Schools with 30 year-old students??

[old_one]

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Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of applying to med schools right now.

I'm a "non-tradional" student (female, early 30's) and was trying to get stats on schools that have a relatively large number of older students. It's hard to find such stats....

Does anyone know which schools are known to have a lot of older students?

Thx! 😀

 

[gower]

Don't lose any sleep over that. All medical schools accept older applicants.

 

[Tim Duncan]

Originally posted by gower:
•Don't lose any sleep over that. All medical schools accept older applicants.•

Just be sure to apply before 40. That's when the subtle age discrimination starts to creep in for admissions.

 

[Cobragirl]

Honestly, I don't think that ANY medical schools have a "large" number of "older" students...but that's not necessarily because they don't WANT them! You have to remember that most people "our" age have already gone to college (or not) and have already begun to settle in their careers and/or family lives. Proportionally speaking, there are just a lot LESS of us applying in the over-30 (probably over-25 is more accurate) bracket, so naturally, less matriculate proportionally. My class has 6 people over 30 which works out to ~5% of the class, but there are 34 people (or ~32%) that are over 25...not too bad, I'd say.

As a general rule, the D.O. schools DO seem to have a larger number of older students (many have "average class age" of 25+) whereas most of the MD schools have average ages of 23-25. There are several books available at local books stores that have stats on all the med-school (MD & DO) that have age statistics in them.

PS- I'm 31 and a first year at a NOTORIOUSLY "young" school! 😀 Our "average age" this year is "almost" 23..... 🙄

 

[Future GI Guy]

I go to Mizzou, and starting out (out of 96), we had 3 men in their late 30's, 1 woman in her early 30's, and 1 woman in her early 40's.

That's about 7% non-traditional here, and there was never any problem with "fitting in." Perhaps the biggest problem for some of these students was a technological one; we have to present objectives, and knowing how to scan pics, or pluck them off the internet, that kind of thing, was foreign to the older students while being commonplace to those of us who started at age 22.

 

[mj]

Future -- This is good to hear. I'm in MO and have been concerned that Mizzou, my state school, with it's ripe old average age of 22, wouldn't take my officially over the hill tomorrow old geezer butt. I feel a little better now. If you have any other advice on Mizzou, please drop me a PM.

mj

 

[old_one]

Happy Birthday MJ! 😉

Thanks to everyone for giving your opinion.

Keep them coming! 😀

 

[pcl]

My class at CWRU has quite a few older students. I'm almost 26 and I don't feel old here, there are definitely people older than I am. Although there are quite a few people straight from undergrad, many did research or spent time doing other things before applying. There is one guy who got his PhD in the 80's...

 

[mj]

Thanks One!

 

[familydoc04]

Where ever you matriculate, you will likely be in a distinct minority starting as an over thirty year old. I turned thirty during my first month of school and was one of 4 people in my class 30+ out of 104. There are now a few others, but I would say that ~80% of my classmates were either 22 or 23 when they started at the University of Chicago.

 

[kd]

I think a lot depends on which school you attend. In my class of 60 at East Tennessee, we have a 50-year-old, a 43-year-old, and at least eight students I know in their 30's. Besides my school, some of the other schools with a sizable number of older students include MCP Hahnemann, Case, Vermont, Colorado, Med College Wisconsin, Oregon, Jefferson, and virtually all DO schools. My suggestion is to get the MSAR and check the average entering age for each school- if it's 25 or higher, chances are you'll find lots of fellow non-trads there.

 

[old_one]

Thanks to everyone for their comments! Keep them coming! 🙂

KD,
I saw that you mentioned Colorado. I was thinking of applying there. Does anyone know what the campus is like?? I've never been to the Rocky Mountains and was wondering if it in the "heart" of the Rockies?

Has anyone visited that particular campus?

 

[mj]

If memory serves me one, Colorado doesn't like out of staters. If you do make it in there as an outsider, tuition is like 50K. Ouch!

But the Rockies are wonderful -- this from a flatlander.

mj

 

[cjjtheriotMD]

In my class at Eastern Virginia (approx. 100) I can think of 3 students in their late 30s and at least 10 others in their early to mid thirties. Our average for matriculates is about 26. We also have a lot of younger, married students and parents as well. I have a 3 year old and have found EVMS to be extremely supportive of non-traditional students, in general. There are still enough single 22 year olds to make that group comfortable as well. All in all, a good place for a friendly, supportive atmosphere.

 

[Texas_Sam]

NYCOM has close to 50+ students that are non-traditional in there 2004 class. I don't know if this an osteopathic medical school trend or not but it seems like it might be.

 

[kris]

I'm 31 and just finished my second week of year 1. I think at U of Nebraska I'm the oldest female in my class, but there are around 10 of us older students (out of 120) I don't feel unwelcome or out of place, and I think that's the most important thing.

I worried about not having folks to relate to, I worried about being accepted into study groups, etc. What I've found is that I've already made some friends, and I have several folks that I can study with.

I chose this school largely based on the feel I got from the interview, and I pulled out of other, more prestigious schools for the same reason. I think I made the right choice.

No, I'm not up on all the music they listen to and I don't wear baby-tees, but I'm fitting in nonetheless.

As for schools in general that are particularly non-trad friendly, I've always been told that Case Western is a great one. I know two docs from Case, and both went on and on to me about what Case calls "the bent arrows" (the non-trads). One was a non-trad himself, the other was a straight arrow who was amazed that a nun was one of his classmates! 🙂

I think you'll find that you can be happy at many, many medical schools as a non-trad, but first and foremost you need to like the feel of the school.

Kris

 

[Johnboy]

Consider schools that also offer PA programs. While very small in terms of class size, these programs enroll mature students that might be easier to relate and connect to. John.

 

[cg1]

I might be wrong, but would it be safe to assume that the more prestgious ("ivy league type") schools have younger students?