Recently Decided to Switch to Med-Please Help!

[IlikeDentite]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi guys,

I need your input on what I should do as I recently decided to switch to pre-med. I graduated a year ago from a top 20 school and had applied to dental school last cycle and did not get in (I only applied to 4 schools, all of which had very low acceptance rates). I continued shadowing in dental offices and clinics but after shadowing for an entire year, I realize that dentistry is not something that I want to do for the rest of my life. I had switched from predental to premed before in my undergraduate career because dentistry offers a better salary and lifestyle but now that does not really matter to me anymore. I was wondering if you guys can give me feedback on what I can do to make myself a strong medical school applicant for next cycle. My GPA is a 3.7 (science: 3.6) and I have yet to take the MCAT. Should I complete a post-bacc program or are my grades sufficient? I do not have much medical clinical experience but my extracurriculars are pretty diverse. Also, since I graduated from college a year ago, do you guys think that I can get a new committee letter written for me for medical school (as the old committee letter was geared towards dentistry)?

Thanks and I would really appreciate any feedback and advice you guys can give me.

 

[LizzyM]

Have you taken all the required courses for pre-med? If not, you do need a post-bac to catch up. You will need to take the MCAT. From there you will know if you have a good shot at admission to a medical school. If you really wanted to boost your gpa a little you could take biochemistry and biostatistics (or just statistics) as those are useful courses for medicine.

Get some experience shadowing allopathic and osteopathic physicians in a couple of different settings (inpatient, outpatient office, safety-net clinic, etc) to get a feel for the type of work, etc. If you should choose to apply to osteopathic medical schools you'll need a LOR from an osteopathic physician (D.O.) so you might as well get a head start with that.

If you can explain in a good way why you decided against dentistry it could be a plus for you as some med school admins will be interested in "why medicine" but also "what else have you considered" and "what would you do if not medicine?"

 

[Catalystik]

Besides shadowing some physicians, you'll want to augment your past clinical experience, since you did not have much. You can work or volunteer in a medical setting, like hospitals, low-income, VA, family-planning, or private clinics, nursing homes, hospice, rehab centers.

Nonmedical community service would strengthen your application, as would leaderhip or teaching roles.

Call your old prehealth advising office and see what they say about updating the committee recommendation letter previously written. If they say no, and the old letter is geared toward dentistry, you'll have to strategize on how to get two science-faculty who've taught you, one nonscience, and a PI letter if you did research, as a minimum. And possibly the DO letter that LizzyM refers to, if applicable.

 

[judiciousjim]

.

 

[IlikeDentite]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I am a Biology Major and have taken all the premed prereqs as well as a lot of science courses (including biochemistry and statistics). That is why I do not know if a Post Bacc is a good idea as I will be retaking a lot of the same classes. As far as shadowing, how should I go about asking physicians for shadowing opportunities (cold calling, visiting offices/hospitals, etc.)?

Thanks

 

[LizzyM]

A post-bac would be a waste given that you've already taken all the pre-med classes.

For shadowing, some folks cold-call doctors offices but I'd suggest that you start by networking.... do you know any doctors? know classmates or friends who had a parent who is a doctor? do your parents have any friends who are physicians? do you have a family member who sees a doctor quite often for a health problem? Once you have an email address or phone number explain that you are considering a career in medicine and would like to observe (shadow) through the work day. You may get many negative responses but keep at it and you'll find someone. Often one can lead to another as you ask one doctor to put you in touch with someone in another specialty (e.g. a primary care provider may know a cardiologist who knows a cardiac surgeon who knows an anesthesiologist).

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I'm going to echo what the above posters said. A post-bacc won't really be necessary as your gpa is top notch and you have a good amount of science classes which will help with the mcat. I'd personally head down to the mcat prep section and find a study strategy which you'll find fitting ( highly recommend the 3 month one). Also during the time you'll be studying for the mcat, pursue clinical and non medical volunteering as well as shadow a doctor. Consider also finding some time to get down at least a semesters worth or 4 months of research.
Also as said above consider shadowing a DO as well because an LOR will help you get into DO schools.

Good luck 😉.