Should I Click the Button? Very confused.

[DuckFeathers]

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Hi Guys,

Long, long time reader/lurker. I'll try to keep this short and brief.

I'm an OT and obtained my bachelor of neuroscience and then another bachelors in OT in Australia almost 20 years ago. I knew I wanted to follow a path of medicine but circumstances brought me to the US and the state I live in 15 years ago where I happily live today. In trying to keep my story short . . my husband encouraged me to follow the dream, and as a mom of 3 young kids, it was crazy and nutty but I returned back to my state school in 2015 and took all of the prerequisites and more, almost 18 classes total in 2 years including upper level science courses. Somehow with very little sleep I managed to maintain a 4.0 while balancing school, working part time as an OT, raising a family and doing a lot of volunteer work including working as a research assistant at the trauma I hospital downtown, working 1 night a week at the suicide prevention line, and many other things. The thing is, I kept chickening out and putting off the MCAT, in some ways it worked okay because I'm a hands-on mom and I was able to continue watching my kids grow, they're still young and I didn't want to miss out on that.

I finally wrote my MCAT a month ago and recently score back and somehow, I was basically studying for 1.5 years, I scored a 516 and regret not having submitted my application to AMCAS for verification earlier but I wanted to see the score first. My entire application is ready including PS. I have 3 very strong recommendation letters from the faculty committee of my school including two doctors at hospital I volunteered as a research assitant at, one of which is a professor at the medical school and I have a 4.0. So here's where I need some help . . . I am only applying to ONE medical school and its an MD school. I know, crazy. I can't uproot my family, we love where we live, I definitely can't move away and be away from them for 4 years so we decided that after all that work and time put in I'm only applying to ONE school. So do I:

1. Hit the button, the one school will only see the application mid-September I'm thinking. Am I messing up this opportunity by applying so late? Again its the only school I'm applying to and I'm 41 and I don't want to wait another year, I'm getting older. 🙂

2. Because of my age, am I better off waiting and applying right away next year?

Advice is greatly appreciated, thank you again for all your help and input.

 

[nontradmedman]

Click the button! Congrats!!!

 

[deleted634258]

First of all, congratulations on doing all those things simultaneously and kicking butt at them, as far as I can tell 🙂. Secondly, your age won't matter, if anything they'll see that you're very motivated (I, too, am a non-traditional student). Third and final, you have great grades and an MCAT score that is above average (I'm pretty sure even close to the 95th percentile), so I have the feeling that it all may just work out for you 🙂.

 

[daw05]

Please apply this year! You've done great so far, and I can't imagine a reason you couldn't get into some schools. As a fellow nontraditional, I believe your background only makes your application stronger.

Use the MSAR, pick schools that are around your range, your state schools, and some reaches - your background will help.

Beyond that, push that button today! you can add schools later, but get the verification process started.

 

[holdthemayo]

High GPA, High MCAT, Great EC, Interesting life experiences, Sexy accent... That's pretty much the perfect application.

It's not too late. Click submit right away to get everything verified. Post on the WAMC thread for help with your school list if you need it.

Good luck fellow Non-trad!

 

[MedicineN'Jazz]

Hi Guys,

Long, long time reader/lurker. I'll try to keep this short and brief.

I'm an OT and obtained my bachelor of neuroscience and then another bachelors in OT in Australia almost 20 years ago. I knew I wanted to follow a path of medicine but circumstances brought me to the US and the state I live in 15 years ago where I happily live today. In trying to keep my story short . . my husband encouraged me to follow the dream, and as a mom of 3 young kids, it was crazy and nutty but I returned back to my state school in 2015 and took all of the prerequisites and more, almost 18 classes total in 2 years including upper level science courses. Somehow with very little sleep I managed to maintain a 4.0 while balancing school, working part time as an OT, raising a family and doing a lot of volunteer work including working as a research assistant at the trauma I hospital downtown, working 1 night a week at the suicide prevention line, and many other things. The thing is, I kept chickening out and putting off the MCAT, in some ways it worked okay because I'm a hands-on mom and I was able to continue watching my kids grow, they're still young and I didn't want to miss out on that.

I finally wrote my MCAT a month ago and recently score back and somehow, I was basically studying for 1.5 years, I scored a 516 and regret not having submitted my application to AMCAS for verification earlier but I wanted to see the score first. My entire application is ready including PS. I have 3 very strong recommendation letters from the faculty committee of my school including two doctors at hospital I volunteered as a research assitant at, one of which is a professor at the medical school and I have a 4.0. So here's where I need some help . . . I am only applying to ONE medical school and its an MD school. I know, crazy. I can't uproot my family, we love where we live, I definitely can't move away and be away from them for 4 years so we decided that after all that work and time put in I'm only applying to ONE school. So do I:

1. Hit the button, the one school will only see the application mid-September I'm thinking. Am I messing up this opportunity by applying so late? Again its the only school I'm applying to and I'm 41 and I don't want to wait another year, I'm getting older. 🙂

2. Because of my age, am I better off waiting and applying right away next year?

Advice is greatly appreciated, thank you again for all your help and input.

