What's your plan B?

[daxlo]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

yes, yes i know i'm being neurotic, but i haven't gotten an acceptance yet so i've been looking towards what i might do next year if i don't get into Med School this year. These past couple weeks, i've been learning HTML/CSS and Java to bolster my marketability, and i've been connecting with recruiters at Tech/Finance companies to see if i can leverage my Pre-Med Education into something that could be useful outside the healthcare field. One of my ECs is very finance based, so i'm trying to work that angle very hard as i talk to recruiters. I definitely want to get a job the pays the bills for the next year or two, and then after that i think i might apply again, and just go full D.O this time.

What are you guys planning on doing if you don't get in this cycle?

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Thats a better plan B than 99% of people here.

Also, that profile picture is just perfect for this kind of post haha

 

[TakotsuboOkazaki]

I think that you have a solid contingency plan. Don't give up hope yet!

 

[DrDazl]

That sounds like a good plan. If there is something you can improve for your application, do that in the meantime. I didn't have any hospital experience, so I work as a tech/CNA in a hospital during my gap year

 

[JMilo]

Marry rich

 

[daxlo]

Thats a better plan B than 99% of people here.

Also, that profile picture is just perfect for this kind of post haha

I think that you have a solid contingency plan. Don't give up hope yet!

That sounds like a good plan. If there is something you can improve for your application, do that in the meantime. I didn't have any hospital experience, so I work as a tech/CNA in a hospital during my gap year

Thank you!!! Honestly the reason i'm able to have a back up plan like this is due to my varied interest in college, and my variety of ECs and thus my lack of cohesive ECs that all point towards healthcare. LOL what gives me a great back up plan might also be the reason i don't get in anywhere this year.

 

[ptm33]

You're probably over thinking it. Having well-rounded experience makes you an interesting applicant or so, I was told. There's probably some value to not putting all eggs in one basket anyway. I would do a gap year in healthcare though if you still want to give MD/DO another shot next year.

 

[djtallahassee]

Kind of a waste of 2 years to do something non health care related unless you really just want to do it. Remember each year it gets more competitive and is a year of potential lost income. However, if its your passion go for it!

 

[CloverBale]

Cry and question all of my life decisions.

 

[Kingsmen2018]

It was DO, if not that beef up the app and reapply, then look into possible other careers, then carribean

 

[daxlo]

Kind of a waste of 2 years to do something non health care related unless you really just want to do it. Remember each year it gets more competitive and is a year of potential lost income. However, if its your passion go for it!

Yea we only live once so if i don't get in this year, i definitely want to take the time to explore the rest of my passions before i come back into the cycle, Thank you!

 

[Disciple of Sattar]

Become a soundcloud rapper

 

[Catalystik]

What's your plan B?

At the time, I planned to teach high school biology, as private schools in my state didn't require college-level teaching coursework. Thank goodness that didn't need to happen.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

My plan was to work for EPIC, since a BS from a STEM field is sufficient for most of their entry level jobs. If you can brave the Wisconsin cold, then it's a great job with good benefits and solid upward mobility. And EMR's aren't going anywhere any time soon.

 

[RTC19]

My plan was to work for EPIC, since a BS from a STEM field is sufficient for most of their entry level jobs. If you can brave the Wisconsin cold, then it's a great job with good benefits and solid upward mobility. And EMR's aren't going anywhere any time soon.

I am biased as someone who grew up in Wisconsin, but the cheese, beer, football, (in a normal, Aaron Rodgers season) and cost of living are all excellent there. 🙂 It is cold though!

Personally, I am awful with computers and could never do something primarily IT-based. More power to ya if you can though. That sounds like a great plan B, OP! 🙂

I volunteer at a peds hospice and work in clinical research at a children's hospital. I have gotten really interested in pediatric OT in early intervention type programs for developmental delay. If I don't get into med school, I would probably do something like that.

 

[A_Garrr]

Make Plan A work.

 

[Gilakend]

I would reapply a few times. But if you mean what would I do if for some reason I could NEVER get in, fall back on my college degree, get some experience with my degree, maybe get a masters or MBA, maybe try to get into consulting.

Maybe it's because medicine has been my goal all along, but does anyone else just find the thought crazy that most of our friends are just going to finish college at like 22 then just start working. Like that's it, you're done. Go have fun. Just seems wild to me.

 

[daxlo]

I would reapply a few times. But if you mean what would I do if for some reason I could NEVER get in, fall back on my college degree, get some experience with my degree, maybe get a masters or MBA, maybe try to get into consulting.

