RN 2 MD - Advice Please

[RN2MD2015]

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I am a current RN that works at a Level I Trauma Center, and I finally want to take the plunge by applying to medical school next year (for the 2016 school year). Everyone has a story, so here's mine (the abbreviated version of course):

I have two Bachelor's degrees, one from a private university and one from a State school.

Private University = Pre-law major, double minor: Business and International Studies 3.76 cGPA

State University = BSN c3.82 GPA

I attended law school for a year, before deciding that medical school was more aligned with my long-term goals. I left law school (after my first year), completed my prereqs for medical school, and then my dad died in a car crash, and I was completely useless for a year. Thereafter, I managed to convince myself that I wouldn't do well on the MCAT, and that I should pursue something more "certain" (i.e., nursing), as I no longer had financial support. Fast forward to today, and I am completely miserable. Nursing is fine, and I'm grateful for the opportunities that I have been afforded; but it's just that my passion is to become a physician, and working with physicians regularly as a member on the interdisciplinary team has only reenergized that drive.

My concerns are the following:

1) Prereqs GPA is 3.78, however most were completed at a community college, how much will that hinder my application. I plan to apply VERY broadly.

2) I registered for the Jan 2015 MCAT, however I work full-time, and I need a lot of content review, any advice on how to study for physics and orgo, I feel like I forgot everything. I've ordered Berkeley Review and EK, and should have everything by the end of this week. Not to mention full-time work and MCAT studying is intimidating to say the least.

3) In regards to letter of prereqs, do you think any of my nursing school courses would satisfy the "science LOR" requirement. I have no issues requesting LORs from previous instructors for core requirements like Gen Chem or the like, but it's been about 4 years and I have not kept in contact with any of my previous prereq instructors. The specific nursing courses I am referring to are pharmacology and pathophysiology

4) I have done a lot of volunteering in the past, but nothing recently. I went on a mission trip to Haiti in 2010 after the earthquake, I volunteered in a medical clinic for 3 years (last documented year, 2011 but I'm confident I could get a LOR from the owner who is a MD), a slew of other things when I was in undergrad (2005-2009), non medical related.
I was also a nursing assistant while I was in nursing school (2012-2013; I did an accelerated post- baccalaureate program), Although this was a paid position it is yet another experience that exposed me to the intricacies of medicine.
Is recent volunteer experience important?

5) I also plan on taking biochemistry summer 2015, summer session I

Any advice or answers to the above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.

 

[popopopop]

I am a current RN that works at a Level I Trauma Center, and I finally want to take the plunge by applying to medical school next year (for the 2016 school year). Everyone has a story, so here's mine (the abbreviated version of course):

I have two Bachelor's degrees, one from a private university and one from a State school.

Private University = Pre-law major, double minor: Business and International Studies 3.76 cGPA

State University = BSN c3.82 GPA

I attended law school for a year, before deciding that medical school was more aligned with my long-term goals. I left law school (after my first year), completed my prereqs for medical school, and then my dad died in a car crash, and I was completely useless for a year. Thereafter, I managed to convince myself that I wouldn't do well on the MCAT, and that I should pursue something more "certain" (i.e., nursing), as I no longer had financial support. Fast forward to today, and I am completely miserable. Nursing is fine, and I'm grateful for the opportunities that I have been afforded; but it's just that my passion is to become a physician, and working with physicians regularly as a member on the interdisciplinary team has only reenergized that drive.

My concerns are the following:

1) Prereqs GPA is 3.78, however most were completed at a community college, how much will that hinder my application. I plan to apply VERY broadly.
You don't need GPA repair, but some schools might like recent coursework to show you that you know how to be a professional student. If you get a low MCAT, it may raise some eyebrows to some adcom about the quality of your coursework. In any case, there's nothing you can do about it now and you GPA is great. Depends on how long it's been, perhaps a few recent classes can show you can still handle the courseload. Someone else might chime in on this.

2) I registered for the Jan 2015 MCAT, however I work full-time, and I need a lot of content review, any advice on how to study for physics and orgo, I feel like I forgot everything. I've ordered Berkeley Review and EK, and should have everything by the end of this week. Not to mention full-time work and MCAT studying is intimidating to say the least.
I wouldn't rush it. Study as much as you can, take the self-assessments first available from AAMC and go from there. If you aren't scoring 28+ on practice exams near the test date, call it off. Worst case scenario is that you got a whole year to regroup, prep for the new MCAT and apply as a better applicant. It's not a race, I joined in 2011 and I'm not even applying this year lol.

