Social Worker with dumb questions about Pre-Med

[christinehall94]

Hello new friends, I recently had a quarter life crisis and have decide to explore changing my career path! I am currently a social worker working with child protective services for the state and while I love my job, I want to do more and re-chase my original plan of med school that I had when I was 18 before my mental health plummetted my first year of school and I had to transfer.

I am graduated with a 3.62 GPA with several science classes from before I switched to social work but I essentially need to retake everything because it has been several years (I'm 24). My GPA from my final two years of college was a 4.0 but I was also not taking any science courses at the time (made a 1.5 my second semester of school due to mental health and it tanked my GPA). I am nearby WashU and have a good enough GPA to be considered for their postbacc program, but it is expensive and I could take the same courses at the state univerity also located in St. Louis. Is it worth the extra money to go to an official program and such a prestigious school or does it really matter?

Second questions, I planned to continue my job with CPS until I theoretically am accepted into med school. Does working a social work Child Welfare job look as good as volunteer work? I plan to get connected to one of the many hospitals I work with as a social worker to get some shadowing in.. I'm genuinely clueless. I've been researching for about a month at this and I know I need to get something on my resume that shows commitment to medicine, I'm just not sure what the most helpful thing would be. I don't have a ton of free time so I can't pursue EVERYTHING all at once if I'll be doing post-bacc and working full time too.

Please feel free to point me in the direction of a different post if these questions have alread been answered or just tell me to talk to a pre-med advisor... just thought I would begin imploring from the comfort of my own couch before speaking with an advisor. I also apologize for dumb questions... Again, just beginning this process!

Thanks in advance!

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[AlexMack12]

Hello new friends, I recently had a quarter life crisis and have decide to explore changing my career path! I am currently a social worker working with child protective services for the state and while I love my job, I want to do more and re-chase my original plan of med school that I had when I was 18 before my mental health plummetted my first year of school and I had to transfer.

I am graduated with a 3.62 GPA with several science classes from before I switched to social work but I essentially need to retake everything because it has been several years (I'm 24). My GPA from my final two years of college was a 4.0 but I was also not taking any science courses at the time (made a 1.5 my second semester of school due to mental health and it tanked my GPA). I am nearby WashU and have a good enough GPA to be considered for their postbacc program, but it is expensive and I could take the same courses at the state univerity also located in St. Louis. Is it worth the extra money to go to an official program and such a prestigious school or does it really matter?

Second questions, I planned to continue my job with CPS until I theoretically am accepted into med school. Does working a social work Child Welfare job look as good as volunteer work? I plan to get connected to one of the many hospitals I work with as a social worker to get some shadowing in.. I'm genuinely clueless. I've been researching for about a month at this and I know I need to get something on my resume that shows commitment to medicine, I'm just not sure what the most helpful thing would be. I don't have a ton of free time so I can't pursue EVERYTHING all at once if I'll be doing post-bacc and working full time too.

Please feel free to point me in the direction of a different post if these questions have alread been answered or just tell me to talk to a pre-med advisor... just thought I would begin imploring from the comfort of my own couch before speaking with an advisor. I also apologize for dumb questions... Again, just beginning this process!

Thanks in advance!

Hi there!
First off, thank you for the work you’ve done for CPS. I was a psych nurse before I went to medical school, and although I’ve never been a social worker, I’ve unfortunately seen how childhood abuse, neglect, and/or trauma impacts people forever. You are so important, but I know from my social worker friends, overworked and underappreciated.

Anyway- to answer your questions. You can do a search of this forum about formal post-bac programs, but unless the program comes with linkage to the university’s medical school (or at least a guaranteed interview at the affiliates medical school if you maintain a certain GPA, etc), there is no benefit to doing a formal post-bac over an informal one. Save your money and take the courses you need at a four-year institution if possible.

Your job will certainly give you a unique perspective into the field of medicine and the human experience, and will be a valuable asset to your application (and will make you an outstanding clinician). However, at the end of the day, you’re still getting paid, so it’s not quite a direct substitute for volunteer experience. Though employed as a nurse, I also had volunteer work on my resume. Schools want you to demonstrate your altruism and that’s one metric they’ve decided on.
Make sure you shadow physicians so you can show schools that you know what you’re getting into. As with other career changers, they want to know that we are running TO medicine, and not away from our previous careers.
Make sure to really think about why you are changing careers (and it may be obvious to you, but for the benefit of some other people reading this post- never, ever criticize, trash, or otherwise speak negatively of another field!) because you will be asked this in every single interview (I’m applying for residency now and STILL get asked why I didn’t become an NP!).

Lastly, make sure for yourself that your mental health issues are all in check before applying. Medical school can be a real dumpster fire sometimes, and approaching it with anything less than feeling 100% your best will make you miserable.

Best of luck- you will be an amazing doctor.

 

[operaman]

Welcome to SDN! Agreed that you certainly have the story and background to potentially be a very effective physician and you're honestly not all that far away from making it a reality. So here are a few thoughts:

1) You reference a mental health episode that tanked your GPA. Obviously that's a very personal thing and no need to delve into it here, but I would be remiss if I didn't strongly caution you about the inherent stresses in medical school and residency. It has a long and well established track record of doing great harm to people with mental illness, usually from the constant stress combined with sleep deprivation and perception that after a certain point you're really trapped until your finish or fail. Mental illness is a factor in almost all cases where student fails out of medical school. So please do some serious thinking and talk with your support system and health professionals to make sure this is the right thing for you to do.

1.5) I would suggest removing any whiff of mental illness from your application. As noted above, schools are vary wary of this and it would definitely cost you. It isn't fair and you'd think medical professionals would be more understanding than most, but for now this is just how it is. Mentioning mental illness will have 0% chance of helping you, 90% chance of hurting you, and 10% chance of just being neutral.

2) Your GPA is actually pretty good and will presumably be even better after you crush the pre reqs.

3) Agree with above, the DIY approach is more affordable and adjustable. There's no benefit to a structured post bacc for someone in your case.

4) have a plan for crushing the MCAT and devote adequate study time

5) apply early. Design your overall approach with the goal of hitting submit on your AMCAS application on June 1st.

6) Agree that using your connections to get shadowing opportunities is perfect. Do this. Try and shadow a variety of physicians and get a sense of what you're signing up for.

7) You really should have some additional volunteer experience. You may have some from undergrad you could list. I think these requirements are lessened a bit for non trads because people know you have to work and make a living, but perhaps you can find some time on weekends or something. Again, I would try leveraging your connections at hospitals where you work to volunteer there in a clinical capacity.

You have good enough grades and a nice backstory. Crush the pre-reqs and the MCAT and you should be in good shape. SDN is a great resource and there are many posters here with a lot of experience helping people in your position get accepted, so use them liberally.