Alternate way to get into med school AMA

[Anonymous]

I am a new poster- I was also a nontraditional medical student.

TJ -> UVA and went into multimedia development, mostly web but also some web based educational software. I volunteered at a hospital because I liked it. After a few years I decided I would really rather be in medicine and started taking the courses I would need to apply. A post-bacc was really expensive and I was going to be paying on my own. So, I went to community college at night (NVCC and LFCC depending on offerings) and took a job as a medical assistant and medical office manager for a single physician practice. Studied a lot on my own and did well on the MCAT. Fortunately got in to an MD program on my first round of applying! No debt because I went through the military- has pros and cons but medical school has become so expensive, esp if you know you want to go into a lower paid specialty.

Having outstanding grades and high test scores is important, but I agree that the application process is holistic and looks at the whole applicant- it helps to have something different about you, and something you're passionate about.

[Anonymous]

Post bac programs work for some people but it has to make sense. As a reader, I need to sense that it there was an evolution in your story that inspired you to go into medicine. Most med school admissions committees are aware that kids will take advantage of this route

[Anonymous]

I am another post-bac alum and have encouraged my kids to consider this route if they think they might be interested in medicine.

[Anonymous]

Question, can you make your own post bac, assuming a local university offers all the courses, or does it need to be an official program? Could you come back to dc after college, work for 3-4 years while taking those courses at UDC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A post bacc = post baccalaureate degree = masters degree +

This is not correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am another post-bac alum and have encouraged my kids to consider this route if they think they might be interested in medicine.

Why this way ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question, can you make your own post bac, assuming a local university offers all the courses, or does it need to be an official program? Could you come back to dc after college, work for 3-4 years while taking those courses at UDC?

You could but if it’s possible I’d rec a program because of the strong med school admissions counseling and cohort of other focused and motivated students. It’s hard to fit all those classes (plus the MCAT!) into 10 months and it’s nice to have others doing the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am another post-bac alum and have encouraged my kids to consider this route if they think they might be interested in medicine.

Why this way ?

More chance to explore other interests (and less time in pre-med culture.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am another post-bac alum and have encouraged my kids to consider this route if they think they might be interested in medicine.

Why this way ?

Op here, I agree with the PP. I actually don’t want my daughter to go into medicine at all (different story) but if she was set on it I’d encourage her to major to take the post bacc pathway because imo it’s the easiest way to get into med school while also having a good college experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question, can you make your own post bac, assuming a local university offers all the courses, or does it need to be an official program? Could you come back to dc after college, work for 3-4 years while taking those courses at UDC?

Yes you can do this. Only issue is it may not be as efficient because of course times. I considered this option but was feeling older and wanting to get going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know some parents have premed kids and are curious about how to get into medical school. I went to HPY and knew I wasn’t cut out to do premed in those environments so didn’t consider it. Went into public policy - MPP- then decided to give med school a shot. By then my only options was to do a post bacc. I went to a small program with only about 17 people in my class and did really well (we all did) and got into a top 20 med school and later, a top residency program. I’m posting because going this path made me realize a couple things:

1. Med schools care a lot about diversity of experience so being “non trad” is interesting. Meaning, an English major, Econ major, public health major can be more interesting then a bio major. That also means you can take time off and be a stronger applicant. Bonus points if this has some application to medicine. I interview for my med school and one English major wrote a thesis on Chinese conception of midwifery in literature- made her a solid candidate.
2. Major in something that will get you the highest GPA. If you kids are humanities minded, that is great! I was an English major and medicine has a humanities component to it. If you can avoid it, do the science classes later… which brings me to 3
3. If you kids struggles in weed out classes, STOP! Tell them to just focus on high gpa and take the science classes elsewhere later. Post bacc, state school, anything else. My med school does not care where you did your science classes, they care about the GPAs and also about the prestige of where you when to undergrad (to some extent) so we have tons of people who did their science classes at say University of Houston with a 4.0 combined with a high history major total GPA at their undergrad looked amazing on paper. Post bacc to consider are Bryan mawr, goucher, Harvard or literally any state school near you.
4. If you do a post bacc approach, your MCAT matters a lot (it does anyway but even more more so) but I found this to be an easier trade off since I took all my science classes within a year and everything was fresh. My post bacc also geared our lectures toward the exam.

Tl;dr if your kids are struggling right now in premed classes, there is another way. You can have them major in what they like such as a humanities and then take the science courses in a more optimal environment. This works for many many students and I’ve noticed those in the know take this approach.

I 2nd the 2). My neighbor is a neurosurgeon and has a BA in German.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a new poster- I was also a nontraditional medical student.

TJ -> UVA and went into multimedia development, mostly web but also some web based educational software. I volunteered at a hospital because I liked it. After a few years I decided I would really rather be in medicine and started taking the courses I would need to apply. A post-bacc was really expensive and I was going to be paying on my own. So, I went to community college at night (NVCC and LFCC depending on offerings) and took a job as a medical assistant and medical office manager for a single physician practice. Studied a lot on my own and did well on the MCAT. Fortunately got in to an MD program on my first round of applying! No debt because I went through the military- has pros and cons but medical school has become so expensive, esp if you know you want to go into a lower paid specialty.

Having outstanding grades and high test scores is important, but I agree that the application process is holistic and looks at the whole applicant- it helps to have something different about you, and something you're passionate about.

Very interesting. My DC1 is at Brown and they won't take CC science classes.

[Anonymous]

this is very inefficient and time consuming. skip the undergrad BS, go abroad and get an MD.

[Anonymous]

If you get an MD abroad won't it be harder for you to practice in the states?

[Anonymous]

Thank you OP for starting this great discussion!