SLP to MD (but also prior MD dropout)

[Pseudonymous101]

Hi all, so my story is a little convoluted. I was previously accepted to medical school in 2007. Something happened in my life my first year that made me very depressed and anxious and I stopped going to class. I failed half my classes and the others I barely passed with a C, and I ended up dropping out halfway through MS1. I was very young (21) and did not handle my situation well in terms of asking for help early in the process, but at that time it was the best I knew how to do.

So, I dropped out and ended up taking my prereqs and going on to get my master's in Speech Language Pathology. I got straight As in my prerequisites and in grad school, and have been working in this field for 5 years. I love my job and my patients and do a little of both pediatric therapy and rehab with adults in a hospital setting.

Lately I have been thinking that I want to reapply to medical school as I still have a passion for medicine and doing what I do now only reinforces it. I want to have a wider and more specialized scope of practice. However, given my less than stellar grades in MS1 and subsequent academic probation/withdrawal I know I face some hurdles.

I am studying for the MCAT and hope to get a high enough score to get my foot in the door for interviews. Academically I feel I have proof of recovery thanks to my grad school grades.

Do you guys have any recommendations on what else to focus on and do before reapplying? I'm already 30, any advice/concerns regarding the timeline? I'd appreciate any advice and encouragement.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Crayola227]

seriously, just do something else, it isn't the Promised Land of Gold like people seem to think it is

if you can shake that, you'll be happier, I promise

 

[Pseudonymous101]

seriously, just do something else, it isn't the Promised Land of Gold like people seem to think it is

if you can shake that, you'll be happier, I promise

Hi, I respect your opinion and trust me, I have wavered in my decision to reapply. I like my job but it is also not the promised land. I doubt any job is (except panda hugger, I believe that is THE DREAM). In all seriousness, however, I am not reapplying because I believe it is the promised land. I am reapplying because I want to practice medicine. That's it. If I don't get in I'll be fine as I alreay have a career, which gives me security I did not have my first time around. Anyone else has helpful advice?

 

[Crayola227]

your dream is foolhardy for many reasons, so I'm wondering why you're stuck on it

believe me, the "why" is just as much a part of giving you advice to get back in, as when to schedule your MCAT or mission trip to Zimbabwe

seriously, it's going to be your personal story and how you sell it that has any chance of making a difference for you

I understand if you don't want to share so many personal deets your PS stands out of a stack, but if you want useful specific advice here you need to do better than what you've shared

so far you're just looking for what can be found in other threads for others just like you

 

[Pseudonymous101]

Hey Crayola, I am putting you on "ignore" as I am looking for helpful advice and encouragement. I don't know how else to say it other than I'm adult enough to make my own choices, I have given this due deliberation and thought, I know my own life and support network, and your replies are extremely condescending.

 

[DocJanItor]

I think your time would be better spent advancing your current or another career. I forget where the stats are located, but I believe that the number of people who re-matriculate to US MD schools in a given year is in the single digits.

This isn't a problem like fixing a poor undergraduate GPA or a bad MCAT. You've had your chance and, whether it's your fault or just life, it's gone. I'm not even sure an SMP would help you, or if they would even accept you. Even if you got a 528 on your MCAT, I don't think you'd even get in the door for an II once they see your previous coursework.

I'm sorry to be a downer as I usually try to encourage people even when their chances are slim. In your case, however, I think your chances are so small that spending time on it would only cause you undue stress and wasted money.

I think your only real option would be going to the Caribbean, and you should know that's not a good decision to make. If you survive school to get your MD there, getting a residency is still 50/50 (literally), plus you have a mountain of debt with sub-par opportunities.

Feel free to message me if you'd like to talk more. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I wouldn't want to lie to you.

