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Your personal back up

Started by gatewasani
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gatewasani

gatewasani

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What is it?

Please don't say, this is negative and that I'm pessimistic for starting this thread. I'm not, but obviously not everyone can't get in, even after a few cycles so I'm just trying to figure out what people have in mind if they ultimately are unsuccessful in securing an acceptance.

I hope everyone gets in but what is your personal backup plan/career?



and don't say SMP or something like that, your still considered pre-med with that.
 
It doesn't apply to me anymore I guess, but my back up was Anesthesiologist Assistant. Thought about CRNA but didn't wanna do the whole nursing program then work for two years before going back to school. As an AA you can still work in the medical field and have some more autonomy than as a nurse, and still make a decent living.
 
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I wish I hadn't started this thread...makes me sad

because truth is, I'd probably end up doing a phD or something else I really don't want to do.
 
I'll do one of 4 things (maybe more than one, who knows).

1. I'll have my Paramedic Cert before I graduate (so prior to ever applying for D.O. school). There are some great programs out there to repay education costs for Paramedics and Firefighters, and EMS is definately something I could see myself being happy with. The pay is crap, but there's time to do other things on the side and still have a decent life. Most Medics I know work part time in the ICU's etc, I'd enjoy that. I really enjoy the pressure and intensity that comes with EMS.

2. Masters in Public Health, I may do this anyway even if I go the Paramedic route. Part of my EC's for med school led me to an awesome opportunity where I was given the opportunity to plan a mass vaccination/education campaign against the H1N1 virus this past fall. Basically my objective was to prevent an H1N1 outbreak among the homeless in Salt Lake City. It took a lot of work, but it was really fun and rewarding work. I ended up recruiting 90 students from my undergrad program (we have an EMT training track in the program), and we ultimately delivered over 4,000 vaccines to the homeless and their service providers (shelter staff, soup kitchen staff etc). Those that refused the immunization (and those that took the immunization for that matter) were given education on preventing contracting and/or spreading the disease. Only 8 suspected influenza cases were ultimately seen all season among our target population. I'd do that kind of work in a heartbeat if given the chance.

3. R.N. My university has a fasttrack program for R.N. so I may give that a go, though Paramedic is more up my alley in terms of health care delivery (aside from physician of course).

4. PA-C: I work with a lot of PA's and they are constantly trying to get me to apply to PA school rather than medical school. I can't argue with their logic, but I have always wanted to be a physician. I like the idea of the relative autonomy that physicians have. If not medical school, this may be a likely choice for me.

SLC
 
I have two degrees that I don't want to use. I think I would apply for PA if I didn't get into a program. We'll see, I guess.
 
I would have either gone the PA route, become an athletic trainer, or tried physical therapy. I worked as a student trainer in undergrad and really enjoyed it.
 
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I guess this question made me think quite a bit. I'm a non-traditional applicant with another career as a clinical research monitor. I think if I didn't get in, I'd monitor for a few years. The pay is high (depending on project, up to $100 per hr for contract work), but the travel is constant (at one point I made it to seven states in a week and they weren't even remotely close to each other). As I become older, I want to settle down (it's a great job when you are young) and hence my desire for a career change.

In order of what I would do if I did not get into a US medical school:
- I would apply abroad (I'm an EU citizen, so I'd consider a few of the English programs in Europe; I would also consider Australia as I have a lot of friends there, and of course the big three Carribbean schools).
- I would strongly consider a PA or NP program. This would be good because I could work in a hospital setting and do some monitoring work on the side.
- I have on and off considered a JD program (while it interests me, I'm not sure this is something I see myself doing). Straight out of undergrad, I was set to pursue law, but had a change of heart. However, at an academic level, law still interests me.


gatewasani said:
What is it?

Please don't say, this is negative and that I'm pessimistic for starting this thread. I'm not, but obviously not everyone can't get in, even after a few cycles so I'm just trying to figure out what people have in mind if they ultimately are unsuccessful in securing an acceptance.

I hope everyone gets in but what is your personal backup plan/career?



and don't say SMP or something like that, your still considered pre-med with that.
Click to expand...
 
