Switching from Optometry to Medicine??

[neoneutral]

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Hey everyone!

I just finished my first year of optometry school and it's just not for me at all. I got good grades (As and Bs) so it has nothing to do with the difficulty of the program, but it's just not what I thought it would be.

I am considering applying to medical school. My cGPA and sGPA in undergrad was a 3.6 and I have clinical experience in the ED so pending my MCAT scores I'm hoping to have a fair shot at getting in to some mid-low tier med schools.

My question is: do you think medical schools will be hard on me for switching out of optometry? Will that be a factor in the decision making process at all? Also will I have to include my optometry GPA in my undergrad GPA when applying for med school? It's not like I failed or was kicked out, I just think that after working in the ED this summer I would much rather do that or something similar for the rest of my life. It's definitely higher stress but way more interesting than refracting eyes all day long!

Thanks, and any kind insight or opinions would be appreciated!

P.S. I'm not bashing optometry school at all! It's a difficult curriculum full of intelligent people, I just know it's not the right path for me 🙂

 

[theseeker4]

Hey everyone!

I just finished my first year of optometry school and it's just not for me at all. I got good grades (As and Bs) so it has nothing to do with the difficulty of the program, but it's just not what I thought it would be.

I am considering applying to medical school. My cGPA and sGPA in undergrad was a 3.6 and I have clinical experience in the ED so pending my MCAT scores I'm hoping to have a fair shot at getting in to some mid-low tier med schools.

My question is: do you think medical schools will be hard on me for switching out of optometry? Will that be a factor in the decision making process at all? Also will I have to include my optometry GPA in my undergrad GPA when applying for med school? It's not like I failed or was kicked out, I just think that after working in the ED this summer I would much rather do that or something similar for the rest of my life. It's definitely higher stress but way more interesting than refracting eyes all day long!

Thanks, and any kind insight or opinions would be appreciated!

P.S. I'm not bashing optometry school at all! It's a difficult curriculum full of intelligent people, I just know it's not the right path for me 🙂

I have heard that some adcoms look poorly at people who drop out of programs, partly because they wonder if those applicants will take a spot in med school and then drop out there. However, I don't think that bias is a reason to go through the rest of your degree if you have no desire to be an optometrist, wasting years and accumulating debt along the way. You would probably want to leave school, spend a year or two "investigating" medicine, then apply so you aren't bouncing from program to program, but there is nothing saying you HAVE to wait.