Maybe it's because medicine has been my goal all along, but does anyone else just find the thought crazy that most of our friends are just going to finish college at like 22 then just start working. Like that's it, you're done. Go have fun. Just seems wild to me.

- lol the thought of starting my life at 22 never occurred to me until some of my friends starting getting job offers, and have their life set out for them now. It's just so crazy to think that you go from 20+ years of structured learning to kinda just working and being on your own.

I am biased as someone who grew up in Wisconsin, but the cheese, beer, football, (in a normal, Aaron Rodgers season) and cost of living are all excellent there. 🙂 It is cold though!

Personally, I am awful with computers and could never do something primarily IT-based. More power to ya if you can though. That sounds like a great plan B, OP! 🙂

I volunteer at a peds hospice and work in clinical research at a children's hospital. I have gotten really interested in pediatric OT in early intervention type programs for developmental delay. If I don't get into med school, I would probably do something like that.

Yea lol i used to feel the same ways about computers, but honestly programming has been very fun so far, and i wake up pretty eager each morning to learn more and more. It's a great hobby to have, and i think it'll be a very crucial skill in the future.

 

[de Ribas]

but does anyone else just find the thought crazy that most of our friends are just going to finish college at like 22 then just start working. Like that's it, you're done.

Tell me where that BS degree will take anyone. People work in McDonalds with bachelor's nowadays. Besides engineering, nursing and such most BS degrees are useless without experience, connections and other assests.
Some people are even better off never going to college for that bachelor's degree. They start working even earlier, at 18.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

see if i can leverage my Pre-Med Education into something that could be useful outside the healthcare field. O

What is your major? Did you go to one of the rare schools that has a premed major.

I like a couple of the plan B suggestions above....working as a lab tech or bio teacher at a private school while reapplying.
I know several premeds who majored in engineering (yes, a tough gig as a premed) so that they would have a plan b

 

[person777]

I completely agree with this statement. My husband makes more than a lot of the people with bachelor's degrees that I know, and he dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and never even got his GED. Hell, when I'm just working full time with no overtime, his take home pay is more than mine as a RN.

It's not necessary to go to school to have a job/career with decent pay, and it's pointless going to school without a strong game plan that absolutely requires X degree, unless you just grew up rich and enjoy throwing money at universities for no ROI.


Plan B - I had a pretty solid one. I have all the right experiences to go to CRNA school - multiple years of high acuity ICU work, two specialty certifications, good grades, leadership at my job, knew some CRNAs I was going to ask to shadow. I had even scheduled the GRE and was going to take it, even though I was completely dreading it. The very first thing I did when I got the call that I was accepted, after doing a happy dance and telling my husband/mother/best friend, was to cancel my GRE appointment. I've never been so happy to cancel something in my life.

Wow what does your husband do?

 

[daxlo]

What is your major? Did you go to one of the rare schools that has a premed major.

I like a couple of the plan B suggestions above....working as a lab tech or bio teacher at a private school while reapplying.
I know several premeds who majored in engineering (yes, a tough gig as a premed) so that they would have a plan b

lol no my school didn't have a pre-med major but let's just say my major is very useless without grad school/med school. That's why've I've been learning to code so i have actuall quantative skills I can bring to the table.

 

[Gilakend]

Tell me where that BS degree will take anyone. People work in McDonalds with bachelor's nowadays. Besides engineering, nursing and such most BS degrees are useless without experience, connections and other assests.
Some people are even better off never going to college for that bachelor's degree. They start working even earlier, at 18.

I didn't realize how competitive it is even with a bachelors degree in STEM fields. Would getting a Masters make a difference?

Almost all my friends are engineering and thy always talk about how people come out of college and get 70k job offers. I wonder if that's true at all. My school does have at least 3 required semester long "co-ops" where you have to go work for a company. I wonder if that helps at all. They get paid pretty gandosmely on their co-ops too. Some well over $20/hr. Most around $17-$20/hr.

Is it that bad for like every field? I figured for some, but engineering surprised me.

 

[daxlo]

I didn't realize how competitive it is even with a bachelors degree in STEM fields. Would getting a Masters make a difference?

Almost all my friends are engineering and thy always talk about how people come out of college and get 70k job offers. I wonder if that's true at all. My school does have at least 3 required semester long "co-ops" where you have to go work for a company. I wonder if that helps at all. They get paid pretty gandosmely on their co-ops too. Some well over $20/hr. Most around $17-$20/hr.

Is it that bad for like every field? I figured for some, but engineering surprised me.

