Starting med school at 24

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up40loves

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No, in fact the average age of matriculating students is creeping upwards at least in California.

Certainly 24 is still pretty young, even when compared to users of SDN.
 
Well, I'm a female and I'll be starting at 23, so I'd say 24 is definitely not too old. I plan to have a family eventually, but that can wait until I'm in my 30's.
 
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I met a 50 year old woman who is a 3rd year at one medical school interview! 🙂 24 is not too old.
 
Yeah I'd be williing to bet half the class would be older than you.
 
Check out the non-traditional forum and then see how you feel.
 
Average age of my class at matriculation was nearly 27 (26.8). 24 is not old at all.
 
I'll be 25
 
I think it's fair to say that whatever your age when you matriculate, we'll all be old, old, old when we're finally done with training. Yay!
 
up40loves said:
As a female starting med school at 24, would I be too old?
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The average age in US allo is about 24, and in DO is closer to 26-27. So no you wouldn't be even close to too old. The oldest people in med school right now are in their 50s, I believe, although they are quite rare. There will be 30+ year olds in virtually every med school class.
 
If everything goes as planned, I'll be 24 on day 1 of class.

I can't believe there could be 21 y.o. people in my class though. Somehow that just seems SO young!
 
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LossForWords said:
If everything goes as planned, I'll be 24 on day 1 of class.

I can't believe there could be 21 y.o. people in my class though. Somehow that just seems SO young!
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Well... think how I'll feel then?

I will (hopefully) be 19 when I matriculate. Assuming that doesn't keep me from, you know, getting in.
 
I'll be 26. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only older applicant.

It just takes some of us a bit longer to decide that we want to pursue medicine.
 
Raryn said:
Well... think how I'll feel then?

I will (hopefully) be 19 when I matriculate. Assuming that doesn't keep me from, you know, getting in.
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I think the emotion I'm feeling now is....jealousy.

Man, that means you could be done with med school at 23 and an intern when you're my age! That would definitely be sweet since I'm trying to start a family sometime. Not to mention that when I was 19, I could run on 3 or 4 hours of sleep for about a week straight. Now I think that would kill me.
 
Not too old!
 
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Raryn said:
Well... think how I'll feel then?

I will (hopefully) be 19 when I matriculate. Assuming that doesn't keep me from, you know, getting in.
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Same here (my mdapps shows what my hoped matriculant age'll be). But of course I'm going MD/PhD so it'll equal out by the time I finally graduate 😛
 
I'm going to be 24 and I KNOW I won't be too old. You're just going to have to hang out with people who have my level of self confidence 😉.
 
Most people graduate undergrad at 22.

Even assuming everyone enters directly from undergrad (which they don't, I think 24 is around the mean for a lot of entering student bodies... no links/facts though... check school sites), 2 years is not very long in the grand scheme of things, especially not a big enough disparity to warrant not reluctance in matriculating.

It's only 2 years!!
 
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Lol this thread is depressing. Well...the concept behind it anyway haha
 
It's good to see the averages. I'm 20 now, decided on a major one year ago and will most likely take at least one extra year of undergrad at this rate. So I'm looking at around 23-24 when I would apply/matriculate.

Side note - 19 is insane! You sure you want to jump into med school before you even enjoy undergrad?! That's impressive nonetheless.
 
up40loves said:
As a female starting med school at 24, would I be too old?
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...

:laugh:😆

No, seriously.... phew... I have to laugh, or I'll cry my almost 40 y/o self to sleep. You are not too old. Too young for lots of stuff, but not too old...

😀
 
29 here.

I can't believe someone is matriculating at 19. Wow. I remember 19. So, so young.
 
If you want to feel better about your age, go take a look at the MD/PhD forum...even if we start school in our early 20s, we'll be in our 30s before we even get to residency...

And many people start later than that.

Bottom line: if you still have the desire to be a doctor, and you're still young enough to have function of your limbs, meet the technical standards, etc, then it is not too late.
 
Are you a troll? Because if not, you really must not read these boards very much.
 
Adnama said:
I am going to be 25...
If you look at the averages of schools they are usually around 24. So you are definitely not too old.
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Our class average is 24.5. Its mostly 22 year olds with a couple 30-40+ to bring up the averages.
 
I turn 25 in less than a month. Will be 26 when I start med school.🙂
 
I'll be 28. Now that is old! 😆
 
I'm 25 and I feel more prepared than when I was 22.
 
😎 I will be 29 on Monday :hardy: and I am applying this year,

sooo..
i hope 24 is not to old..
 
24? WOW, you're a fossil! Naah, I'll be 24 when I start. You're good.
 
I'm 24, and although I'm applying now because I decided to go to medical school when I finished my undergrad, I feel like my EC's are a lot stronger than younger people. Not GPA or MCAT though, haha. My excuse is that my priorities were elsewhere in undergrad and I still haven't taken bio classes. 😛
 
Raryn said:
Well... think how I'll feel then?

I will (hopefully) be 19 when I matriculate. Assuming that doesn't keep me from, you know, getting in.
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How are you only 18? Did you not do a full 4 years of HS and/or college?

Very cool, but ****, if i were in your boat i'd want to travel and enjoy some leisure for a couple years. On the other hand, you can retire sooner than most of us if that's what you want 🙂

by sooner i meant younger.
 
daniellema13 said:
How are you only 18? Did you not do a full 4 years of HS and/or college?

Very cool, but ****, if i were in your boat i'd want to travel and enjoy some leisure for a couple years. On the other hand, you can retire sooner than most of us if that's what you want 🙂

by sooner i meant younger.
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I skipped 6th grade then finished HS in 3 years. Combine that with a November birthday and that makes me 15 when I graduated HS.
 
As long as you can drink, then you aren't too old. Otherwise, you are too young!
 
daniellema13 said:
How are you only 18? Did you not do a full 4 years of HS and/or college?

Very cool, but ****, if i were in your boat i'd want to travel and enjoy some leisure for a couple years. On the other hand, you can retire sooner than most of us if that's what you want 🙂

by sooner i meant younger.
Click to expand...

Well, if he retires at 40 and dies at 50, and you retire at 60 and die at 70, the perspective changes.

😱
 
glamqueen said:
Are you a troll? Because if not, you really must not read these boards very much.
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Be nice.


OP, Nope, not at all! I'll be 26, I think, when I finally get around to it. 🙂

Come visit the non-trad board, if you want.
 
I'll graduate undergrad at...25. So no, you're not old for this. 😛
 
Raryn said:
I skipped 6th grade then finished HS in 3 years. Combine that with a November birthday and that makes me 15 when I graduated HS.
Click to expand...

Nice 👍

I predict you will be referred to as "doogie" at least once 😉
 
I'll be a month short of 29 when I matriculate. Though I don't think so, my mother certainly thinks I'm too old for this. (This could be because her desire for grandchildren dominates over having a doctor in the family 🙄)
 
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