When Should I Take the MCAT? (Non-Trad Plan)

[urface21]

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First things first, I'm planning a weird route compared to most. I'm taking 5 years of undergrad due to my double major and because of a semester off from a personal reason, and I'm entering my 4th (senior) yr this coming fall.

Following undergrad, I'm planning on entering a completely different industry for at least 1 year to see if I may enjoy that. If I do, then I'd stay indefinitely and hope to attend med school later down the line. I already have my pre-reqs done and have clinical/non-clinical hours as well as ongoing research/premed EC's. However, I am yet to take the MCAT.

I was originally planning on taking it this fall, but I realized that the 3 year expiration date gives my full-time job a time limit of 1 yr before needing to apply. I don't really see another feasible time while being in undergrad to full-time prepare other than this summer to fall, since next summer I'd be quite busy. When I start my full-time job in the other industry, I'd be working 80+ hrs, so that would throw off any plans of studying or whatnot unless I quit and go all into premed (which I'm not against).

So I'm wondering, would it be advisable for me to take it in the fall as a safety net if I hate my other job, even though that means I'd have to retake it if I want to stay more than a year and apply later down the line? Or should I just hold off on taking it until I'm sure about my feelings after doing full-time and completely pivoting?

I wish I wasn't so indecisive lmao, but I figured I only live once so why limit myself. Would appreciate any advice and relevant anecdotes 🙂

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You should take your MCAT as close to the time you will push an application through. Ideally you would take it in January-April before the application cycle opens, though taking it in the late part of the previous cycle (July-September) would also work. You want to give yourself 3 years after taking the exam to successfully apply.

 

[polymerization]

Following undergrad, I'm planning on entering a completely different industry for at least 1 year to see if I may enjoy that. If I do, then I'd stay indefinitely and hope to attend med school later down the line.

I think this is your actual question—i.e., whether or not you actually want to study medicine. Obviously none of us can answer that for you, but it would appear that your answer is no, at least at face value. Can't blame you for asking yourself whether a job you can only truly understand after 12+ years of education will satisfy you on an existential level.

I will tell you, though, from the perspective of an applicant, I feel strongly that nobody wakes up and becomes a physician by accident or random chance. You can't have a toe in two pools and slide in to whichever one feels warmer. I can imagine you can do that in another industry, but medicine is fairly all-encompassing. I can't think of another academic program that asks quite this much from students.

If you're looking for anecdotes, I came into undergrad Fall 2013 and had to drop out due to finances. I went into the workforce hoping it would only be for a semester while I got my feet under me again. The semester came and went, then a year, then 5 years, then 10 years. The dream never dies, but you do start to see yourself differently in the mirror.

I really can't overstate how many times I have kicked myself for disrupting my education, even though I didn't have a choice, literally. A bachelor's degree isn't what it used to be... might as well be a high school diploma in today's job market, especially in science.

Now my tortured ghost trolls the halls of this forum telling people like you that the grass is not greener on the other side. It is only a different shade of brown.

 

[urface21]

I think this is your actual question—i.e., whether or not you actually want to study medicine. Obviously none of us can answer that for you, but it would appear that your answer is no, at least at face value. Can't blame you for asking yourself whether a job you can only truly understand after 12+ years of education will satisfy you on an existential level.

I will tell you, though, from the perspective of an applicant, I feel strongly that nobody wakes up and becomes a physician by accident or random chance. You can't have a toe in two pools and slide in to whichever one feels warmer. I can imagine you can do that in another industry, but medicine is fairly all-encompassing. I can't think of another academic program that asks quite this much from students.

If you're looking for anecdotes, I came into undergrad Fall 2013 and had to drop out due to finances. I went into the workforce hoping it would only be for a semester while I got my feet under me again. The semester came and went, then a year, then 5 years, then 10 years. The dream never dies, but you do start to see yourself differently in the mirror.

I really can't overstate how many times I have kicked myself for disrupting my education, even though I didn't have a choice, literally. A bachelor's degree isn't what it used to be... might as well be a high school diploma in today's job market, especially in science.

Now my tortured ghost trolls the halls of this forum telling people like you that the grass is not greener on the other side. It is only a different shade of brown.

I greatly appreciate hearing your story, and thank you for the advice.

I do want to study medicine, but I have interests in this other field too, which is what leads me to a dilemma. It's now or never for what I'm going into, but there seems to always be a path to medicine (although incrementally harder as time goes on). Both have pros and cons, and I guess I need a bit more perspective before I can definitively write off one for the other. Honestly, I feel I'd be more interested in medicine, but I'd make more in terms of lifetime earnings in the other field (hedge fund).

I resonate with you saying "the dream never dies," even though I'm still in college. I feel like I'd be regretting whatever choice I make, and I guess I'm just lost even though time is ticking. Regardless, you're absolutely right when you say I can't have my toes in two pools. I'd have to choose sooner or later, but knowing myself, I'd want to experience both sides even if one is short-lived.

