Thinking about going to med school, help?

[Bri624]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hello everyone, so I am kind of in a sticky situation. I am currently an occupational therapy graduate school with a little over one year left of graduate school. So far I like school, and I think I can see myself being an OT for the rest of my life. However, my true dream has always been to become a surgeon. I also am about to graduate from undergraduate school with a health studies degree with around a 3.3-3.4 overall GPA with a lot of sciences in my background. I did a 3:2 program for OT graduate school since they offered it. After bumping up my GPA I got into OT grad school. I found the pre reqs for ot school to be fairly easy. I aced A & P 101/102 in a 6-week fast course no challenge at all, and I attribute that to the fact that I was a biology major for my first two years of undergraduate school.

Originally in college, I wanted to become a doctor however I was a very lazy student my first few years. I got Bs/As in most of my bio classes with a few exceptions due to not studying a whole lot. I only got a C in organic chemistry 1 and I failed calculus, as well as I did not take physics. After seeing all these grades I thought med school wasn't the best option for me.

I also have a bad living situation and I just wanted to move out of my house as fast as possible so I thought OT was a good career that did not require much schooling on my part. I do like OT school so far but I still feel that once I am an OT I will not be challenged enough, and I will be yearning for more. I love biology and I want to be a surgeon so bad. I am mostly good at the sciences, specifically biology but I am not the best at chemistry/physics and math. In regards to math, it is mainly because I haven't taken it so long, seeing that I took AP calc in high school, same with chemistry.

I need advice on what to do. My plan at the moment is to finish OT grad school, work as an OT for maybe a year or two to see if I like it enough and to move out/pay some of my loans off. Then if I really decide that I want to go to med school I will need to retake some of my classes to cover the prereqs/boost my GPA, thus allowing me to take the MCAT then apply to med school. I honestly do not know how I will go about that, though, and what I need to do to in terms of the prereqs. Would I have to get a brand new degree, or can I just retake some of my sciences and then take organic chem, calc, and physics, then the MCAT, etc?

In terms of classes I have taken in the sciences they include: Bio 1= C+ and Bio 2=B+, animal physiology which I got a B+, genetics= C-, chem 1= C, chem 2= B+, organic chem= C-, statistics=B, Calc=F, A & P 1=A, A & P 2=A (these grades for a and p were after I realized I needed to stop being lazy and apply myself), gross anatomy=B+, kinesiology=A-, neuroanatomy=A- . I think those are all of the sciences I have taken in college. I have aced all of my humanities and what not, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology are all A's. I took medical conditions which I also received an A. So yeh, any advice would greatly be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Ad2b]

Could you please edit that into paragraphs ... it's really hard to read a wall of text.

 

[GreenDuck12]

1. Volunteer in a medical setting to see if medicine is the career for you. You are facing many years of hard work, long hours, and low pay until you eventually are able to practice on your own. Don't put the cart in front of the horse.

2. Research post-bac options. You can either look for a formal program or a DIY post bac at almost every college/university in the country.

3. Research the difference between allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO) medicine. Look at the competitiveness of each program.

4. Look at low GPA success stories thread and learn from what others have done.

5. Enroll in a post bac / second bachelors degree to increase your GPA. Using osteopathic grade replacement policies you may be able to up your sGPA and cGPA enough to be a competitive applicant.

Hello everyone, so I am kind of in a sticky situation. I am currently an occupational therapy graduate school with a little over one year left of graduate school. So far I like school, and I think I can see myself being an OT for the rest of my life. However, my true dream has always been to become a surgeon. I also am about to graduate from undergraduate school with a health studies degree with around a 3.3-3.4 overall GPA with a lot of sciences in my background. I did a 3:2 program for OT graduate school since they offered it. After bumping up my GPA I got into OT grad school. I found the pre reqs for ot school to be fairly easy. I aced A & P 101/102 in a 6-week fast course no challenge at all, and I attribute that to the fact that I was a biology major for my first two years of undergraduate school.