 

[Crayola227]

lol, and telling me you're putting me on ignore after what I said, wasn't childish AND condescending
doesn't matter if OP will read this, others will

fact is, that just about any doc is going to have my reaction, so the point is, what can you say to such attitudes?

telling me what an adult you are while simultaneously putting fingers in your ears and saying "la la la" at the first sign of
-*gasp*-
condenscension from a doctor?

good luck OP, I tried, I actually did, to either save you from yourself or help you dodge your most obvious hurdles
I foresee your attitude will get you far without my help

 

[Pseudonymous101]

I think your time would be better spent advancing your current or another career. I forget where the stats are located, but I believe that the number of people who re-matriculate to US MD schools in a given year is in the single digits.

This isn't a problem like fixing a poor undergraduate GPA or a bad MCAT. You've had your chance and, whether it's your fault or just life, it's gone. I'm not even sure an SMP would help you, or if they would even accept you. Even if you got a 528 on your MCAT, I don't think you'd even get in the door for an II once they see your previous coursework.

I'm sorry to be a downer as I usually try to encourage people even when their chances are slim. In your case, however, I think your chances are so small that spending time on it would only cause you undue stress and wasted money.

I think your only real option would be going to the Caribbean, and you should know that's not a good decision to make. If you survive school to get your MD there, getting a residency is still 50/50 (literally), plus you have a mountain of debt with sub-par opportunities.

Feel free to message me if you'd like to talk more. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I wouldn't want to lie to you.

Yeah I am aware my chances are small and like I said before, if it doesn't work out I'll be fine. I have a job. I was in fact just planning to apply to nearby schools as I don't plan on upheaving my current life entirely to do so, so I am limiting this path to whether or not this limited number of schools accepts me. I'll look i to those stats you mentioned, I am curious to see them. Do you mind telling me what your current role is?

 

[DocJanItor]

I'm an M1 at a very nice east coast MD school. I took me 3 years, $70k in tuition, and lost earning potential to get into med school after earning a solid 2.5 uGPA 12 years ago. Stories like mine aren't particularly rare, but most of them end in failure. The average med student in my class is 24, the oldest is 39 (veteran). Other than the vet, I'm probably the oldest and almost definitely had the worst grades.

You may want to read through this thread (that Crayola also participated in) regarding a someone who dropped out and wanted to re-apply. While he was particularly self-righteous, rude, and unrealistic, the advice he got was on point. Edit: forgot the link
Need advice. Would you do this?

If you're not going Carib (smart), then the only shot you may have is a post-bacc/SMP with linkage. If you can get in and kill it, then you'll at least get your foot in the door for an interview. And even then they may consider you too great a risk. If you apply without it, I don't think there's anyway from getting your app auto-rejected before human eyes even look at it.

 

[Pseudonymous101]

Yeah, I'll take all that into account. Thanks for the info, I wish you well in your next 4 years.

 

[WGSgrad]

lol, and telling me you're putting me on ignore after what I said, wasn't childish AND condescending
doesn't matter if OP will read this, others will

fact is, that just about any doc is going to have my reaction, so the point is, what can you say to such attitudes?

telling me what an adult you are while simultaneously putting fingers in your ears and saying "la la la" at the first sign of
-*gasp*-
condenscension from a doctor?

good luck OP, I tried, I actually did, to either save you from yourself or help you dodge your most obvious hurdles
I foresee your attitude will get you far without my help

To be fair to the OP, you didn't indicate in any of your posts, in this thread, that you are a practicing physician, your profile doesn't have any badges that would indicate that this is the case, and your join date is only "2+ years." There is a chance that they assumed you were just a well meaning premed with as little "real" knowledge as they have and wanted to hear from others with more experience in the admissions process. I am not attempting to act in support or against any part of this interaction...I'm just saying, without knowing that you are a physician, the OP was warranted to take your advice, and any advice, with a bit of salt.

 

[WGSgrad]

OP, as another poster mentioned, an SMP at a DO school might be your best bet if you can get your foot in the door. I know Goro has said candidates with your profile would be DOA at their school. Is there a DO program with an SMP any reasonable distance from you? It seems like your only chance is to get face time with someone and convince them that you are worth the risk.

