So here's where I'm at, constructive input will be appreciated

[medictim84]

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Ok so SDN decided to erase my post when I tried to submit it so this is going to be extremely short. If you want more info ask for it, I'm not spending another 20 min writing a detailed explanation just so it can potentially be erased again.

Basically, I'm planning to apply to med school but I want to take a break from college and everything in general for 3 years or so and work as a paramedic in the meantime. I'm just going to finish up my undergrad and not take anymore pre-reqs since they may "expire" by the time I apply anyway.

I've taken gen chem 1 (A), gen chem 2 (A), calc 1 (A), calc 2 (B), upper division systemic physiology (B+) and bio 1 (A) so far. I plan to take the biology, physics and organic chemistry series at CSU East Bay (only 20 min drive, probably closer than a CC anyway) when I decide I'm done with my break and I want to apply for med school. What classes do you recommend taking outside of the required pre-reqs? What classes do you wish you'd taken if you're currently a med student or beyond?

As far as the rest of my app goes, overall and science GPA is 3.8. I'll take the MCAT after my pre-reqs so I don't have a score yet. I have no LORs...I plan to get 3 from profs when I take the pre-reqs and I'll also get one from my lead paramedic instructor and probably my employer also. Shadowing I've done as a byproduct of my clinical time in the hospital so far for my paramedic program. Clinical experience and leadership will be enormous as a result of working as a paramedic. Volunteering I haven't done much with...7 months in a hospital and on an as-needed basis currently as a divemaster. I haven't done any research and currently have no plans to unless I happen to find a econ prof researching health care since that might be interesting. As far as ECs go, my main one is scuba diving...I love it too much to have an interest in any other EC but I also like sky diving.

Does this plan sound reasonable? Will waiting to get LORs until I take my pre-reqs from CSU East Bay be a good idea since I'll have been out of UC Davis for at least 3 years? With a competitive MCAT and my GPA, will my lack of 5 billion hours of volunteering and no research prevent me from getting in anywhere you think?

I don't have much love for resume padding so I'm not interested in doing something simply for that purpose...I'm ok with that resulting in a weaker application as long as I get in somewhere. If I have to apply a few times, fine, I'll be making 70K/yr as a medic on top of my fiancee's 75K/yr with her job as an engineer so I don't really mind the cost of applying more than once.

 

[hoot504]

If you apply to med school with a 3.8 gpa, a decent mcat, and 3 years of experience as a paramedic, you will definitely get an acceptance somewhere. Whether it's a top 10 or not probably depends on the mcat. You're plan sounds good to me

 

[futureboy]

pre-reqs since they may "expire" by the time I apply anyway.

I don't believe prereqs expire.

 

[medictim84]

If you apply to med school with a 3.8 gpa, a decent mcat, and 3 years of experience as a paramedic, you will definitely get an acceptance somewhere. Whether it's a top 10 or not probably depends on the mcat. You're plan sounds good to me

Fair enough. I would prefer a CA school but yeah honestly I'm not too hung up on where the acceptance is since I obviously wouldn't apply somewhere that I wouldn't be at least content going to school at and living there for 4 years. Thanks for the input.

I don't believe prereqs expire.

Well, here's the thing..depending on the school they don't yet if your pre-reqs are say 5-6 years old it's going to raise some red flags. First of all, the information you learned, especially if it was biology, is out of date. Secondly, the MCAT /does/ expire (is it 3 years? I don't remember..) and it does require the information from the pre-reqs so it helps to have taken it recently. I put expire in quotes because it kind of does and kind of doesn't...I think some schools have an unofficial preference that you took the pre-reqs within the last 5 years. Take it with a grain of salt since you probably won't find it in writing on any school's web site.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Well, here's the thing..depending on the school they don't yet if your pre-reqs are say 5-6 years old it's going to raise some red flags. First of all, the information you learned, especially if it was biology, is out of date. Secondly, the MCAT /does/ expire (is it 3 years? I don't remember..) and it does require the information from the pre-reqs so it helps to have taken it recently. I put expire in quotes because it kind of does and kind of doesn't...I think some schools have an unofficial preference that you took the pre-reqs within the last 5 years. Take it with a grain of salt since you probably won't find it in writing on any school's web site.

It won't raise any flags. There are people who apply to med school at age 40 who get in every year who took the pre reqs almost 20 years ago. If your MCAT is good, they're not going to care when the pre-reqs were taken, therefore you might as well just pay for a prep course rather than re-take all the pre-reqs.

 

[medictim84]

It won't raise any flags. There are people who apply to med school at age 40 who get in every year who took the pre reqs almost 20 years ago. If your MCAT is good, they're not going to care when the pre-reqs were taken, therefore you might as well just pay for a prep course rather than re-take all the pre-reqs.

Then I wonder if it would be to my advantage to purposefully delay graduating from Davis while I'm still an undergrad student and complete these courses?

