Social work PhD graduate transitioning to medical school

[deleted1138596]

Hi! I'm a social work PhD graduate looking to transition to medical school in the coming years. I just wanted to do a viability test and ask for some initial thoughts and impressions based on the information below:

Stats:

• Undergrad #1 (associate's degree) GPA: 3.64/4.0
• Undergrad #2 (BA) GPA: 3.85/4.0
• No MCAT, no shadowing.
• Only prereq I took in undergrad was Calc I which I got a C+ in; withdrew from an undergrad bio lab course.
• Master's degree in social work, PhD in social work.
• Lots of ECs and volunteer work in human service-related work. Worked for a bit as a personal care aide before graduate school, lots of present day, social work related work experience.

Some questions:
1. Lots of research experience and a handful of publications, several are first-author pubs. Does it still "count" for medical schools if the research was social science/qualitative research? Would like to consider research in the future and am wondering if this is appropriate experience.
2. Are my undergrad GPAs "enough"? Worried about the associate's degree GPA. I know that graduate school GPAs don't count too much so I'm not including them here.
3. Any thoughts on the post-bacc/second undergraduate degree route? Are community college classes "frowned" on in 2022 (I know they were back in the 2010s when I was contemplating medical school the first time around)?

Much appreciated!

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[Dral]

Valid research of any type should suffice.

GPA should be good

I think you should probably go the post-bcc route. A third undergrad degree would be more than needed. Your post bacc may inch your GPA up a bit while getting the required prerecs done. Community college classes are still pretty much frowned upon the way I understand it.

Get shadowing in. How are you in terms of the categories of 'non-clinical volunteering' and 'clinical volunteering'?

Your background will likely serve you as an advantage. I think half of my intern year was doing social work it seemed.

 

[Rapsidy]

I only had a masters degree in social work before transitioning to medical school. Your experiences will be valuable as well as your research.

For the science prereqs if you have a local state university that you want to do them in great, but most medical schools don’t care if you do them at a local community college as long as you take a full caseload If you can. Will save you quite a bit of money as well, I did every single one of my prereq science courses at my local CC for less than 5,000 total and just finishing my first year of medical school now.

Btw my undergrad GPA was much worse than yours so you will be absolutely fine.

 

[deleted1138596]

Valid research of any type should suffice.

GPA should be good

I think you should probably go the post-bcc route. A third undergrad degree would be more than needed. Your post bacc may inch your GPA up a bit while getting the required prerecs done. Community college classes are still pretty much frowned upon the way I understand it.

Get shadowing in. How are you in terms of the categories of 'non-clinical volunteering' and 'clinical volunteering'?

Your background will likely serve you as an advantage. I think half of my intern year was doing social work it seemed.

Thank you for your feedback! I'll definitely get on top of the shadowing hours.

I have a lot of non-clinical volunteering hours inside of prisons, community outreach, and education.

Does personal care aide work (non-medical healthcare work) count as clinical volunteering? I'm wondering whether my work as a clinical social worker (psychotherapist) would count, as well. I have no direct experience working in hospitals but am considering doing some scribe work in the future.

I only had a masters degree in social work before transitioning to medical school. Your experiences will be valuable as well as your research.

For the science prereqs if you have a local state university that you want to do them in great, but most medical schools don’t care if you do them at a local community college as long as you take a full caseload If you can. Will save you quite a bit of money as well, I did every single one of my prereq science courses at my local CC for less than 5,000 total and just finishing my first year of medical school now.

Btw my undergrad GPA was much worse than yours so you will be absolutely fine.

Thank you! I really appreciate this perspective regarding community college classes. I have a few months to decide how I want to approach this and it would just be so much less costly to go the CC route!

 

[Rapsidy]

Thank you for your feedback! I'll definitely get on top of the shadowing hours.

I have a lot of non-clinical volunteering hours inside of prisons, community outreach, and education.

Does personal care aide work (non-medical healthcare work) count as clinical volunteering? I'm wondering whether my work as a clinical social worker (psychotherapist) would count, as well. I have no direct experience working in hospitals but am considering doing some scribe work in the future.


Thank you! I really appreciate this perspective regarding community college classes. I have a few months to decide how I want to approach this and it would just be so much less costly to go the CC route!

It never hurts to double check, I know there are SOME medical schools that won’t accept CC classes but they will say up front on their admissions. Many non traditional students take this route if they don’t do a SMP and colleges understand cause we have bills to pay and mouths to feed.

Also yes your hours as a therapist would count as clinical hours. I did have a couple of years as a hospital social worker before applying so that helped a lot I’m sure, but you have research which I never had outside of the masters program as well so that is valuable.

Also your hours for internship during your masters should count towards clinical hours as well, at least I put them that way and nobody said anything.

Why would you scribe though? With how desperate hospitals are for trained clinical staff you could easily get hours as a social worker and make a lot better money for it while also getting direct patient/clinical care hours to add to your application.

You have the PHD in social work use it at the hospital and then you can also get your shadowing hours there as well as you’ll have easy access to doctors.

 

[deleted1138596]

It never hurts to double check, I know there are SOME medical schools that won’t accept CC classes but they will say up front on their admissions. Many non traditional students take this route if they don’t do a SMP and colleges understand cause we have bills to pay and mouths to feed.

Also yes your hours as a therapist would count as clinical hours. I did have a couple of years as a hospital social worker before applying so that helped a lot I’m sure, but you have research which I never had outside of the masters program as well so that is valuable.

Also your hours for internship during your masters should count towards clinical hours as well, at least I put them that way and nobody said anything.

Why would you scribe though? With how desperate hospitals are for trained clinical staff you could easily get hours as a social worker and make a lot better money for it while also getting direct patient/clinical care hours to add to your application.

You have the PHD in social work use it at the hospital and then you can also get your shadowing hours there as well as you’ll have easy access to doctors.

Thank you so much for your time, assistance, and insights! This is all brilliant advice—I really appreciate it.