Totally New to this (sort of)

[juicy3]

I hope all is well! Sorry if there is already a thread for this type of thing, I am not too sure on how to navigate. I am a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee. I currently work in a business management position that I obtained out of school. The idea of being a doctor has always been in the back of my mind, in fact I was even a nutrition pre-med major for a little while in undergrad. Unfortunately with my own personal health issues and low level of maturity I never followed through with it because my GPA suffered severely (2.7 ugrad). I have reached a point in my life where I still strongly desire that feeling to help people and research biological processes within the body, but also felt I have obtained the maturity and mental strength to handle it. I believe besides GPA I am a very strong candidate as I have volunteer experience that exceeds hundreds if not thousands of hours, many of which in a healthcare setting with direct care to patients. I have worked strenuously with special needs children both in Tennessee as well as across the world in Beijing. I have won several awards from the University including service and academic awards. There have been many setbacks which pushed me back from being ready for this process and there will continue to be some, but I feel too strongly to not act on it. I was wondering whether this is something typical of non-traditional students? Do you recommend taking my pre requisite classes and attempting to apply? How do schools consider community college courses compared to university classes? In general, just where do I go from here???
Thanks for everything!

Edit: Sorry for this formatting, it is mainly stripped from an email I previously sent to someone. Also to clear the air on "academic awards" (with a 2.7) I did have semesters where I finished deans list. These occurred after my second semester of freshman year that destroyed my GPA (in the ones) because of a health condition I endured that made me move home to see a specialist. Let me tell you some professors are very unforgiving. I have also had research posters displayed for two of my undergrad classes, one of which was selected to be shown in a research fair at the school.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Bonne Nuit]

Your first step is to shadow a primary care physician for at least 40 hours. You can supplement this by shadowing other specialties you might be interested in later on. Shadowing (aim for 60-80 hours total) is essentially a requirement for medical school applications, and I think it's extremely important to see the day-to-day life of a doctor before you invest in any further education.

Once you've shadowed, you can start thinking about your prerequisite classes. You need to be earning as close to 4.0s in every postbac course you take from here on out, so ensure you're prepared for the grind. 4 year university coursework is the preferred route over CC courses, as university coursework will be accepted everywhere but not every medical school will be OK with CC credits.

Regarding extracurriculars: for medical school applications, you should only report ECs that you took on during your undergraduate years or later. High school activities won't count except in rare circumstances, so hopefully those clinical volunteering hours were accumulated while you were earning your bachelor's degree.

As soon as you can, sit down and quantify the hours you've spent on the following types of activities you've done up to this point. You will be required to report numeric values of activity hours on your medical school application:

- Clinical experience (paid or volunteer)
- Nonclinical/community service volunteering
- Leadership roles
- Employment
- Research
- Shadowing

You will be required to provide a point of contact along with a phone number or email address for every activity you report on your application, so make sure you're pulling that together as well.

 

[Goro]

I hope all is well! Sorry if there is already a thread for this type of thing, I am not too sure on how to navigate. I am a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee. I currently work in a business management position that I obtained out of school. The idea of being a doctor has always been in the back of my mind, in fact I was even a nutrition pre-med major for a little while in undergrad. Unfortunately with my own personal health issues and low level of maturity I never followed through with it because my GPA suffered severely (2.7 ugrad). I have reached a point in my life where I still strongly desire that feeling to help people and research biological processes within the body, but also felt I have obtained the maturity and mental strength to handle it. I believe besides GPA I am a very strong candidate as I have volunteer experience that exceeds hundreds if not thousands of hours, many of which in a healthcare setting with direct care to patients. I have worked strenuously with special needs children both in Tennessee as well as across the world in Beijing. I have won several awards from the University including service and academic awards. There have been many setbacks which pushed me back from being ready for this process and there will continue to be some, but I feel too strongly to not act on it. I was wondering whether this is something typical of non-traditional students? Do you recommend taking my pre requisite classes and attempting to apply? How do schools consider community college courses compared to university classes? In general, just where do I go from here???
Thanks for everything!

Edit: Sorry for this formatting, it is mainly stripped from an email I previously sent to someone. Also to clear the air on "academic awards" (with a 2.7) I did have semesters where I finished deans list. These occurred after my second semester of freshman year that destroyed my GPA (in the ones) because of a health condition I endured that made me move home to see a specialist. Let me tell you some professors are very unforgiving. I have also had research posters displayed for two of my undergrad classes, one of which was selected to be shown in a research fair at the school.

the next time you post, kindly use paragraphs. The wall of text makes it hard to read.

What are your year by year GPAs?

See if your school will allow you to change any F/D/C- grades into retroactive Ws. This is a thing at some schools and the worst that they'll tell you is "no".

Read this:

• Goro's advice for pre-meds who need reinvention