It's looking like I'll be 5 classes shy of graduating at the end of the spring quarter and I'm just going to focus on getting my paramedic job first before finishing up school. The kicker is that the ambulance company I want to get on with only hires part-time so I will be able to do school full-time to start so it won't be a conflict once I have my medic job.

I wonder how it'll look though on my transcript if it took me 6-7 years to get my undergrad degree. It'll be quite obvious I took time off to finish paramedic school after trying to do both at the same time and I could have finished sooner than I did. Wouldn't it be better to graduate now to avoid such a problem? Or will that not be an issue?

 

[tallandshort]

Ok so SDN decided to erase my post when I tried to submit it so this is going to be extremely short. If you want more info ask for it, I'm not spending another 20 min writing a detailed explanation just so it can potentially be erased again.

Basically, I'm planning to apply to med school but I want to take a break from college and everything in general for 3 years or so and work as a paramedic in the meantime. I'm just going to finish up my undergrad and not take anymore pre-reqs since they may "expire" by the time I apply anyway.

I've taken gen chem 1 (A), gen chem 2 (A), calc 1 (A), calc 2 (B), upper division systemic physiology (B+) and bio 1 (A) so far. I plan to take the biology, physics and organic chemistry series at CSU East Bay (only 20 min drive, probably closer than a CC anyway) when I decide I'm done with my break and I want to apply for med school. What classes do you recommend taking outside of the required pre-reqs? What classes do you wish you'd taken if you're currently a med student or beyond?

As far as the rest of my app goes, overall and science GPA is 3.8. I'll take the MCAT after my pre-reqs so I don't have a score yet. I have no LORs...I plan to get 3 from profs when I take the pre-reqs and I'll also get one from my lead paramedic instructor and probably my employer also. Shadowing I've done as a byproduct of my clinical time in the hospital so far for my paramedic program. Clinical experience and leadership will be enormous as a result of working as a paramedic. Volunteering I haven't done much with...7 months in a hospital and on an as-needed basis currently as a divemaster. I haven't done any research and currently have no plans to unless I happen to find a econ prof researching health care since that might be interesting. As far as ECs go, my main one is scuba diving...I love it too much to have an interest in any other EC but I also like sky diving.

Does this plan sound reasonable? Will waiting to get LORs until I take my pre-reqs from CSU East Bay be a good idea since I'll have been out of UC Davis for at least 3 years? With a competitive MCAT and my GPA, will my lack of 5 billion hours of volunteering and no research prevent me from getting in anywhere you think?

I don't have much love for resume padding so I'm not interested in doing something simply for that purpose...I'm ok with that resulting in a weaker application as long as I get in somewhere. If I have to apply a few times, fine, I'll be making 70K/yr as a medic on top of my fiancee's 75K/yr with her job as an engineer so I don't really mind the cost of applying more than once.

I think you have a pretty good plan. Taking your biology, physics, and o-chem sequences (make sure you take the lab too, some schools require it) sounds good since you will want to take your MCAT near when you will be applying (it expires like mentioned above). You'll probably be a little rusty in gen chemistry by then but since you did well in it, it shouldn't be too bad for you.

I would advise at least one shadowing experience since as a paramedic you will get lots of clinical time but not necessarily time spent seeing all the ins and outs of the lives of physicians, but I don't think it will at all kill your application if you don't do it.

For your LORs, be careful. Many students that take time off between undergrad and applying to med school don't get the recs they need to satisfy med school requirements and don't find out until they're applying several years after graduating from college (they can't just easily get new LORs from professors at that point). You should get at least 2 science professors, 1 non-science professor, and 1 non-academic. Some schools require one of the science professors to be from a biology/physics/chemistry field, and other schools require one of your recs to be from a professor in your major. I would suggest getting some LORs ahead of time and not waiting and counting on your pre-req professors. I just say this because what if you don't get along great with them and then you're **** out of luck because you already graduated. At least get the non-science before you graduate.

Research is great and if you find something you're interested in then I would suggest doing it, but if you wouldn't be genuinely interested then spend your time on another EC that you would enjoy. If you don't do research, it's not going to hurt you except perhaps at very research-heavy med schools. But if you don't want to do undergrad research you probably wouldn't want to attend a research-heavy med school anyway.

As far as additional classes I would suggest biochemistry and statistics (some schools are requiring these or highly recommending them now), psychology, hmmm...can't think of any more at the moment.

I would suggest doing some more ECs whether they are volunteering or other hobbies, etc. Again, whatever interests you. I wish you the best of luck!

 

[tallandshort]

Then I wonder if it would be to my advantage to purposefully delay graduating from Davis while I'm still an undergrad student and complete these courses?

It's looking like I'll be 5 classes shy of graduating at the end of the spring quarter and I'm just going to focus on getting my paramedic job first before finishing up school. The kicker is that the ambulance company I want to get on with only hires part-time so I will be able to do school full-time to start so it won't be a conflict once I have my medic job.