 

[LizzyM]

Do you want to take care of the sick and/or injured, the healthy who don't want to become sick, and make life or death decisions as the leader of a team responsible for patients' lives? If you do, please go into medicine. You may not finish in time to care for me in my advanced years but my children (or even grandchildren) will need you.

If you want to make decisions that will help investors maximize their returns on investment and deal with complicated mathematical models to do so, then pursue finance and specifically hedge funds. There is nothing wrong with enjoying that challenge and if it floats your boat, hurray for you.

However, I can't quite see why someone would be drawn to both a job at a screen dealing with money and investment vehicles and at the same time feel a draw toward getting up-close and personal with people at some of the saddest and most frightening times of their lives as well as some of the most joyous (healthy babies and all that).

 

[g0ldendoodle]

I was in sort of the opposite camp, flunked out of pre-med in UG so pivoted to finance, then 4 years in consulting to 3 years in PE. Unlike you I had zero pre-reqs so I had to do a DIY post-bacc part-time, and it was very difficult to balance with the career. One other thing to consider is schools look for pre-reqs in last 5 years, so if you are trying to game out 3 years of MCAT score eligibility post-college then the majority of your pre-reqs will be beyond 5 years old. I'm sure there's some wiggle room, but you are going to have fresh and soph courses be 7-8 years old by that point.

MCAT prep will not be feasible with the job. I was 99th+ percentile on both SAT and GMAT and my first three full-length MCAT practices after a couple of months of pretty serious, but part-time, prep were below all 55th percentile. It needs serious prep not just for the physical hours in a day but also just emotional/mental bandwidth. Trust me that you will not have time to do both. If you earnestly try to do both, you'll be less productive at work and will be quickly let go for poor performance. Yet, you also won't score high enough to get in MD if trying to do just enough work to not be fired.

unless I quit and go all into premed (which I'm not against)

Will just say it's one thing to think of this theoretical while you are in college vs once you're in the career. Not so easy when rent, student loans, car payment, and bills are due every month, and you have a significant other who's talking about buying a house and starting a family to just up and quit. I did not have parents or anything to fall back on, but worth having a serious convo about that if your situation is different.

 

[urface21]

I was in sort of the opposite camp, flunked out of pre-med in UG so pivoted to finance, then 4 years in consulting to 3 years in PE. Unlike you I had zero pre-reqs so I had to do a DIY post-bacc part-time, and it was very difficult to balance with the career. One other thing to consider is schools look for pre-reqs in last 5 years, so if you are trying to game out 3 years of MCAT score eligibility post-college then the majority of your pre-reqs will be beyond 5 years old. I'm sure there's some wiggle room, but you are going to have fresh and soph courses be 7-8 years old by that point.

MCAT prep will not be feasible with the job. I was 99th+ percentile on both SAT and GMAT and my first three full-length MCAT practices after a couple of months of pretty serious, but part-time, prep were below all 55th percentile. It needs serious prep not just for the physical hours in a day but also just emotional/mental bandwidth. Trust me that you will not have time to do both. If you earnestly try to do both, you'll be less productive at work and will be quickly let go for poor performance. Yet, you also won't score high enough to get in MD if trying to do just enough work to not be fired.


Will just say it's one thing to think of this theoretical while you are in college vs once you're in the career. Not so easy when rent, student loans, car payment, and bills are due every month, and you have a significant other who's talking about buying a house and starting a family to just up and quit. I did not have parents or anything to fall back on, but worth having a serious convo about that if your situation is different.

Oh wow I didn't realize that some schools had a 5 year shelf life for pre-reqs.

Understandable on the MCAT, I would take a break from work to properly study for it once it gets to that point.

And yea, on the other topic, I guess I'm being optimistic about my other responsibilities. I'm hoping that I'd have a bit of cushioning after working for a bit. However, I definitely am too far removed from the future to be making assumptions like that.

Btw what made you decide that consulting/PE weren't for you and to shoot for med school instead?

 

[anon2]

Do you want to take care of the sick and/or injured, the healthy who don't want to become sick, and make life or death decisions as the leader of a team responsible for patients' lives? If you do, please go into medicine. You may not finish in time to care for me in my advanced years but my children (or even grandchildren) will need you.

If you want to make decisions that will help investors maximize their returns on investment and deal with complicated mathematical models to do so, then pursue finance and specifically hedge funds. There is nothing wrong with enjoying that challenge and if it floats your boat, hurray for you.

However, I can't quite see why someone would be drawn to both a job at a screen dealing with money and investment vehicles and at the same time feel a draw toward getting up-close and personal with people at some of the saddest and most frightening times of their lives as well as some of the most joyous (healthy babies and all that).