I'd say getting a job in a STEM field isn't any harder than getting into med school. If you have the skills, and are a smooth talker (which admittedly most people aren't), you can at-least get an entry position somewhere. Their hiring processes are alot more "fit" and "skilled" based too so you can afford to have a lower GPA and test scores if you can show that you know your stuff in a technical interview. but that's just my experience from what i've seen my STEM friends go through, and it might be different at other schools.

 

[de Ribas]

Almost all my friends are engineering and thy always talk about how people come out of college and get 70k job offers. I wonder if that's true at all.

It is true. But, it takes years to find your niche, to build relationships, to get promoted and such. I have seen how often new engineers are assigned the hardest tasks and lines that have lots of problems. They work hard to prove themselves, to get better pay and better position.

 

[de Ribas]

I completely agree with this statement. My husband makes more than a lot of the people with bachelor's degrees that I know, and he dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and never even got his GED. Hell, when I'm just working full time with no overtime, his take home pay is more than mine as a RN.

It's not necessary to go to school to have a job/career with decent pay, and it's pointless going to school without a strong game plan that absolutely requires X degree, unless you just grew up rich and enjoy throwing money at universities for no ROI.


Plan B - I had a pretty solid one. I have all the right experiences to go to CRNA school - multiple years of high acuity ICU work, two specialty certifications, good grades, leadership at my job, knew some CRNAs I was going to ask to shadow. I had even scheduled the GRE and was going to take it, even though I was completely dreading it. The very first thing I did when I got the call that I was accepted, after doing a happy dance and telling my husband/mother/best friend, was to cancel my GRE appointment. I've never been so happy to cancel something in my life.

My two brothers never went to college. They barely graduated from high school and now make 150-200K a year. My oldest brother has vacations 2-3 times a year. He goes around Europe for several weeks, now he is in Cancun. They started working as truck drivers, within couple years they bought their own trucks and now they own their own company and have several drivers. I have seen one yearly pay myself and it was 175K and I will say, they work no more than 75% per year.

 

[jazzmetal]

My two brothers never went to college. They barely graduated from high school and now make 150-200K a year. My oldest brother has vacations 2-3 times a year. He goes around Europe for several weeks, now he is in Cancun. They started working as truck drivers, within couple years they bought their own trucks and now they own their own company and have several drivers. I have seen one yearly pay myself and it was 175K and I will say, they work no more than 75% per year.

Yeah, if money is the sole goal, then medicine is not the best way to get there. You should have seen what some of the software salespeople I used to work with made for just picking up the phone.

 

[greatplainsmed]

My plan B was to work as an athletic trainer. The hours aren't always ideal (depending on your setting of course), but it is still a healthcare field that is gaining more and more respect and you can greatly control your earning potential based on how much you're willing to work (PRN work pays very well in places where there isn't saturation). Depending on the setting and your personal goals, you get to have a similar impact on individuals as supposedly "better" healthcare workers, plus more personal relationships with your patients.

 

[mwsapphire]

I haven't read this whole thread, but its seems like you have a very realistic plan B, OP.
I'm doing a minor in BME and hopefully will do a masters if I don't get into med school.
Although when it comes to worrying about grades/MCAT, I often like to think
" If I fall short on MD numbers, there's always DO schools were I would be a reasonable applicant"
Not to say that getting a DO acceptance is easy, it's just that when it comes to worrying about grades and MCAT scores in the moment, thinking about DO schools having lower average stats can make you feel more comfortable, and now that there's all those new AOA residencies, it's a comforting thought.

 

[rothguy]

Trade school. Two years of schooling minimum and enter the workforce making upwards of 50k a year.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

Almost all my friends are engineering and thy always talk about how people come out of college and get 70k job offers. I wonder if that's true at all. My

Yes, true......and sometimes more..

The med students that I know that were eng’g majors really kind of struggled at graduation when they saw their classmates walking into $70-90k+ jobs while they were walking into many more years of no income and living like a poor student. The struggle is real.

 

[GypsyHummus]

Podiatry School.

 

[GypsyHummus]

There is a reason the English major working at Starbucks is a stereotype.

Tell me where that BS degree will take anyone. People work in McDonalds with bachelor's nowadays. Besides engineering, nursing and such most BS degrees are useless without experience, connections and other assests.
Some people are even better off never going to college for that bachelor's degree. They start working even earlier, at 18.

 

[Microbug]

marry rich

 

[Shayla Flowere]

I'm double majoring in Biology and Journalism, and if I don't get in to med school I'm thinking about going into science journalism. Probably could go into it without a journalism major but figured that I'd get the experience. Journalism is a dying field though lol...

 

[calivianya]

Wow what does your husband do?