 

[Pseudonymous101]

To be fair to the OP, you didn't indicate in any of your posts, in this thread, that you are a practicing physician, your profile doesn't have any badges that would indicate that this is the case, and your join date is only "2+ years." There is a chance that they assumed you were just a well meaning premed with as little "real" knowledge as they have and wanted to hear from others with more experience in the admissions process. I am not attempting to act in support or against any part of this interaction...I'm just saying, without knowing that you are a physician, the OP was warranted to take your advice, and any advice, with a bit of salt.

Honestly it was the tone that bothered me because I am going to assume this is a reply to the poster I set on "ignore." I'll stand by that.

 

[Pseudonymous101]

OP, as another poster mentioned, an SMP at a DO school might be your best bet if you can get your foot in the door. I know Goro has said candidates with your profile would be DO at their school. Is there a DO program with an SMP any reasonable distance from you? It seems like your only chance is to get face time with someone and convince them that you are worth the risk.

Yes. I kept in contact with my advisor at my old MD program after I withdrew. She knows the situation and is aware of the steps I took to recover from my depressive episode and go onto grad school and Plan B career successfully. Given the work I do now I do have local contacts who can hopefully get me at the very least considered. I was hoping for advice regarding extra steps to take, but am aware my situation is very unique and it is a crapshoot regardless, especially since I am limiting myself to my area. I am shooting for an MCAT score that would be difficult to ignore, and may not apply unless I get it.

 

[WGSgrad]

Yes. I kept in contact with my advisor at my old MD program after I withdrew. She knows the situation and is aware of the steps I took to recover from my depressive episode and go onto grad school and Plan B career successfully. Given the work I do now I do have local contacts who can hopefully get me at the very least considered. I was hoping for advice regarding extra steps to take, but am aware my situation is very ukique and it is a crapshoot regardless.

I "liked" your post for the underlined.

Given your situation, you might need to reach out to folks directly. As long as you are prepared to hear the "You shouldn't do this...you should never do this...this is a horrible idea..." and can make it to the "...but if your going to do it anyway..." then I think you'll get solid advice. Your situation is not enviable and I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Pseudonymous101]

I "liked" your post for the underlined.

Given your situation, you might need to reach out to folks directly. As long as you are prepared to hear the "You shouldn't do this...you should never do this...this is a horrible idea..." and can make it to the "...but if your going to do it anyway..." then I think you'll get solid advice. Your situation is not enviable and I wish you the best of luck.

It's not enviable or ideal in terms of MD admission but I do have a current career I can continue with if things don't work out, which puts me ahead of most undergrads. Don't feel too bad for me.

I will try to grow my current network of people who might counsel me and help me at the school at which I am looking specifically, that is good advice. Thank you!

 

[operaman]

I think your only reasonable shot would come through personal connections, either from your original school or from a school affiliated with your current institution. If you're not currently working at such an institution, that's another thing you could do to help give you a shot. You seem to clearly grasp what a long shot this is, so I won't belabor that point.

The point I will add is this: ms1 was far and away one of the easiest years of this whole endeavor. Not only were other years in medical school harder, but residency is an entirely different set of challenges. These things have a well known history of pushing people with well controlled mental illness over the edge. Even in my relatively brief tenure, and at a medical school and residency that are extremely supportive, I've personally seen the process break rather brilliant friends of mine.

I know this is all quite personal and obviously no need to share details in such a public forum, but I would strongly encourage you to consider how the possibility that even if you get in, you would repeat what happened the last time. Seven years or more is a long time and surely other extraneous stressors will hit you, plus the school and residency stress will only increase after the first year.

The other caveat is that with your past history, you would be carrying a huge red flag into your residency application as well. I think a lot of programs would be hesitant to take such a risk on a new resident. Even without the details, your story screams mental illness or substance abuse, and nothing you can do or say will obscure that from future PDs. In a practical sense, this would cut off many potential fields and most desired programs within any field.