I believe it’s not too late to apply Early Decision to that school. If you do that, you’ll be verified within a week, and may even get your acceptance letter the following month 😉

Congrats on your achievements. Now go press that big red button

 

[rdyotz]

It seems like you have a foreign bachelor's? Some schools do not look kindly upon foreign degrees, so I would check with the school you are applying to. Some schools do allow a certain amount of coursework taken within the US to count, so you might be fine, but I would double check before spending the money.

 

[MedicineN'Jazz]

It seems like you have a foreign bachelor's? Some schools do not look kindly upon foreign degrees, so I would check with the school you are applying to. Some schools do allow a certain amount of coursework taken within the US to count, so you might be fine, but I would double check before spending the money.

Good eye for pointing that out. OP should definitely give the admissions office a call

 

[deleted634258]

It seems like you have a foreign bachelor's? Some schools do not look kindly upon foreign degrees, so I would check with the school you are applying to. Some schools do allow a certain amount of coursework taken within the US to count, so you might be fine, but I would double check before spending the money.

Yes but she did do all her prerequisites in the US.

 

[MedicineN'Jazz]

Yes but she did do all her prerequisites in the US.

I know atleast one school (forgot the name) that doesn’t take non-US degrees. Post-baccs don’t count, but SMPs do.

 

[rdyotz]

Yes but she did do all her prerequisites in the US.

Like medicineNJazz said, it is school specific. Some only care about prereq, others want entire degrees from US, and others want upwards of 90 credits in the states. Some just require a Wes evaluation and then go case by case.

 

[DuckFeathers]

Thank you very much guys for your encouragement and advice! I pushed the button! To do all that work and apply to one school does feel crazy, but I'm hoping!

I didn't want to wait a year, but at the same time, upset that I waited this long, the AMCAS verification process might be longer with my application given that I have foreign degrees. I'm not sure.

 

[DuckFeathers]

I know atleast one school (forgot the name) that doesn’t take non-US degrees. Post-baccs don’t count, but SMPs do.

Yep, my state school accepts non-US degrees but does require that all of the pre-requisites (and there were a lot of them) be done in the US. I had to do a WES evaluation as well when I went and did the pre-requisites.

 

[drbatsandwich]

If you really have to apply to only one school, maybe you should do it early decision if possible! Congrats on the MCAT score, the rest of your application sounds great.

 

[Goro]

Hi Guys,

Long, long time reader/lurker. I'll try to keep this short and brief.

I'm an OT and obtained my bachelor of neuroscience and then another bachelors in OT in Australia almost 20 years ago. I knew I wanted to follow a path of medicine but circumstances brought me to the US and the state I live in 15 years ago where I happily live today. In trying to keep my story short . . my husband encouraged me to follow the dream, and as a mom of 3 young kids, it was crazy and nutty but I returned back to my state school in 2015 and took all of the prerequisites and more, almost 18 classes total in 2 years including upper level science courses. Somehow with very little sleep I managed to maintain a 4.0 while balancing school, working part time as an OT, raising a family and doing a lot of volunteer work including working as a research assistant at the trauma I hospital downtown, working 1 night a week at the suicide prevention line, and many other things. The thing is, I kept chickening out and putting off the MCAT, in some ways it worked okay because I'm a hands-on mom and I was able to continue watching my kids grow, they're still young and I didn't want to miss out on that.

I finally wrote my MCAT a month ago and recently score back and somehow, I was basically studying for 1.5 years, I scored a 516 and regret not having submitted my application to AMCAS for verification earlier but I wanted to see the score first. My entire application is ready including PS. I have 3 very strong recommendation letters from the faculty committee of my school including two doctors at hospital I volunteered as a research assitant at, one of which is a professor at the medical school and I have a 4.0. So here's where I need some help . . . I am only applying to ONE medical school and its an MD school. I know, crazy. I can't uproot my family, we love where we live, I definitely can't move away and be away from them for 4 years so we decided that after all that work and time put in I'm only applying to ONE school. So do I:

1. Hit the button, the one school will only see the application mid-September I'm thinking. Am I messing up this opportunity by applying so late? Again its the only school I'm applying to and I'm 41 and I don't want to wait another year, I'm getting older. 🙂

2. Because of my age, am I better off waiting and applying right away next year?

Advice is greatly appreciated, thank you again for all your help and input.

Go for it.