3) In regards to letter of prereqs, do you think any of my nursing school courses would satisfy the "science LOR" requirement. I have no issues requesting LORs from previous instructors for core requirements like Gen Chem or the like, but it's been about 4 years and I have not kept in contact with any of my previous prereq instructors. The specific nursing courses I am referring to are pharmacology and pathophysiology
Are you from Texas? I know it's a bit different in Texas if you are non-traditional. I'm applying through TMDSAS so I'm not familiar with how the rest of the nation apply.

4) I have done a lot of volunteering in the past, but nothing recently. I went on a mission trip to Haiti in 2010 after the earthquake, I volunteered in a medical clinic for 3 years (last documented year, 2011 but I'm confident I could get a LOR from the owner who is a MD), a slew of other things when I was in undergrad (2005-2009), non medical related.
I was also a nursing assistant while I was in nursing school (2012-2013; I did an accelerated post- baccalaureate program), Although this was a paid position it is yet another experience that exposed me to the intricacies of medicine.
Is recent volunteer experience important?
I want to say this won't be a red flag for you, but one of our resident adcoms might chime in. I think if you add 50-100 shadowing hours to this section, you're golden.

5) I also plan on taking biochemistry summer 2015, summer session I
All depends on your MCAT. If you rock the MCAT this January, then I wouldn't discourage you from applying in 2015 and forgoing biochem. If you don't feel ready, spend 2015 working on kinks in your app and study for your MCAT.
Any advice or answers to the above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Quik]

It looks like you have a pretty solid application built so far. Your GPA is competitive, you have loads of clinical and volunteer experience, and you are pretty well set up for the next app cycle.
I'm also taking the Jan MCAT, and using the MCAT prep videos from coursesaver.com ("Chad's Videos") for content review. They are great. Easily watchable on your own time and very affordable. I would try and get an initial comprehensive review done asap, and begin practice questions and full length exams. The recurring advice I've heard, is that practice exams are where you make your major gains.

As per your science LOR's, I don't see why letters from the instructors of those courses would be a problem, but it would be best to contact several schools and hearing their take.

 

[RN2MD2015]

It looks like you have a pretty solid application built so far. Your GPA is competitive, you have loads of clinical and volunteer experience, and you are pretty well set up for the next app cycle.
I'm also taking the Jan MCAT, and using the MCAT prep videos from coursesaver.com ("Chad's Videos") for content review. They are great. Easily watchable on your own time and very affordable. I would try and get an initial comprehensive review done asap, and begin practice questions and full length exams. The recurring advice I've heard, is that practice exams are where you make your major gains.

As per your science LOR's, I don't see why letters from the instructors of those courses would be a problem, but it would be best to contact several schools and hearing their take.

Thanks so much Quik. Wishing you the best. I'm so nervous, albeit excited.

 

[RN2MD2015]

Thanks so much for the thorough response popopopop. I'm from NJ btw. I was on the fence about purchasing the Official Self Assessment, but I will definitely purchase once I'm done with content review. It seems that my cc credits will become less relevant if I do well on the MCAT.

 

[popopopop]

Thanks so much for the thorough response popopopop. I'm from NJ btw. I was on the fence about purchasing the Official Self Assessment, but I will definitely purchase once I'm done with content review. It seems that my cc credits will become less relevant if I do well on the MCAT.

The self assessments has been great! I'm about 2 months into my studying and wish I did it earlier. It certainly has been the best value for the content you get.

 

[EsotericAlchemy]

2) I registered for the Jan 2015 MCAT, however I work full-time, and I need a lot of content review, any advice on how to study for physics and orgo, I feel like I forgot everything. I've ordered Berkeley Review and EK, and should have everything by the end of this week. Not to mention full-time work and MCAT studying is intimidating to say the least.

Berkeley Review I thought was quite thorough in their content review. It can be lengthy though. If you're planning on using Sn2ed's schedule, (in my opinion) you're going to have to extend that schedule to accommodate a full time job. I suppose it depends on your MCAT goals too. As others have said, don't take it until you're ready and scoring where you want to be on the practice tests.

Recent volunteering experience can be a bonus. Volunteering and research experience are not a necessity for all schools though. Clinical experience, recent academic success, perhaps also some leadership experience at the hospital, and a good personal statement can make up for lack of research or recent volunteerism (IMO).

 

[USMC2Doctor]

I'm in a similar situation. I'm also an RN, but I work also in the I.T. field. I will be finish with my BSN Jun 2015, but since I only have a few more classes to go to finish out my BSN, I am planning on taking my mcat oct. 25 of this year before the test changes of 2015. I'm in a Kaplan course now, and I definitely feel lost. I have been searching on this website and I'm considering subscribing to Chad's videos to help me out mainly for the content review.

