Which med schools like non-trads?

[Gladiolus23]

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…and have a higher median age of matriculants? So far, I can only think of Dartmouth that is often mentioned on this forum. Are there any others? Does the school you attend have a large number of non-trads?

 

[darkjedi]

Brown likes nontrads to offset their PLME class. Penn, Columbia, Hopkins, Mt Sinai and Cornell also like non trads.
Harvard and Stanford for whatever reason don't.

Many schools publish their median matriculant age which can give insight too.

 

[Gladiolus23]

Brown likes nontrads to offset their PLME class. Penn, Columbia, Hopkins, Mt Sinai and Cornell also like non trads.
Harvard and Stanford for whatever reason don't.

Many schools publish their median matriculant age which can give insight too.

Huh that's weird…do they discriminate against non-trads for some reason? Maybe they are expecting students to be perfect and go straight thru from undergrad with all the right ECs and stats 😕

 

[deleted407021]

There are plenty of non-traditional students at my program. Many if not all DO programs are non-trad friendly.

 

[Goro]

In MSAR Online, if you go to Matriculant Demographics, you can see what % of the class came from post-bac programs.

Another useful stat from MSAR will be "% of students with graduate degree". For Albany, it's 29%! But only 2 from a post-bac program. Note that the latter doesn't differentiate between a program and doing an informal post-bac.

I havn't compiled a full list, but among them are:

BU
Drexel
NYMC (especially this one!)
UCSF and Columbia (but you better have the bonafides)
Dartmouth (see NYMC)
Netter

Yale's Class last year had a huge number of non-trads...but again, have the bona-fides.

To this list, add all DO schools.

…and have a higher median age of matriculants? So far, I can only think of Dartmouth that is often mentioned on this forum. Are there any others? Does the school you attend have a large number of non-trads?

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Add Case to the list.

 

[gyngyn]

We all do.
We all like excellent candidates. It has nothing to do with when you graduated.

 

[jaxon]

silly question, but is there a hard and fast definition of "non-trad," btw? Is it necessarily a career changer, or just someone who graduated UG 3+ years ago?

 

[WedgeDawg]

silly question, but is there a hard and fast definition of "non-trad," btw? Is it necessarily a career changer, or just someone who graduated UG 3+ years ago?

I generally consider someone non-trad if there is more than two years between the year of college graduation and the year of med school matriculation, but I think the definition varies slightly depending on who you're talking to and in what context.

 

[DocMcMommy]

silly question, but is there a hard and fast definition of "non-trad," btw? Is it necessarily a career changer, or just someone who graduated UG 3+ years ago?

I consider anyone who is unmarried and/or doesn't have children, who went to college directly (up to maybe a year off) as "traditional" and anyone outside of that more on the "nontraditional" side. But, and I should probably just put this in my signature, I'm still an undergrad. So my view/opinion could be, and is probably, different than what others consider or care about.

 

[redferrari]

My school is VERY non-trad friendly. As someone in-between (one gap year), I find the non-trads to be much better classmates. It wouldn't surprise me to hear adcoms say they almost make better applicants. More mature, less drama, and simply more pleasant to be around. There's people old enough to be my parents in my class. However, my school is very biased to IS residents, so it's not wise to apply solely because we're non-trad friendly.

 

[URHere]

OHSU is notoriously non-trad friendly. When I went there, the average age of my matriculating class was 26. Some years it was as 27-28. Many of my classmates had previous careers and were very interesting people overall.

 

[QueenAudrey]

Keep in mind though, that some of these supposedly "nontrad-friendly" schools put an expiration date on your prerequisites. Many of the NYC private (oddly, not Sinai) and Philly schools want you to have taken or retaken your sciences within the past 5 years. Wright State wants them within the past 10 years. Retakes = more time and $$$

Some schools are specifically veteran friendly and will waive or reimburse your secondary fee (EVMS, ETSU) or encourage you to submit an LOR from your chain of command (MUSC). Some have veteran recruitment programs, such as UNC. Others have up to 3% veterans in each class per MSAR, such as Wisconsin (not MCW).

I hope that helps somebody, someday.

 

[Gladiolus23]

My school is VERY non-trad friendly. As someone in-between (one gap year), I find the non-trads to be much better classmates. It wouldn't surprise me to hear adcoms say they almost make better applicants. More mature, less drama, and simply more pleasant to be around. There's people old enough to be my parents in my class. However, my school is very biased to IS residents, so it's not wise to apply solely because we're non-trad friendly.

Thanks for the reply! Which school do you go to?