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I would have become a marine biologist. I had a lot of upper-division classes in the subject, and 3 years of research... it was a definite option. Glad I didn't have to take it, though.
 
mspeedwagon said:
I guess this question made me think quite a bit. I'm a non-traditional applicant with another career as a clinical research monitor. I think if I didn't get it, I'd monitor for a few years. The pay is high (depending on project, up to $100 per hr for contract work), but the travel is constant (at one point I made it to seven states in a week and they weren't even remotely close to each other). As I become older, I want to settle down (it's a great job when you are young) and hence my desire for a career change.
Click to expand...

Daaaang, that sounds awesome, how''d you get that job...

Were you a biomedical engineering major?
 
Probably do PhD, stay in research field...either continue in academia to professorship or just go work in an industry/company.
 
The job is really open to any one with medical knowledge. It tends to be easiest to get into the field with a nursing degree; however, I only have a biology degree. Here is the wikipedia article describing the role: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_monitoring.

Two things to keep in mind:
- It's a few years before you are making $100+ per hr. The first two years suck and most people are weeded out (reminded me of pre-med actually). They pay you close to nothing those two years and you fly all the time (there's a reason I have 100,000+ frequent flyer miles on three different airlines, and I have not left the United States). It's impossible to have a social life the first two years and the travel is not that exciting (plane, car rental, hotel, clinical site, and repeat).
- The $100 per hr figure is a little deceiving, because that is contract pay. You are not provided benefits. You have to pay for benefits out of pocket. That said, you are still making a lot and this is without an advanced degree. In theory, I should be able to pay two of my four years of medical school without any loans.


gatewasani said:
Daaaang, that sounds awesome, how''d you get that job...

Were you a biomedical engineering major?
Click to expand...
 
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mspeedwagon said:
I guess this question made me think quite a bit. I'm a non-traditional applicant with another career as a clinical research monitor. I think if I didn't get in, I'd monitor for a few years. The pay is high (depending on project, up to $100 per hr for contract work), but the travel is constant (at one point I made it to seven states in a week and they weren't even remotely close to each other). As I become older, I want to settle down (it's a great job when you are young) and hence my desire for a career change.

In order of what I would do if I did not get into a US medical school:
- I would apply abroad (I'm an EU citizen, so I'd consider a few of the English programs in Europe; I would also consider Australia as I have a lot of friends there, and of course the big three Carribbean schools).
- I would strongly consider a PA or NP program. This would be good because I could work in a hospital setting and do some monitoring work on the side.
- I have on and off considered a JD program (while it interests me, I'm not sure this is something I see myself doing). Straight out of undergrad, I was set to pursue law, but had a change of heart. However, at an academic level, law still interests me.
Click to expand...

My back ground is similar. I was a project manager for a CRO doing clinical trials for about a year, though I didn't have to travel as much as the site monitors did. I did go to Europe a bit. All in all a great job with great pay, but too much of an office environment for me. After that I went back to work as a paramedic, which I did before, and now I'm in a PhD program. I'm leaving that to go to AA school, but at least I got a free MS out of the deal! I thought about applying to med school and, for me, its too much time. I'm 30 and I want to finally be done with school and have a job that I can leave at work, make good coin, and have decent vacation time.
 
I guess I am probably zealous, but I once remember seing something the singer Jewel said, if you have a fall aback plan then you will fall back.

So I don't have a fall back plan.
 
I would become a paramedic. Then I would go back to school, do better and become a doctor.
 
Either law school as I crushed all my practice LSATs or B-School do a few years in pharma and then grab an MBA.
 
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I think I'd get a MS in psychology and then a MBA and try to get a position of management.
I think otherwise I'd get a PhD in psychology and consider going into corporate America. We all know that psychologists are the best smooth talkers 🙂.
 
I have an MPH and would definitely have pursued a PhD in Epidemiology or biostatistics.
 
I'm thinking pharmacy. Now, I know a lot of people use that as a typical back up plan since so many of the prereqs are the same, and if you have a B.S. degree then you have likely met all prepharm prereqs if you take the premed stuff as well. I have at least with the exception of calculus which I could knock out in the summer before I start. At any rate, after contemplating what pharmacy would be like in the last few months I think it'll be a good career option. I hate for anyone to think of my views towards it as second best, but I've spent a decade wanting to go to medical school so I intend to take the MCAT and apply to both MD and DO. I'll be 30 when I attend, if I'm accepted the first time I apply. Unfortunately, I don't want to wait long past that so if I'm not accepted the first time I'll likely give up. I don't want to spend my life in school, in debt, and without an income, but let it be said I've looked at the UAMS pharmacy school which is likely the only one I'd be willing to attend. It seems appealing, and the curriculum, as it is now, seems interesting. I also like working in stores (I've ran one) so the retail end of it seems fine although I know pharmacists aren't limited to that. I'm just saying that once left forlorn after not being accepted to medical school that pharmacy seems like a career I could become happy with once I knew my dream job was stomped in the mud.