So, to recap, it's a long shot to get in, a high chance of failure even if it works, and highly limited residency selection basically relegating you to a tiny handful of noncompetitive fields and programs. Sorry to put it so bluntly, but I thought it worth raising the issue of how you'll manage if you do somehow manage to get back in.

 

[Crayola227]

this person was also quite quick with the ignore function, if they had tolerated a little saltiness, had taken note of my post count, like count, previous posts, interaction with other users, or really anything....

there were points, although buried:

this person really needs to maximize their reading on all threads about:
1) mental illness and all stages of a medical career
2) people who have dropped out of medical school and tried to make it back
3) all other significant points of struggle that can occur further down the line (didactics, Step 1, clinical rotations, the Match, residency training)
4) consider not only the practice of clinical medicine but careers one might be stuck with, with an MD and no clinical training
5) consider if fields such as FM & psych would be better than they are now. Path/rads might be possible but would not have as much patient contact as they have right now
6) consider age, ability, money, family values

7) there are a lot of careers that help people directly and clinically. Medicine is not only a calling, it is a medicolegaleconomic responsibility that puts you as a unit of production, producing ground meat out of human beings in your speed to to treat n' street. So this person needs to not only find a sufficient answer to, "Why medicine?" and "why you?" that EVERY SINGLE DOCTOR must face and articulate in the context of full AMCAS-tastic figures about themself, but in the context of a past failure, "Why after you failed?" and, "Why didn't you want it the first time? why do you want it now? why do you want it more than SLP? why should it be you and not someone who never failed? Beyond why you want this, what makes you essential to the practice of medicine? Why should patients not try to live without you?"

The fact the failure was due to not ONLY mental health - but more concerning to me, not having a firm sense of self wanting this career early on, I need to know that immature concerns like a lack of sense of self, unrealistic expectations about the career, and undue pressure from family are not still at work in some fashion. How do I know they really want it this time, that they really are prepared for what it will take, what it will be like in the endzone?

Telling me what is WRONG with your app, then not being willing to convince me why you should be helped, oddly enough creates a situation where you cannot be helped. It's not just that you need to somehow convince me that you are deserving of the help for me to help you, it's that the entire exercise is really the only chance you have, which is zero, but if I were going to write a significant novella on what someone in the worst possible situation could do, I would need to know what the situation is.

If you don't have the right sort of story to tell the most bleeding heart doctor on this forum to pull some heartstrings, you are sunk. If your mental health makes you flunk out of med school, you will need more than a GPA correction to fix that.

If you are not willing to attend any accredited school in this country* (*in this country!) - ??

Hopefully everything I said was more instructional for why I took my tone, and what could actually be addressed by someone set on this task. The hurdles are high and numbers and checkboxing can't do it.

TLDR:
Now, admittedly, I didn't lead with, "I'm the most bitter and bleeding heart doc here, tell me why this is worth a novella for a lost case"
The truth is, I was grumpy. Because there's a novella that can be said on what ANYONE coming to medicine needs to address, anyone that has MH challenges, that has failures, that is changing careers. When your app is beyond all hope, it will only be the interpersonal element that has a chance to save it, and I don't just mean your sob story or who you know at the state school.

