RN to MD Questions

[rntomdderm262]

Hi All,
I believe I am not one of the rare cases here, but I would like to have your feedback on my route.
I graduated class 2017 and while waiting for a hospital job, I work as aesthetic and dermatology nurse. Having exposed to this field, I found my passion in dermatology and skin care overall. I decided to follow my calling for dermatology MD after many thoughts and consultations from friends and colleagues.
Here's my story. I am a person who never would put passion in anything unless that excites me. It just happened recently with medicines. I work as an RN but never have a passion for medical medicine. However, when it comes to skin organ and dermatology, as I have just discovered, I will just spend hours reading non-stop. I understand I find my calling quite late, but it is how it is. Please don't judge my scores. I understand don't have advantages due to my scores. However, I am willing to do anything to gain a medical school admission.

Pre-med courses: I had Gen Chem about 5 years ago according to college timeline. I wonder if there's a cut off deadline for all courses to fall within the 5-year range. I am not sure. have finished pretty much everything with the date from 01/2013 to now. MIssing OChem 2, physics 1, physics 2. Do you think can take the courses and apply for medical school within 2018, or it would be too late for me and that has to start applying in 2019 instead.

MCAT: Not taken. am planning taking it in April before May. I understand it is rushing but since I hesitated and doubted myself for a good time, I just am desperate for someone to guide my lost soul. I cannot get access to the school counselor because I graduated already and my old nursing counselor, though I keep a good relationship with her, she doesn't like me mentioning going from RN to MD, neither my nursing colleagues.


Academic: finished high school outside of US. I started my pre-nursing courses in 2012-2015 in community college. I did not well in science class with mostly B and A-, I didn't like medicine overall and just wanted to really pass the class. transferred to 4 year college UC system. My GPA after graduating BSN is 3.57 with sGPA is 3.34

Leadership: I have multiple awards in community college with leadership distinction award, scholarships, president of a cultural club, hosting 10,000 community show, news anchor, community hosts.

Research: I have published article about Alzheimer's education for caregivers of ethnic minorities funded by NIH

Letter of recs: I have a strong letter of recs from a plastic surgeon member of American plastic surgeon group, associate nurse professor, and workplace.

Extracurricular activities: I have 180 hours medical mission internship for burn and plastic surgery experiences. I am currently working as dermatology RN and perform cosmetic injections, micro needling, laser therapy, peri-OR nurse, and first physician hand.



Please pitch in your thought of what I should do in my situation. thank you very much in advance for your thoughtful consultation. God bless.


Signed,
Confused mind.

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[deleted480308]

This post would be more appropriate in the premed forum...

Having said that you took a bunch of science >5 yrs ago and haven’t taken some of the prereqs, you are likely not ready for the mcat in may....take an assessment and do not.....read that again....do not take the real mcat until your scores are right. Not your confidence level, not your sense urgency, not your passion.....actual scores on an assessment

Extra curriculars look fine, shadow a doc outside of derm and have an answer for why you need to be a doc instead of a nurse

Also derm is like top 5% med student territory. If you wouldn’t go into med school if you knew you would be a family doc then stay put and enjoy nursing

 

[KKT1992]

I agree you should check out the premed forum. But if you are already doing what you love (ie nurse for derm) I wouldn't go through 4 years of medical school to do the same thing but a little different. Or even the application cycle that sucks too.

Maybe becoming an NP instead?

 

[username456789]

I agree you should check out the premed forum. But if you are already doing what you love (ie nurse for derm) I wouldn't go through 4 years of medical school to do the same thing but a little different. Or even the application cycle that sucks too.

Maybe becoming an NP instead?

Not just 4 years of Med school, but 4 years of residency too. Assuming she was able to suddenly become a rip medical student.

 

[3toedsloth]

Dermatology is extremely competitive. There are only 420 residency positions, and basically everyone would love to do derm. It's a fairly short residency (4 years after med school), with awesome work life balance, good pay, super interesting and varied work, has loads of prestige among fellow docs, and is not too emotionally taxing.

24% of US MDs who apply for derm residency fail to match. Of the students who do not match in derm, 20% are AΩA (med school honors). At U Mich, they had over 100 applicants who were in the top 1% of USMLE board scores. At U Chicago, they had 530 applications for 4 slots.

Mind you, if you're doing cosmetic derm right now, that's a hurdle to overcome. Program Directors don't want to be training people whose passion is injecting fillers and other cosmetic stuff, but people who are interested in academic dermatology. See if you can get involved in research now, as all of your competition (well, over 90%) will have derm research. With that first step of getting into medical school, the nursing background may hurt you. Why do you feel the need to be a doctor rather than a nurse? Money? Start thinking of a very strong answer that doesn't involve money/power/prestige.

If you're set on dermatology, you probably should not consider a "low tier" MD school (and really, don't consider DO). The MCAT is an important factor which will determine which schools are likely to interview you. Absolutely DO NOT consider taking the MCAT before you are 110% prepared. You need As in those pre-reqs combined with months of study for the MCAT before you'll be ready. You also need to pull up the science gpa to realistically be competitive.

(Note: the numbers and info about derm is what I read in Desai's book "The Successful Match")

 

[asmallchild]

Sorry, locking.

I'll echo the advice above though. First things first, you'll need to get into medical school and these are the appropriate forums where you will get the best advice on how to get into medical school: Pre-Medical Forums | Student Doctor Network

Once you are a student, please feel free to peruse back and we would be happy to give you the best advice on how to best structure your med school curriculum to match into dermatology.

I do agree with the others that given how competitive dermatology is, you want to get into the most competitive medical school you can. You will also want to think very hard about whether it would be worthwhile to go through medical school in the event you don't match into dermatology. If derm is the only field you can see yourself in, I would recommend an alternate pathway like becoming an NP or PA.

If your mind is open to all fields in medicine (and are aware of the pros and cons of medicine), I don't think you would go wrong becoming an MD either.

Wishing you the best of luck