Fine, I'll bite. Worked Wall Street for a few years, now incoming MD1. Plenty of my classmates went MD while I went PhD. We all talk shop.

Despite all the non-overlapping magisteria talk, finance, engineering, and medicine aren't that different. Highly complex fields with a very large background knowledge base, mostly applied in real-world integrative solution finding when book knowledge quickly falls by the wayside, and where the hardest required skill of them all is human interaction: half the time understanding what the client/patient truly wants is 90% of the battle. Then you get to do the other 90%.

The nice thing about finance (at least on the buy side trading) is you get immediate feedback; your strat works or it doesn't, and Mr. Market will take all your money regardless of any wishful thinking (cf. LTCM). Upweight the desire to see tangible results, redirect the compartmentalization from financial losses to human suffering, downweight the dick-waving part of the trader mentality, and you'll find the soft skills required for finance map to medicine.

Or, be interested enough to take the crap part of the job, and be competent or promising enough that someone will pay you to do it. That works too.

 

[g0ldendoodle]

Oh wow I didn't realize that some schools had a 5 year shelf life for pre-reqs.

Understandable on the MCAT, I would take a break from work to properly study for it once it gets to that point.

And yea, on the other topic, I guess I'm being optimistic about my other responsibilities. I'm hoping that I'd have a bit of cushioning after working for a bit. However, I definitely am too far removed from the future to be making assumptions like that.

Btw what made you decide that consulting/PE weren't for you and to shoot for med school instead?

If I was in your position I’d definitely recommend thinking about why you have a hard time committing to medicine now despite having the coursework, ECs, clinical hours, etc. Both internal and external factors. Not sure about your specific college or location but assuming top tier in a sizable city given HF recruitment from UG, definitely lean into the mentors and resources to help. You get so much leeway as a student if you show some curiosity and initiative…back in UG, I got to meet with the President of my uni’s health system, partners in consulting and big law, CEO’s, MD’s etc just by picking up the phone or networking. Looking for some MD’s who are in consulting or business would probably be a good start.

Definitely a good question why med from consulting/PE. Really two separate questions, WHY med and then why NOT business. Not one easy all encompassing answer but rather a lot of factors coming together.

Why med

• Some of the pretty typical all I ever wanted to do, liked science, personal and friends/family experiences, enjoyed patient care as an EMT - found having a positive impact on a given patient on a given day with my own hands most rewarding…I just failed Chem1 and Chem2, with B-‘s in bio, stats, and psych fresh year so it just wasn’t gonna happen.
• Like the complex data-driven problem-solving, advocacy, teamwork, leadership, continuous learning, and importance of soft skills like bedside manner. Getting to apply all of these to sick patients who really need it.
• Didn’t feel like I decided against med, more like med wasn’t even in the conversation with my grades. I do remember just completely dismissing postbac because it was $60k in tuition alone at my UG uni. Would’ve not just been a huge loan, but also the opportunity cost of giving up a 6 figure job to take the huge loan plus the thought of what if I then just fail the class again.
• My firm provided tuition reimbursement for professional development so it was more or less free to try a couple pre-reqs at the local state school so felt like giving it a shot in my second year. Really enjoyed being back in the classroom as a much more confident and mature student in a different environment.
• Of course some practicality around it being a job that’s needed pretty much anywhere (good luck in finance outside NYC or NE corridor) and while not necessarily moneybags you do well enough to reasonably support a family

Why not consulting/PE

• Went into it mostly because it seemed like what everyone from my school wanted to do and would be a good springboard once I figured out what I actually wanted to do.
• Cash and external validation just didn’t do it for me. My parents were public school teachers and I made more than either in my first year and both combined by my second. Very frugal rural upbringing, worked to support self during high school and college. Always dreamed of things like a nice apartment, new car, and fancy things then once I had them I realized they didn’t actually mean anything to me.
• Not exactly a long term career path. Doesn’t even have to be your fault, the economy shifts or the wrong person doesn’t like you and it’s GG. Constant up or out, people are counseled to leave every 6 months. Once out, you’re never getting back in to your prior firm or any comparable firms since they all know each other and will do their DD. You used to have to submit every performance eval and be at least top quartile to jump to PE or a similar firm….that doesn’t really happen formally now but informally through back channels 100%.
• Strains relationships. Now I’m not saying medicine doesn’t also do this, but with medicine I feel like there’s at least an understanding and acceptance why you will get home at 6am or have to work through the holidays. I don’t think there’s that same understanding of why this LBO of a regional chain of specialty cardboard manufacturers is so important and can’t wait until tomorrow.

Ultimately I just tried to think about when I am 60 years old what impact would I most want to look back on and what my biggest regrets might be. Try to make as informed of a decision as you can but at some point you just gotta trust your gut, not everyone will understand either decision but you’re the one who has to live with it,