What is traditional vs nontraditional?

[biomajor1234]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi, new guy here. I am confused over what dictates traditional and nontraditional student. I think nontraditional refers to someone who majors in a non-science major? How can i do research for EC if I major in english?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Non-trad is more about people who have been out of college for a long while or never went and are beyond the traditional age 22 when applying to medical school.

English major research would be primarily linguistics and context of the authors and settings. But again that's probably a limited spectrum of english research.

However that being said, you can probably do some biology research with biology 1 done.

 

[LizzyM]

An English major who has taken the pre-reqs for med school is as capable of doing science research.

As mentioned above, a non-trad has not made the traditional high school to college to medical school route. This includes career changers who decide on med school after working for several years in another field.

 

[organdonor]

traditional= enter college at ~18, graduate at ~22, enter medical school
non traditional =ages significantly different. Could be a career change or something along those lines.

Kind of a gray area at least from my perspective are those who intentionally take 1-2 years off but always had medical school in mind. I would consider these "non trad" as they have more "life experience" than the typical traditional applicant would.
the buzzword for non traditional applicants is life experience haha.

trads usually have planned a journey to med school and therefore have all the extra curriculars, research, leadership experience, volunteering, blah blah blah.

non trads may have a lower gpa and less EC's because they didn't necessarily want to become a doctor when they were in college. They make up for this in gained life experience.