- Joined
- Nov 3, 2014
- Messages
- 2,872
- Reaction score
- 2,777
Posting this specifically on the non-trad site as this is where I fit but can apply to everyone else.
You came here looking for guidance and advice how to start and hopefully, finish, this thing called premed-med-resident-MD/DO.
It's not easy. No matter where your starting point is there is likely some way to move forward. But don't kid yourself, it's not easy. I found it fun, I loved my courses and my very much younger peers. The energy, vibe = awesome!
Small stats on me:
And that's okay. Really, if you're reading this, I give you permission that if life is gobsmacking you upside the head, you have permission to stop and think. Stop and evaluate. Hit the pause button.
I started the biodefense program at Johns Hopkins - it's the post-bacc program for the school but adds in tools for other types of professionals to migrate into defense of bio terrorism. All those courses taken at a land-granting (PhD) school with that fancy GPA were holding firm.
Plan B was starting to form.
It's been over a year now.
My son pushed me, laughingly, to take an online MCAT thing just to see how I would do (diagnostics aside - they are crap). We are moving to the mid-Atlantic and in boxing up my books (ALL of my books) he made one box special (I was in NY and didn't know what he was doing)... and he labeled it:
"The Box Where Dreams Start - MCAT Prep"
And what if I don't retake the test? Then what?!
I keep on course with Plan B and really, that's okay too. It's not my passion, it's not what I want to do but possibly, it's what I need to do and here's the thing:
you may need to do that too and it's okay.
A few years ago, I had been on another forum when a non-trad got accepted to DO school. I think if the forum could have sent fireworks off the page and into his/her yard, we would have. She/he had to move, pack up the family, drive, unload, and start medical school.
Can't remember all the specifics and would not belabor them here (not my place), but at the end of 2nd year, she/he had to leave med school at the request of the school. She/he'd failed out and though the "whatever they call it for helping struggling" students was used, it was over.
Devastation for that person and all of us on the forum was palpable. What do you say when someone fails out of medical school? Or worse, does so poorly they commit suicide?
So, if you're reading this it's okay to stop. It's okay to do something else. It's okay to start and then stop. and it's surely, absolutely, 100% okay to start, complete and become a doctor 🙂
You came here looking for guidance and advice how to start and hopefully, finish, this thing called premed-med-resident-MD/DO.
It's not easy. No matter where your starting point is there is likely some way to move forward. But don't kid yourself, it's not easy. I found it fun, I loved my courses and my very much younger peers. The energy, vibe = awesome!
Small stats on me:
- 54
- 2.196 GPA from 1986 (dead child and many issues leading up that whole situation; SIDS)
- 10,000+ hours volunteering
- 200+ hours shadowing/clinical
- field research (Galapagos, unpublished, noted in guide book for Galapagos Islands; pH indications on flora/fauna of the islands visited)
- former executive reporting to BoD of large, multi-billion SEC company now ad-hoc floating management consultant (whatever that means - basically, I'm a grunt doing whatever I'm told 😉 by my clients)
- near 4.0 GPA from 2010 forward through gchem, bio, orgo, bioc, physics (A+), genetics, human genetics, med myco, viro, immuno
- BOMBED, choked, quit, gave up on the MCAT; 512 on AAMC FL2 day before Sept 2 exam, that exam rescheduled to Sept 9 but Hurricane Irma was barreling down on me and I took in a family of 7 and their 4 dogs, 3 cats, 2 bearded dragons and a hamster - not in a tree - sleeping on the sofa, not studying for resched of that exam; 3 days before Sept 19 resched of exam, $xx,xxx contract ended due to Irmageddon...no excuses but ... I bombed it)
And that's okay. Really, if you're reading this, I give you permission that if life is gobsmacking you upside the head, you have permission to stop and think. Stop and evaluate. Hit the pause button.
I started the biodefense program at Johns Hopkins - it's the post-bacc program for the school but adds in tools for other types of professionals to migrate into defense of bio terrorism. All those courses taken at a land-granting (PhD) school with that fancy GPA were holding firm.
Plan B was starting to form.
It's been over a year now.
My son pushed me, laughingly, to take an online MCAT thing just to see how I would do (diagnostics aside - they are crap). We are moving to the mid-Atlantic and in boxing up my books (ALL of my books) he made one box special (I was in NY and didn't know what he was doing)... and he labeled it:
"The Box Where Dreams Start - MCAT Prep"
And what if I don't retake the test? Then what?!
I keep on course with Plan B and really, that's okay too. It's not my passion, it's not what I want to do but possibly, it's what I need to do and here's the thing:
you may need to do that too and it's okay.
A few years ago, I had been on another forum when a non-trad got accepted to DO school. I think if the forum could have sent fireworks off the page and into his/her yard, we would have. She/he had to move, pack up the family, drive, unload, and start medical school.
Can't remember all the specifics and would not belabor them here (not my place), but at the end of 2nd year, she/he had to leave med school at the request of the school. She/he'd failed out and though the "whatever they call it for helping struggling" students was used, it was over.
Devastation for that person and all of us on the forum was palpable. What do you say when someone fails out of medical school? Or worse, does so poorly they commit suicide?
So, if you're reading this it's okay to stop. It's okay to do something else. It's okay to start and then stop. and it's surely, absolutely, 100% okay to start, complete and become a doctor 🙂
