctors take the attitude, "it isn't all that great." But that's a lot of people in life too. Great attitude under peril is a unique trait in all careers, medicine has a lot of peril by the way.

: )

 

[JoeyCrush]

And no offense to Platteville, but you would be better off at UWM with prereqs- it is a name that will be more easily recognized by ad coms and if you can rock classes there, they will know how to compare it to other programs.

By UWM do you mean Madison or Milwaukee?

 

[BennieBlanco]

Last quick point.

America is the go-go society.

22-25 year old, "I just decided I want to do medicine, I have to hurry to get into medical school because I started too late!"

25-30 year old, "I just decided I want to do medicine, I have to hurry to get into medical school because I started too late!"

30-40 year old, "I just decided I want to do medicine, I have to hurry to get into medical school because I started too late!"

40+ year old, "I just decided I want to do medicine, I have to hurry to get into medical school because I started too late!"

_______________________________________________

Stop, take a breath. Take a year to determine it is the path you want to go down, this will ensure you that you are putting the 100-200k in debt and $500,000-$1,000,000 in lost earnings are worth it. That is 1.2 million so you better want to do this.

My last 12 months I worked I earned 170k, so I've given up at least this. But it isn't about money right!?

 

[slick27]

If I were you I would avoid medicine. I've spent three cycles to get in to med school from a WI state school. The funny thing is, now that I'm in, I'm not sure I want it anymore. Its a long process.

 

[Crelal]

By UWM do you mean Madison or Milwaukee?

Either, although if you are looking into UWSMPH about 50% of the incoming class graduated from UW-Madison.

 

[JoeyCrush]

Additional Question:

As an undergraduate student - if say a student were to get a D in a course, retook that course, and got an A the second time around - the A would entirely replace the D score... thus being a much more efficient way to raise a GPA if one wasn't concerned about gaining credits.

Does anyone know if this is possible post-graduation, to possibly retake undergraduate courses currently on one's transcript and replace the grade?
It is something I'll have to look into, but if so would this be an intelligent move prior to post-bacc possibly?

 

[futureboy]

My last 12 months I worked I earned 170k

Since you're not there anymore, are they hiring?

 

[sindadel]

Additional Question:

As an undergraduate student - if say a student were to get a D in a course, retook that course, and got an A the second time around - the A would entirely replace the D score... thus being a much more efficient way to raise a GPA if one wasn't concerned about gaining credits.

Does anyone know if this is possible post-graduation, to possibly retake undergraduate courses currently on one's transcript and replace the grade?
It is something I'll have to look into, but if so would this be an intelligent move prior to post-bacc possibly?

It is my understanding that the MD application service (AMCAS) will average both grades together. Thus 3 units of A and 3 units of D would be 6 units of C+/B-, whether or not the A is in the same course. The DO application service will replace the 3 units of D with the 3 units of A if you take a similar course and designate it as a replacement course.

You probably need to have made more than a D in any pre-req though. I think a C is the minimum, but I am not sure.

 

[gman33]

Take some time to figure out if this is what you want. Shadow, volunteer, get a job at a hospital; the more exposure the better.

If you want to pursue this path, you have a long road ahead of you. Your gpa is subpar and it will make getting into a MD school very difficult. You would need another 120 credits @ 4.0 just to get your gpa to 3.5 which is still below average. For DO schools, they will replace grades for retakes, so that would be a much quicker route.

I'd say take the next year doing something productive and try to get as much info as you can. You don't want to start this journey until you are pretty sure it's what you want.