Same old, same old... except...

[Anam Cara]

My undergrad major was Philosophy. GPA 2.6. Did a graduate program in religion. Not much better at 3.1

I have not taken any of the premed prerequisites, and am considering doing the required course work at the local state university. Money is a consideration, and my spouse believes in me (yadda yadda yadda), but I don't want to be a jerk and put our lives on hold for 2 years only to not get accepted.

So my grades, frankly, suck. But my life experience is helpful. As an ordained clergy person who has since grad school had extensive clinical training as a healthcare chaplain (check out www.acpe.edu and www.professionalchaplains.org if you care to see the mental bootcamp they run us through, and also, as future docs, to gain an appreciation of your spiritual care providers). I have accompanied many people in their living and dying at the hospital, have assisted physicians at family meetings wherein we've discussed care goals, and have served on bioethics committees.

Now, I'm one of those folks who put the doctor dream on the back burner as a young person for all the wrong reasons. My desire is to enlarge my service to people/communities as a family medicine physician. My first choice of medical school is very much into educating students who might go into primary care specialties... especially family medicine, and especially in a rural setting. This is right up my alley.

So is it foolish to invest several thousand dollars and a year or two to do the pre-med work? Do I have the proverbial snowball's chance?

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[Disinence2]

Hey,

It sounds like with your past experience you are a prime candidate for some medical schools. If being a doctor is your dream, then go for it. If you can ace your pre-med classes, and do well on the MCAT then some schools will be able to overlook your past poor performance.

There is a forum for other non-traditional applicants, and it never hurts to write an e-mail to the office of admissions of a few schools to get their feedback.

One school you will want to look at is Michigan State University, both the MD and DO programs seem like they could be a great fit for you.

 

[Mobius1985]

I think you have a chance, but I'd suggest you put your efforts into gaining admission at an osteopathic medical school, as they are more forgiving of past academic mediocrity. Here's why:

MD (allopathic med) schools will judge you primarily by your undergrad GPA. The graduate degree isn't included in their calculations. You would need to raise your uGPA into a competitive range. If you got another degree taking 120 hours of classes, and got straight As, your cummulative GPA for admissions purposes would still only be a 3.3. This might get you an admission if you got an MCAT score of 33-34. This path could take you four plus years (gap year included).

DO (osteopathic) medical schools include the graduate work in your application GPA. (I'd grossly estimate you might be at 2.76, if the grad degree took two years.) They also practice grade forgiveness if you repeat a class, using only the most recent retake in their calculation. Additionally, there are some DO schools that will accept an application GPA as low as 2.75. You might want to figure your current GPA using this DO GPA calculation spreadsheet: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=450050
If your GPA is low, you'd be expected to have a compensatory higher MCAT score to get an acceptance. I also think you'd need near-perfect grades in your prerequisite courses to reassure adcomms that you have what it takes to succeed in their science-heavy curriculum. You might want to start out with one science class and get your toe wet (academically-speaking) and adjust your study skills to a different type of class than what you're used to. This path might take 2-3 years.


All that said, I think you'd be an amazing applicant with your unique skill/experience set. If you are determined and can get the necessary grades and test scores, I think there is a reasonable chance of admission somewhere.


Here is a link to the requirements of all DO schools: http://www.aacom.org/resources/bookstore/cib/Documents/cib2009/2009_CIB_web.pdf

Consider also posting in the pre-osteo forum "What are my chances?" thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=596702