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I am hoping a few of you might have some advice or thoughts about what I may be missing. 🙂
First, I am pretty new to pursuing medicine as a career. I have spent several years working in direct care. During that time I was attending college for English/Teaching. It seemed like an easy choice. I love english, I love reading. Why not teach others? Becoming a teacher was considered quite a reach for people in my family. No one, prior to me has attended college. So teaching was truly the most prestigous, glamorous job for me to pursue. Becoming a doctor wasn't something "we" did. Despite the fact that every member in my family is now or has been in medicine to some degree, such as EMT, CNA, direct care. All that and my family still thinks I am insane for looking at med school. It's this whole mentality that this is far too lofty a goal, for "people like us". Despite all of this, I know I am going in exactly the right direction and I have excellent support from my husband. My mom is coming around.
The issues at hand. I had a very laidback idea about college. My first attempt was at 18 years old. I began classes only to leave school 2 months or so into the semester. I did not drop any of the classes. A few withdrew me for non-attendance. I received a D in one class, somehow?! My next attempt was a few years later at community college. I passed every english and humanities course with flying colors. I then withdrew from a full semeter of courses, was placed on academic probation and went back the next semester to do a half @$$ed job. With a 2.5 I began another school the following year. I started strong, then we experienced a horrible financial situation and I dropped my courses. So... *Yeah, it's terrible. I have a 2.5 and a load of attempted courses. Until recently, I had no idea that attempted courses made it more difficult to raise my gpa. I wasn't proud of my withdraw history, certainly, but I had no idea it had a gpa affect.*I can get this gpa up. I have attemtped no sciences so that portion of things is still good. The thing I am trying to figure out is how and when to proceed.
As I stated above, I am in direct care. It pays poorly, very poorly. My husband works a basic deli job making very little. He will return to college this fall and has two-ish years to finish his teaching degree. At that point, provided he can find employment quickly, we will be in a far different financial situation.
I have a few options: continue working poor paying job and begin pre-med track in Spring 2013 while husband also attends school. With both of us working and financial aid, we'll be just making ends meet. This barely making it will continue for the next at least 2 1/2 years. But, I'll be that much closer to med school.
OR
I can pursue an LPN license. By August 2013, I can sit for the LPN exam and look for a position. I will be making between $8 to $12 more per hour. I can then return to university to finish up my bachelors and improve my gpa. It sets me back a year, but puts me in a better financial situation.
The things that worry me about option two are that I'm not getting any younger. I'll be 27 in september. With something like 3 years of undergrad the youngest I'll be when attending med school is 31. If I push it another year, I'll be that much older. This is a concern because, the top interest on my list is neurosurgery. From my understanding that's about 11 years med school and residency combined. I'll be 43 years old before I get moving along. *sigh* That is a long wait. But one or two years isn't going to make a tremendous difference, right? Also, I worry about what adcoms will think. Will I look too floundery and unfocused? Will I have a chance to explain that I took the process in steps, for financial reasons? Would I even want to mention that?
Bah, what would you do? Is there some other way you might suggest? Not going MD isn't an option! I will push and work as hard as I need to to see this through. So, please, keep in mind I am not interested in reconsidering my MD choice. Thanks in advance. 😀
First, I am pretty new to pursuing medicine as a career. I have spent several years working in direct care. During that time I was attending college for English/Teaching. It seemed like an easy choice. I love english, I love reading. Why not teach others? Becoming a teacher was considered quite a reach for people in my family. No one, prior to me has attended college. So teaching was truly the most prestigous, glamorous job for me to pursue. Becoming a doctor wasn't something "we" did. Despite the fact that every member in my family is now or has been in medicine to some degree, such as EMT, CNA, direct care. All that and my family still thinks I am insane for looking at med school. It's this whole mentality that this is far too lofty a goal, for "people like us". Despite all of this, I know I am going in exactly the right direction and I have excellent support from my husband. My mom is coming around.
The issues at hand. I had a very laidback idea about college. My first attempt was at 18 years old. I began classes only to leave school 2 months or so into the semester. I did not drop any of the classes. A few withdrew me for non-attendance. I received a D in one class, somehow?! My next attempt was a few years later at community college. I passed every english and humanities course with flying colors. I then withdrew from a full semeter of courses, was placed on academic probation and went back the next semester to do a half @$$ed job. With a 2.5 I began another school the following year. I started strong, then we experienced a horrible financial situation and I dropped my courses. So... *Yeah, it's terrible. I have a 2.5 and a load of attempted courses. Until recently, I had no idea that attempted courses made it more difficult to raise my gpa. I wasn't proud of my withdraw history, certainly, but I had no idea it had a gpa affect.*I can get this gpa up. I have attemtped no sciences so that portion of things is still good. The thing I am trying to figure out is how and when to proceed.
As I stated above, I am in direct care. It pays poorly, very poorly. My husband works a basic deli job making very little. He will return to college this fall and has two-ish years to finish his teaching degree. At that point, provided he can find employment quickly, we will be in a far different financial situation.
I have a few options: continue working poor paying job and begin pre-med track in Spring 2013 while husband also attends school. With both of us working and financial aid, we'll be just making ends meet. This barely making it will continue for the next at least 2 1/2 years. But, I'll be that much closer to med school.
OR
I can pursue an LPN license. By August 2013, I can sit for the LPN exam and look for a position. I will be making between $8 to $12 more per hour. I can then return to university to finish up my bachelors and improve my gpa. It sets me back a year, but puts me in a better financial situation.
The things that worry me about option two are that I'm not getting any younger. I'll be 27 in september. With something like 3 years of undergrad the youngest I'll be when attending med school is 31. If I push it another year, I'll be that much older. This is a concern because, the top interest on my list is neurosurgery. From my understanding that's about 11 years med school and residency combined. I'll be 43 years old before I get moving along. *sigh* That is a long wait. But one or two years isn't going to make a tremendous difference, right? Also, I worry about what adcoms will think. Will I look too floundery and unfocused? Will I have a chance to explain that I took the process in steps, for financial reasons? Would I even want to mention that?
Bah, what would you do? Is there some other way you might suggest? Not going MD isn't an option! I will push and work as hard as I need to to see this through. So, please, keep in mind I am not interested in reconsidering my MD choice. Thanks in advance. 😀