 

[amberlynnp13]

I am a current RN that works at a Level I Trauma Center, and I finally want to take the plunge by applying to medical school next year (for the 2016 school year). Everyone has a story, so here's mine (the abbreviated version of course):

I have two Bachelor's degrees, one from a private university and one from a State school.

Private University = Pre-law major, double minor: Business and International Studies 3.76 cGPA

State University = BSN c3.82 GPA

I attended law school for a year, before deciding that medical school was more aligned with my long-term goals. I left law school (after my first year), completed my prereqs for medical school, and then my dad died in a car crash, and I was completely useless for a year. Thereafter, I managed to convince myself that I wouldn't do well on the MCAT, and that I should pursue something more "certain" (i.e., nursing), as I no longer had financial support. Fast forward to today, and I am completely miserable. Nursing is fine, and I'm grateful for the opportunities that I have been afforded; but it's just that my passion is to become a physician, and working with physicians regularly as a member on the interdisciplinary team has only reenergized that drive.

My concerns are the following:

1) Prereqs GPA is 3.78, however most were completed at a community college, how much will that hinder my application. I plan to apply VERY broadly.

2) I registered for the Jan 2015 MCAT, however I work full-time, and I need a lot of content review, any advice on how to study for physics and orgo, I feel like I forgot everything. I've ordered Berkeley Review and EK, and should have everything by the end of this week. Not to mention full-time work and MCAT studying is intimidating to say the least.

3) In regards to letter of prereqs, do you think any of my nursing school courses would satisfy the "science LOR" requirement. I have no issues requesting LORs from previous instructors for core requirements like Gen Chem or the like, but it's been about 4 years and I have not kept in contact with any of my previous prereq instructors. The specific nursing courses I am referring to are pharmacology and pathophysiology

4) I have done a lot of volunteering in the past, but nothing recently. I went on a mission trip to Haiti in 2010 after the earthquake, I volunteered in a medical clinic for 3 years (last documented year, 2011 but I'm confident I could get a LOR from the owner who is a MD), a slew of other things when I was in undergrad (2005-2009), non medical related.
I was also a nursing assistant while I was in nursing school (2012-2013; I did an accelerated post- baccalaureate program), Although this was a paid position it is yet another experience that exposed me to the intricacies of medicine.
Is recent volunteer experience important?

5) I also plan on taking biochemistry summer 2015, summer session I

Any advice or answers to the above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.

Hello I'm an RN In NJ too.. I got my BSN from WU.. MI plan on taking mcats like June 2015... If you ever want to form a study group let me know 🙂

 

[RN2MD2015]

I'm in a similar situation. I'm also an RN, but I work also in the I.T. field. I will be finish with my BSN Jun 2015, but since I only have a few more classes to go to finish out my BSN, I am planning on taking my mcat oct. 25 of this year before the test changes of 2015. I'm in a Kaplan course now, and I definitely feel lost. I have been searching on this website and I'm considering subscribing to Chad's videos to help me out mainly for the content review.

I just signed up for Chad's videos, and I recommend them. I feel that they are a formidable addition to anyone's MCAT arsenal. I plan on registering for a Kaplan course sometime in October. Don't forget that the Jan 2015 MCAT is still the old MCAT, so if you don't feel ready you can always push it back.

 

[RN2MD2015]

Hello I'm an RN In NJ too.. I got my BSN from WU.. MI plan on taking mcats like June 2015... If you ever want to form a study group let me know 🙂

I would love to form a study group actually, but I just moved to NY to be closer to work. If anything changes, where I move back to NJ, I'll keep you posted.

 

[RN2MD2015]

I'm in a similar situation. I'm also an RN, but I work also in the I.T. field. I will be finish with my BSN Jun 2015, but since I only have a few more classes to go to finish out my BSN, I am planning on taking my mcat oct. 25 of this year before the test changes of 2015. I'm in a Kaplan course now, and I definitely feel lost. I have been searching on this website and I'm considering subscribing to Chad's videos to help me out mainly for the content review.

What's your opinion on Kaplan so far btw?

 

[USMC2Doctor]

What's your opinion on Kaplan so far btw?

Kaplan so far is okay. I would definitely go over content before the first class. I feel overwhelmed and its only been the first week of Kaplan. Some of the people in the class are fresh out of pre-req science classes so for non-trads like me it's a little difficult so I have to rely on other sources.