Originally in college, I wanted to become a doctor however I was a very lazy student my first few years. I got Bs/As in most of my bio classes with a few exceptions due to not studying a whole lot. I only got a C in organic chemistry 1 and I failed calculus, as well as I did not take physics. After seeing all these grades I thought med school wasn't the best option for me.

I also have a bad living situation and I just wanted to move out of my house as fast as possible so I thought OT was a good career that did not require much schooling on my part. I do like OT school so far but I still feel that once I am an OT I will not be challenged enough, and I will be yearning for more. I love biology and I want to be a surgeon so bad. I am mostly good at the sciences, specifically biology but I am not the best at chemistry/physics and math. In regards to math, it is mainly because I haven't taken it so long, seeing that I took AP calc in high school, same with chemistry.

I need advice on what to do. My plan at the moment is to finish OT grad school, work as an OT for maybe a year or two to see if I like it enough and to move out/pay some of my loans off. Then if I really decide that I want to go to med school I will need to retake some of my classes to cover the prereqs/boost my GPA, thus allowing me to take the MCAT then apply to med school. I honestly do not know how I will go about that, though, and what I need to do to in terms of the prereqs. Would I have to get a brand new degree, or can I just retake some of my sciences and then take organic chem, calc, and physics, then the MCAT, etc?

In terms of classes I have taken in the sciences they include: Bio 1= C+ and Bio 2=B+, animal physiology which I got a B+, genetics= C-, chem 1= C, chem 2= B+, organic chem= C-, statistics=B, Calc=F, A & P 1=A, A & P 2=A (these grades for a and p were after I realized I needed to stop being lazy and apply myself), gross anatomy=B+, kinesiology=A-, neuroanatomy=A- . I think those are all of the sciences I have taken in college. I have aced all of my humanities and what not, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology are all A's. I took medical conditions which I also received an A. So yeh, any advice would greatly be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Ad2b]

1. Thank you for breaking up your story into paragraphs 🙂 🙂

2. I would finish the OT program

3. Work in the field for a year or so (this gives you a gap between graduation ugrad and post-bacc grades, if you decide to pursue MD/DO)

4. I would consider retaking any grades that you got a C or worse in... and then supplement those, with upper division biology courses (biochem, microbiology, etc) so that you can prove you are understanding the material and capable of getting great grades.

You do NOT need calc. For the MCAT you DO need:

gchem
orgo
biochem
physics
bio (cell, genetics, physiology)
psych/soc

Many schools are getting away with a prescribed "pre-requisite curriculum" however, you still need the above for the MCAT

5. Speaking of grades, the aim is A's ...

My ugrad GPA is probably the worst on here. It's also 30 years old (that's not a typo). My current GPA hovers around 4.0 through many UD science courses.

6. Shadow physicians if that isn't part of your regular OT job.

7. TAKE YOUR TIME! Again, I'm 51. I had an entire 25 year career having "always wanted to be a doc" but my poor choices got in the way.

Time away from school helps adcoms see us as "reinventionists" ... your ability to get to MD/DO is not hosed. It's just not going to be a short trip to get there.

 

[Box01]

1

7. TAKE YOUR TIME! Again, I'm 51. I had an entire 25 year career having "always wanted to be a doc" but my poor choices got in the way.

Time away from school helps adcoms see us as "reinventionists" ... your ability to get to MD/DO is not hosed. It's just not going to be a short trip to get there.

I disagree. You must rush. You must rush to decide on medical school then rush to get through. You are on a decade long journey of low to no pay, lot of debt, working like there is no tomorrow. However, it becomes harder if you sit around for 5-7 years wondering then embark on the 10-15 year struggle. It may be for you but you must work like it is a war in order to make it happen. No thoughts of time off or vacation.

If you want to be a surgeon and do a surgical subspecialty, like vascular surgery, you might be looking at 2 years of regrouping, 4 years medical school, and 9 years of residency/fellowship, making it 15 years. It is possible. It is difficult. Once you are done, a few patients and bureaucrats (both government and hospitals) will spit on you. However, your skills will be on top of the world.