 

[WGSgrad]

this person was also quite quick with the ignore function, if they had tolerated a little saltiness, had taken note of my post count, like count, previous posts, interaction with other users, or really anything....

there were points, although buried:

this person really needs to maximize their reading on all threads about:
1) mental illness and all stages of a medical career
2) people who have dropped out of medical school and tried to make it back
3) all other significant points of struggle that can occur further down the line (didactics, Step 1, clinical rotations, the Match, residency training)
4) consider not only the practice of clinical medicine but careers one might be stuck with, with an MD and no clinical training
5) consider if fields such as FM & psych would be better than they are now. Path/rads might be possible but would not have as much patient contact as they have right now
6) consider age, ability, money, family values

7) there are a lot of careers that help people directly and clinically. Medicine is not only a calling, it is a medicolegaleconomic responsibility that puts you as a unit of production, producing ground meat out of human beings in your speed to to treat n' street. So this person needs to not only find a sufficient answer to, "Why medicine?" and "why you?" that EVERY SINGLE DOCTOR must face and articulate in the context of full AMCAS-tastic figures about themself, but in the context of a past failure, "Why after you failed?" and, "Why didn't you want it the first time? why do you want it now? why do you want it more than SLP? why should it be you and not someone who never failed? Beyond why you want this, what makes you essential to the practice of medicine? Why should patients not try to live without you?"

The fact the failure was due to not ONLY mental health - but more concerning to me, not having a firm sense of self wanting this career early on, I need to know that immature concerns like a lack of sense of self, unrealistic expectations about the career, and undue pressure from family are not still at work in some fashion. How do I know they really want it this time, that they really are prepared for what it will take, what it will be like in the endzone?

Telling me what is WRONG with your app, then not being willing to convince me why you should be helped, oddly enough creates a situation where you cannot be helped. It's not just that you need to somehow convince me that you are deserving of the help for me to help you, it's that the entire exercise is really the only chance you have, which is zero, but if I were going to write a significant novella on what someone in the worst possible situation could do, I would need to know what the situation is.

If you don't have the right sort of story to tell the most bleeding heart doctor on this forum to pull some heartstrings, you are sunk. If your mental health makes you flunk out of med school, you will need more than a GPA correction to fix that.

If you are not willing to attend any accredited school in this country* (*in this country!) - ??

Hopefully everything I said was more instructional for why I took my tone, and what could actually be addressed by someone set on this task. The hurdles are high and numbers and checkboxing can't do it.

TLDR:
Now, admittedly, I didn't lead with, "I'm the most bitter and bleeding heart doc here, tell me why this is worth a novella for a lost case"
The truth is, I was grumpy. Because there's a novella that can be said on what ANYONE coming to medicine needs to address, anyone that has MH challenges, that has failures, that is changing careers. When your app is beyond all hope, it will only be the interpersonal element that has a chance to save it, and I don't just mean your sob story or who you know at the state school.

I like you. You're reflexive and honest.

These are all really great points.

OP, you might consider taking Crayola off ignore at least to read this post...

 

[gyngyn]

Many schools do not consider previous matriculants. Check with the ones you are considering.
Any school that considers a previous matriculant will surely contact your original school for details on the dismissal. What are they likely to say?
Your medical school grades will be available for consideration.
Other graduate grades will have little effect.

 

[Goro]

Hi all, so my story is a little convoluted. I was previously accepted to medical school in 2007. Something happened in my life my first year that made me very depressed and anxious and I stopped going to class. I failed half my classes and the others I barely passed with a C, and I ended up dropping out halfway through MS1. I was very young (21) and did not handle my situation well in terms of asking for help early in the process, but at that time it was the best I knew how to do.

So, I dropped out and ended up taking my prereqs and going on to get my master's in Speech Language Pathology. I got straight As in my prerequisites and in grad school, and have been working in this field for 5 years. I love my job and my patients and do a little of both pediatric therapy and rehab with adults in a hospital setting.

Lately I have been thinking that I want to reapply to medical school as I still have a passion for medicine and doing what I do now only reinforces it. I want to have a wider and more specialized scope of practice. However, given my less than stellar grades in MS1 and subsequent academic probation/withdrawal I know I face some hurdles.

I am studying for the MCAT and hope to get a high enough score to get my foot in the door for interviews. Academically I feel I have proof of recovery thanks to my grad school grades.

Do you guys have any recommendations on what else to focus on and do before reapplying? I'm already 30, any advice/concerns regarding the timeline? I'd appreciate any advice and encouragement.