I wonder how it'll look though on my transcript if it took me 6-7 years to get my undergrad degree. It'll be quite obvious I took time off to finish paramedic school after trying to do both at the same time and I could have finished sooner than I did. Wouldn't it be better to graduate now to avoid such a problem? Or will that not be an issue?

I would HIGHLY suggest not taking 6-7 years to graduate. 5 years is fine, especially if you have a double-major or a major and minor that might take additional courses. I think 6-7 would be a huge red flag to adcoms unless you have a really good reason for it like you completely switched careers/majors in your junior year of college or something similar.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Then I wonder if it would be to my advantage to purposefully delay graduating from Davis while I'm still an undergrad student and complete these courses?

It's looking like I'll be 5 classes shy of graduating at the end of the spring quarter and I'm just going to focus on getting my paramedic job first before finishing up school. The kicker is that the ambulance company I want to get on with only hires part-time so I will be able to do school full-time to start so it won't be a conflict once I have my medic job.

I wonder how it'll look though on my transcript if it took me 6-7 years to get my undergrad degree. It'll be quite obvious I took time off to finish paramedic school after trying to do both at the same time and I could have finished sooner than I did. Wouldn't it be better to graduate now to avoid such a problem? Or will that not be an issue?

It won't "look" good or bad. While the traditional route is 4 years undergrad into med school, there are so many people who take a more indirect route that, while you'll be asked why you did it, it won't be seen as a positive or a negative, just part of your unique story.

Don't worry about how everything is going to "look." Do what you want to do, enjoy your time doing whatever it is you want, and you won't have anyone to answer to.

 

[medictim84]

Hmm, well it's good to know that's an option but I probably will graduate asap and then take the pre-reqs at CSU East Bay...20 min commute vs. 1 hour commute by itself is reason enough to do that. I'm not sure I would have an issue getting LORs though...if it's a semester-based college like a lot of CSUs are, that's 2 classes for bio, 2 for ochem, 2 for physics plus biochem (I already took stats, had to for my major but yeah its a good class) so that's 6+ possible profs. If I didn't get along with at least 2 of them, that would be extremely surprising. I think it would be a lot easier to get to know a prof in a class of 25-30 students vs a class of 100-500 anyway.

As far as the non-science letter goes, I think either my paramedic instructor's LOR would count since they don't consider that a science class as far as I know. If nothing else, I took my scuba class through college and I've known my scuba instructor for two years now and counting since I've taken over half a dozen classes from him and I divemaster for him so that would definitely count as a non-science LOR.

Edited to add: Actually I checked and CSU East Bay is quarter based...so at least 9+ possible profs.

 

[tallandshort]

Hmm, well it's good to know that's an option but I probably will graduate asap and then take the pre-reqs at CSU East Bay...20 min commute vs. 1 hour commute by itself is reason enough to do that. I'm not sure I would have an issue getting LORs though...if it's a semester-based college like a lot of CSUs are, that's 2 classes for bio, 2 for ochem, 2 for physics plus biochem (I already took stats, had to for my major but yeah its a good class) so that's 6+ possible profs. If I didn't get along with at least 2 of them, that would be extremely surprising. I think it would be a lot easier to get to know a prof in a class of 25-30 students vs a class of 100-500 anyway.

As far as the non-science letter goes, I think either my paramedic instructor's LOR would count since they don't consider that a science class as far as I know. If nothing else, I took my scuba class through college and I've known my scuba instructor for two years now and counting since I've taken over half a dozen classes from him and I divemaster for him so that would definitely count as a non-science LOR.

Edited to add: Actually I checked and CSU East Bay is quarter based...so at least 9+ possible profs.

OK, that makes more sense then and you should be fine with LORs. I would get both your scuba instructor and your paramedic instructor just because scuba would be very interesting as a LOR (not many applicants have taken that and even fewer have cool LORs about it), and since you will be working several years as a paramedic something representing that would make a good addition. And I thought of another class...medical ethics. Some undergrad schools don't offer it, but it can be a really interesting course and a few med schools recommend it (although none require it that I know of).

 

[medictim84]

OK, that makes more sense then and you should be fine with LORs. I would get both your scuba instructor and your paramedic instructor just because scuba would be very interesting as a LOR (not many applicants have taken that and even fewer have cool LORs about it), and since you will be working several years as a paramedic something representing that would make a good addition. And I thought of another class...medical ethics. Some undergrad schools don't offer it, but it can be a really interesting course and a few med schools recommend it (although none require it that I know of).

Yeah I'll probably get the LORs from my scuba instructor and lead medic instructor sometime within the next 6 months I think just to have them since they can be updated later...I understand interfolio is the way to go for keeping LORs stored online?

Also, I probably will get a LOR as well from my paramedic supervisor if I can since the first two LORs will be insight on my academics, volunteering and character whereas the LOR from the supe would be insight on my leadership and clinical experience.

Medical ethics would definitely be interesting...I'd like to take health economics too but it seems like UCD no longer offers that course (thanks CA budget) and CSUEB doesn't seem to either.