 

[Ad2b]

I disagree. You must rush. You must rush to decide on medical school then rush to get through.

apparently, sarcasm at it's finest 😉

 

[Bri624]

Median non-URM matriculant to MD has a 3.7 cGPA and a 3.7 sGPA - culled disproportionately from the top 25, often outright refusing CC and online credits - and they're gonna look at that F in calculus for a long, long, long time.

Median DO matriculant has about a 3.5cGPA and a 3.4 sGPA, even after welcoming retakes, CC and online credits. Retaking your C's and lower would seem to pull you into a competitive range for DO applications. In addition to lower cumulative expectations, DO has full grade replacement: if you take calc again and get a B, its as if the "F" never happened. That'll do wonders for a GPA with 2 or 3 semesters of retakes.

You also need to do reasonably well on the MCAT. I worry about this given an F in calculus. Did you take the GRE? GRE verbal is likely to significantly correlate with MCAT.



Some people spit on you no matter what you do. To hell with them.

No, I did not take the GRE, and I did badly in calc because I took it two years after I was done with math in high school. I did not remember the material and I did not put much effort in at all. As I stated once I switched my major to OT I actually applied myself and had nothing lower than a 3.9 GPA every semester for the last two years. Math is not my strong subject but I am sure that if I retake it I can get a better grade. The people above stated that I do not need it so I do not know if I will look into it again given that fear and now I am an additional two years behind on math.

 

[Bri624]

I disagree. You must rush. You must rush to decide on medical school then rush to get through. You are on a decade long journey of low to no pay, lot of debt, working like there is no tomorrow. However, it becomes harder if you sit around for 5-7 years wondering then embark on the 10-15 year struggle. It may be for you but you must work like it is a war in order to make it happen. No thoughts of time off or vacation.

If you want to be a surgeon and do a surgical subspecialty, like vascular surgery, you might be looking at 2 years of regrouping, 4 years medical school, and 9 years of residency/fellowship, making it 15 years. It is possible. It is difficult. Once you are done, a few patients and bureaucrats (both government and hospitals) will spit on you. However, your skills will be on top of the world.

How do I go about retaking these classes, and what not? Should I just stay at the college I am at now even though I am graduating, or should I finish as an OT, work and then apply into a program like a post-
bacc?

 

[Bri624]

That F will sink an MD application and seriously hurt a DO application. It's true you don't *need* calc, but...having an F sitting as final grade is...well it's a negative signal generally.

You can refresh algebra on Khan academy in a week, and then retake.

Even if that F was from my first semester of college and I Aced all maths prior and did fairly well in statistics?

 

[GreenDuck12]

I have yet to see any evidence that the GRE correlates to a strong performance on the MCAT. I would be very interested in seeing the data on this...

Median non-URM matriculant to MD has a 3.7 cGPA and a 3.7 sGPA - culled disproportionately from the top 25, often outright refusing CC and online credits - and they're gonna look at that F in calculus for a long, long, long time.

Median DO matriculant has about a 3.5cGPA and a 3.4 sGPA, even after welcoming retakes, CC and online credits. Retaking your C's and lower would seem to pull you into a competitive range for DO applications. In addition to lower cumulative expectations, DO has full grade replacement: if you take calc again and get a B, its as if the "F" never happened. That'll do wonders for a GPA with 2 or 3 semesters of retakes.

You also need to do reasonably well on the MCAT. I worry about this given an F in calculus. Did you take the GRE? GRE verbal is likely to significantly correlate with MCAT.

Some people spit on you no matter what you do. To hell with them.

 

[GreenDuck12]

I wouldn't worry about calculus right now. I would focus on your other program, work, and start volunteering. When/if you do decide to go back to school to try and become a doctor, I would retake the pre-requisite classes. Some schools ask for calculus, if you end up applying to those schools, I would retake calculus but at the end of the post bac.

Even if that F was from my first semester of college and I Aced all maths prior and did fairly well in statistics?