Very sorry to hear of your woes, but you'd be DOA at my school and others. You had your chance and it's best to not look back.

 

[atomi]

Hey Crayola, I am putting you on "ignore" as I am looking for helpful advice and encouragement. I don't know how else to say it other than I'm adult enough to make my own choices, I have given this due deliberation and thought, I know my own life and support network, and your replies are extremely condescending.

Are you serious?

You need some insight, a lot of insight.

Life happens to everybody. Saying that something bad happened and you failed out because of that is not good enough. As an "adult" you are expected to be able to handle all the awful things that can happen to human beings and not have to forfeit your career. Whatever went on, you screwed up. Schools give LOAs all the time for messy personal situations. Why didn't you take one? What will happen when you have a family emergency during MS1 again? These are questions you will be expected to answer.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but having failed out of med school previously is an enormous red flag -- probably the biggest one there is.
You've got a decade of time in your favor to tell a convincing story, but your comments and attitudes here suggest that you likely may be headed for the same trouble.

You need to have very, very thick skin to make it as a non-trad in medicine. Right now it seems like a swift breeze would bruise you up and down. You'll need to work on that.

 

[Goro]

Hey Crayola, I am putting you on "ignore" as I am looking for helpful advice and encouragement. I don't know how else to say it other than I'm adult enough to make my own choices, I have given this due deliberation and thought, I know my own life and support network, and your replies are extremely condescending.

People come to SDN get realistic advice, not hugs and kisses. The "rah rah, you can do it!" Pollyannas are doing you no favors.

 

[Crayola227]

My heart is bleeding for anyone that doesn't get the chance to perform direct patient care in the healthcare field with some degree of autonomy.

Thing is, if your ego isn't involved at all, and it's more about what you *do* for patients, not any social, financial, political, etc recognition, there are several clinical careers to consider when the "almighty" MD is off the table.

I remember being asked what I would do had I *not* gotten into medical school, at my med school interviews and in essays. I remember what drove me then, and continues to drive me now.

Money and prestige are crappy reasons to go into medicine, even when you like wiping patient ass (all sorts of MDs still end up doing that in the OR or on rounds/clinic) and don't sweat writing 20 patient care notes a day, plus a thousand other ways your time is sucked away from what actually makes a difference. Money and prestige just offset the total suck that the modern medical establishment can put between you and your passion for tending the ill. They are tasty bits of candy, they are not the daily food sustaining your soul.

So assuming you're doing this for the only reason that it makes sense for anyone to do it, you are *addicted* to medical science, placing healing hands on the sick (addicted: continued pursuit in the face of increasing harms), and you're willing to put your every need aside on an almost daily basis to do it, (things like where you live, going to the last 2 Christmases you know Dad has left [I ****ing **** you not], thirst, urination, sleep, sex, your youth [you are always younger when you start your medical career than you are as you go], etc etc),

you can hit that sweet crackpipe of some somewhat autonomous clinical decision-making in other care fields that have their own ratios of suck/not suck and difficulties of pursuing.

Nursing
Podiatry
Care facility work
Adult foster care

These were all on my list for clinical. Because getting to hold someone's hand, use some medical science, and get close enough to "sniff" the patients, as @Goro would say, is enough for me. If it's not enough for someone looking to get back into med school a *second* time, then again, I question what they are really hoping to gain by the degree.

Education was also on my non-clinical list, but since doctor is Latin for teacher, I sorta think this should be on every doc's list to some extent. Teaching duties were included in the Oath of Geneva, anyway.

TLDR:
Clinical decision making, some autonomy, altruism, helping patients directly through health & education, essentially the soul food of medicine, can be found in other fields if you can't live without it. The MD has the most responsibility and autonomy, and that is as much curse as blessing.