He's a truck driver. There's a lot of money to be had with minimal training in truck driving... and it's a pretty high demand field. Good stuff.

 

[GypsyHummus]

Just Fake News.

I'm double majoring in Biology and Journalism, and if I don't get in to med school I'm thinking about going into science journalism. Probably could go into it without a journalism major but figured that I'd get the experience. Journalism is a dying field though lol...

 

[deleted600623]

Plan B: Make millions trading Penny Stocks.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I completely agree with this statement. My husband makes more than a lot of the people with bachelor's degrees that I know, and he dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and never even got his GED. Hell, when I'm just working full time with no overtime, his take home pay is more than mine as a RN.

It's not necessary to go to school to have a job/career with decent pay, and it's pointless going to school without a strong game plan that absolutely requires X degree, unless you just grew up rich and enjoy throwing money at universities for no ROI.


Plan B - I had a pretty solid one. I have all the right experiences to go to CRNA school - multiple years of high acuity ICU work, two specialty certifications, good grades, leadership at my job, knew some CRNAs I was going to ask to shadow. I had even scheduled the GRE and was going to take it, even though I was completely dreading it. The very first thing I did when I got the call that I was accepted, after doing a happy dance and telling my husband/mother/best friend, was to cancel my GRE appointment. I've never been so happy to cancel something in my life.

Not that it matters, but if you can do well on the MCAT, you’d have been fine on the GRE with maybe a bit of math review. It’s a slightly tougher version of the sat.

 

[calivianya]

Not that it matters, but if you can do well on the MCAT, you’d have been fine on the GRE with maybe a bit of math review. It’s a slightly tougher version of the sat.

CARS was my best section on the MCAT so I knew I'd kill the verbal section; the math review was what I was dreading. I haven't actually taken a math course since 2006 so saying I'm rusty at any kind of math is a vast understatement.

I didn't even remember that the quadratic formula existed or how to find the lengths of sides of a right triangle when I took physics, if that's a clear enough picture of where my math skills stand.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

CARS was my best section on the MCAT so I knew I'd kill the verbal section; the math review was what I was dreading. I haven't actually taken a math course since 2006 so saying I'm rusty at any kind of math is a vast understatement.

I didn't even remember that the quadratic formula existed or how to find the lengths of sides of a right triangle when I took physics, if that's a clear enough picture of where my math skills stand.

Yeah, math is what gets a lot of people lol. It’s like learning a new language (or relearning it).

 

[de Ribas]

I had even scheduled the GRE and was going to take it, even though I was completely dreading it. The very first thing I did when I got the call that I was accepted, after doing a happy dance and telling my husband/mother/best friend, was to cancel my GRE appointment. I've never been so happy to cancel something in my life.

I was registered for GRE once to apply for Masters in Nursing. My app was 100% completed and submitted otherwise. For some weird reasons I was not let to take GRE even though I took MCAT at the same testing center couple weeks before. I guess it wasn't meant for me. Decision was made for me.

 

[LnSin]

Cry and question all of my life decisions.

Of all the people on this forum, you should be worried least lol. If not this cycle, I'm almost 100% certain you'll get in the next. And i'm not just saying that--I really mean it. You'll be fine buddy.

 

[LnSin]

I haven't read this whole thread, but its seems like you have a very realistic plan B, OP.
I'm doing a minor in BME and hopefully will do a masters if I don't get into med school.
Although when it comes to worrying about grades/MCAT, I often like to think
" If I fall short on MD numbers, there's always DO schools were I would be a reasonable applicant"
Not to say that getting a DO acceptance is easy, it's just that when it comes to worrying about grades and MCAT scores in the moment, thinking about DO schools having lower average stats can make you feel more comfortable, and now that there's all those new AOA residencies, it's a comforting thought.

I personally know 2 people who are on their second cycle that exclusively applied MD the first round and didn't get in. This cycle, they have had multiple DO acceptances and at least one MD interview. The simple act of waiting a year, applying to DO, and learning from the mistakes of the last cycle (rewording PS, more time on secondaries, applying day 1, etc.) I think can do a lot. So that's what comforts me, if I don't get in this cycle.

 

[DrDazl]

I personally know 2 people who are on their second cycle that exclusively applied MD the first round and didn't get in. This cycle, they have had multiple DO acceptances and at least one MD interview. The simple act of waiting a year, applying to DO, and learning from the mistakes of the last cycle (rewording PS, more time on secondaries, applying day 1, etc.) I think can do a lot. So that's what comforts me, if I don't get in this cycle.

I am currently in this position! Plus the 2nd time around I know so much more about everything in the process