I noticed some people choose PA school, and I don't think that'd be bad. Arkansas just doesn't seem to be a very PA-friendly state. I've never seen one anywhere, and I've been to a lot of big hospitals. They're here, but since there's only one private PA school the numbers will probably remain low for several years to come. I don't want to be one of the new guys trying to sell myself to groups of doctors who have never worked around PAs before.
 
I think Dentistry is an excellent career field. That's not to say it should be your backup because people that become doctors are smarter than people that become dentists.

Simply, the GPA requirements are often lower for Dental School. Maybe if after a few years you're considering a different field, it's something to look into.

The median Dentist income is around 130K from what I've been told. It looks like that may be after a few years experience, but that's solid pay. AND it's a fairly safe profession similar to medicine--and ObamaCare hasn't taken over yet.
 
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Probably do dental school and try for cosmetic dentistry or something to that effect. Let's be honest, if I'm going to go into a backup career, I'm definitely going to go for the money...

Alright, maybe I'd do law...and become an ambulance chaser...get back at all those who beat me😡

I kid, I kid...sorta😳
 
how come many people have dentistry as their back plan? arent' dental schools as competitive if not more as osteopathic schools?

I am saying this from my prospective because I've got a number of retakes and dental schools don't replace old scores with new ones. So, using their gpa calculation, my gpa would be significantly less.
 
I thought about the role of project manager role (and have worked behind the scenes with vendors etc. getting a trial up and running), but I wanted to be out in the field. I agree that both the monitoring and project managers are great jobs overall witha few major cons (too much travel time or too much time in the office). I'm a few years younger (26 turning 27), and plan to get start in medical school by 29. I want to do general peds, so I should be done by the time I'm 35.


AegriSomnia said:
My back ground is similar. I was a project manager for a CRO doing clinical trials for about a year, though I didn't have to travel as much as the site monitors did. I did go to Europe a bit. All in all a great job with great pay, but too much of an office environment for me. After that I went back to work as a paramedic, which I did before, and now I'm in a PhD program. I'm leaving that to go to AA school, but at least I got a free MS out of the deal! I thought about applying to med school and, for me, its too much time. I'm 30 and I want to finally be done with school and have a job that I can leave at work, make good coin, and have decent vacation time.
Click to expand...
 
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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
how come many people have dentistry as their back plan? arent' dental schools as competitive if not more as osteopathic schools?

I am saying this from my prospective because I've got a number of retakes and dental schools don't replace old scores with new ones. So, using their gpa calculation, my gpa would be significantly less.
Click to expand...


My friend got into Tufts dental, and another got into Nova with lower GPAs then me (3.7)...Don't know how hard the actual DAT is, but the practice ones don't seem bad. But the sample tests could be a joke compared to the actual thing, who knows?
 
sshashid87 said:
Probably do dental school and try for cosmetic dentistry or something to that effect. Let's be honest, if I'm going to go into a backup career, I'm definitely going to go for the money...

Alright, maybe I'd do law...and become an ambulance chaser...get back at all those who beat me😡

I kid, I kid...sorta😳
Click to expand...

I sooooooo do not have the perceptual skills for dentistry. Looking at things upside down and backwards in a little mirror? I'd be red, sweaty, frustrated, ticked off, and the patient would likely be in a lot of pain, LOL.
 
probably move back to honduras and teach for a few years...maybe marry one of the girls i met down there.
 
Possibly law, if my GPA kept me out of that as well than probably Paramedic -> Firefighter.
 
Since I'm headed for nursing school before medical school, that's obviously a good back-up plan...since I'll already be one. If I end up not wanting to do that, I'll go to veterinary school or get a masters in forensic science.
 
Caribbean (SGU or AUC). But if medicine was completely out of the picture, I'd probably just live in SF, Oakland, SD, Boulder, or Austin and sell homemade tie-dye t-shirts on the side of the street next to the organic farmers market people. Seriously. :luck:
 
I was going to apply for a position at Chip n Dales if med school fell through, but I am glad that is not the case.
 
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