I'm trying to share *one* POV that might help someone get the meat of what is satisfying about any service career, and possibly see that the "MD or bust" attitude is one that can be discarded when it becomes too onerous.

 

[operaman]

My heart is bleeding for anyone that doesn't get the chance to perform direct patient care in the healthcare field with some degree of autonomy.

Thing is, if your ego isn't involved at all, and it's more about what you *do* for patients, not any social, financial, political, etc recognition, there are several clinical careers to consider when the "almighty" MD is off the table.

I remember being asked what I would do had I *not* gotten into medical school, at my med school interviews and in essays. I remember what drove me then, and continues to drive me now.

Money and prestige are crappy reasons to go into medicine, even when you like wiping patient ass (all sorts of MDs still end up doing that in the OR or on rounds/clinic) and don't sweat writing 20 patient care notes a day, plus a thousand other ways your time is sucked away from what actually makes a difference. Money and prestige just offset the total suck that the modern medical establishment can put between you and your passion for tending the ill. They are tasty bits of candy, they are not the daily food sustaining your soul.

So assuming you're doing this for the only reason that it makes sense for anyone to do it, you are *addicted* to medical science, placing healing hands on the sick (addicted: continued pursuit in the face of increasing harms), and you're willing to put your every need aside on an almost daily basis to do it, (things like where you live, going to the last 2 Christmases you know Dad has left [I ****ing **** you not], thirst, urination, sleep, sex, your youth [you are always younger when you start your medical career than you are as you go], etc etc),

you can hit that sweet crackpipe of some somewhat autonomous clinical decision-making in other care fields that have their own ratios of suck/not suck and difficulties of pursuing.

Nursing
Podiatry
Care facility work
Adult foster care

These were all on my list for clinical. Because getting to hold someone's hand, use some medical science, and get close enough to "sniff" the patients, as @Goro would say, is enough for me. If it's not enough for someone looking to get back into med school a *second* time, then again, I question what they are really hoping to gain by the degree.

Education was also on my non-clinical list, but since doctor is Latin for teacher, I sorta think this should be on every doc's list to some extent. Teaching duties were included in the Oath of Geneva, anyway.

TLDR:
Clinical decision making, some autonomy, altruism, helping patients directly through health & education, essentially the soul food of medicine, can be found in other fields if you can't live without it. The MD has the most responsibility and autonomy, and that is as much curse as blessing.

I'm trying to share *one* POV that might help someone get the meat of what is satisfying about any service career, and possibly see that the "MD or bust" attitude is one that can be discarded when it becomes too onerous.

Perhaps one of my favorite posts ever made on SDN.

Seriously. Brava, well said.

 

[Crayola227]

Perhaps one of my favorite posts ever made on SDN.

Seriously. Brava, well said.

Your words mean more to me than I can say, thank you.

 

[WGSgrad]

I'm trying to share *one* POV that might help someone get the meat of what is satisfying about any service career, and possibly see that the "MD or bust" attitude is one that can be discarded when it becomes too onerous.

Great post.

I don't know the OP and the following opinions are mine and mine alone...but one reason I think the MD/DO degree is important besides ego is the legitimacy it extends folks who do advocacy work. I live in Philadelphia, city of medical schools, and the change in "access" and the ability to advocate on behalf of marginalized populations looks a lot different when you have an MD/DO behind your name...especially as a woman of color. It extends a "legitimacy" to the work that you do and "credibility" to you as a "knower" that isn't extend in those other professions...

And I say this as an adult, who has done tons of poorly paid non-profit work who has an older cousin who is a podiatrist trying to become an NP for this reason (she is in her late forties, with a family, and it's just a much easier path at this point that getting an MD/DO).

 

[whatwhy]

This is an interesting thread. I've never really heard about anyone dropping out and coming back. My initial thought is that it could go two ways: he had his chance and blew it, or he made it in once and schools would recognize that and give him another chance (if he had a valid reason for leaving). Guess it's the first one, though, according to everyone here.