Anonymous wrote:CNA, MA and EMT courses can be from 4-12 weeks and cost > $1000. Just looked and phlebotomy is $2300 at MCCC

In the DMV, the classes fill up fast.

You might be able to do that over the summer, and is fine for a gap year, but it is quite a investment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CNA, MA and EMT courses can be from 4-12 weeks and cost > $1000. Just looked and phlebotomy is $2300 at MCCC

In the DMV, the classes fill up fast.

You might be able to do that over the summer, and is fine for a gap year, but it is quite a investment.

You are making excuses. These premed reqs truly are not that difficult provided one has done the homework and is in a college that supports premeds.
Many undergrads have EMT or CNA or both as courses for credit (ie covered by semester tuition) or for a significant discount for non-nursing students, or as part of a club. I found two ivy/T10 with such options and three public schools, all with affiliated med schools, in about 20 seconds of googling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kid is doing a BS/MD program. I highly recommend this route, it's a huge relief.

+1. This needs to be emphasized. Parents of HS students interested in medicine: Look for direct admit programs!

Anonymous wrote:CNA, MA and EMT courses can be from 4-12 weeks and cost > $1000. Just looked and phlebotomy is $2300 at MCCC

In the DMV, the classes fill up fast.

You might be able to do that over the summer, and is fine for a gap year, but it is quite a investment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have 3 years of heavily focused undergrad followed by a year of a related medical experience (paid internship) and then med school.

And they need to let more kids into med school. We need more American-educated doctors.

Sigh. This was addressed above. It's not as simple as simply admitting more students. Could you pack more into the lecture halls? Sure (especially now that lots of students don't go to lecture, it's recorded and many watch it ... or plan to anyway ... later). But there simply are not enough rotation sites or residency sites.

This is not true. There are 6000 more residency spots than US MD/DO grads per year.

And American grads do not want those spots. You realize that not all programs/residencies are the same, right? That not all are created equal? And that rotation sites are not residency spots? I had an M4 complaining bitterly to me just last week about lack of rotation spots.

So to me there seems to be a gap here that I’m not understanding. We have a fairly low medical school acceptance rate, but we are importing doctors to do jobs Americans supposedly don’t want. Further, those foreign doctors are graduating from medical school with fewer years of training and less expensive training (undergrad and medical school is free in many countries), no shadowing, etc. This doesn’t make a ton of sense. Why don’t we admit more Americans on the basis that they will take those primary care jobs? Why don’t we make medical school more affordable so people can better understand the community they serve?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a retired US academic physician who worked at a top medical school, I have a few reflections:

At UVa 50 years ago, 500 future premeds huddled into the chemistry lecture hall to hear about the process of becoming a doctor. Over the next four years we studied hard and played hard. But many were lost along the way. At the time of my graduation in 1979, there were only about 50 (10%) students who were directly accepted into an allopathic medical school, mostly UVa or MCV. At that time the national acceptance rate was about 45%. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK217679/table/ttt00015/?report=objectonly.
At UVa, I don't know how many reapplied and subsequently accepted. The core requirement classes in biology, chemistry, physics, math, etc., were very challenging. It was very difficult to get an A, much less a B. Grade inflation, at least at UVa, was nonexistent, as it is today. Many had some type of clinical exposure or worked in labs, but it was difficult to find opportunities. Very few had research publications. Gap years were unheard off. For those who wern't directly accepted, some took additional courses or pursued a master's before reapplying. In the late 1970s there were only 3 offshore Caribbean medical schools. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_medical_school I don't know how many chose a DO route. Finally, relative to the present, with loans the financial burden of medical school was feasible for a middle class family.

Just a few comments on the current international medical graduate (IMG) situation. A few years ago I worked with foreign-trained medical students and doctors trying to get into a US residency. For those who had excellent grades, scores and letters, pleasant personalities, and spoke English, they were successful in matching into a residency. In the past couple of years, however, the IMG situation has dramatically changed due to politics. With the stringent VISA requirements, particularly with respect to the H1B, many residency programs are not accepting IMG applicants. This could make the physician shortage worse, particularly in primary care. Just take a look at the posts on this Reddit site for FMGs: https://www.reddit.com/r/IMGreddit/.

2025 Match Data
93.5% of U.S. MD seniors matched
92.6% of U.S. DO seniors matched
67.8% of U.S. citizen international medical graduates (IMGs) matched
58% of non-U.S. citizen IMGs matched,a
https://www.nrmp.org/about/news/2025/05/nrmp-releases-2025-main-residency-match-results-and-data-report-providing-in-depth-insight-into-the-largest-residency-match-in-history/#:~:text=Among%20all%20active%20U.S.%20DO,the%20Match%20and%20SOAP%20overall.

Your "reflections" on medical school admittance are about a half a century old. Not remotely applicable here.

That poster is someone who would know vastly, vastly more about what med schools are looking for in incoming students to than overbearing mom helicoptering their adult children’s professional school paths for bragging rights.

There is a lot of excellent advice on this thread from people with very recent experience with med school admissions who know a lot more than someone who is just a mom.

Anonymous wrote:CNA, MA and EMT courses can be from 4-12 weeks and cost > $1000. Just looked and phlebotomy is $2300 at MCCC

In the DMV, the classes fill up fast.

You might be able to do that over the summer, and is fine for a gap year, but it is quite a investment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have 3 years of heavily focused undergrad followed by a year of a related medical experience (paid internship) and then med school.

And they need to let more kids into med school. We need more American-educated doctors.

Sigh. This was addressed above. It's not as simple as simply admitting more students. Could you pack more into the lecture halls? Sure (especially now that lots of students don't go to lecture, it's recorded and many watch it ... or plan to anyway ... later). But there simply are not enough rotation sites or residency sites.

This is not true. There are 6000 more residency spots than US MD/DO grads per year.

And American grads do not want those spots. You realize that not all programs/residencies are the same, right? That not all are created equal? And that rotation sites are not residency spots? I had an M4 complaining bitterly to me just last week about lack of rotation spots.

So to me there seems to be a gap here that I’m not understanding. We have a fairly low medical school acceptance rate, but we are importing doctors to do jobs Americans supposedly don’t want. Further, those foreign doctors are graduating from medical school with fewer years of training and less expensive training (undergrad and medical school is free in many countries), no shadowing, etc. This doesn’t make a ton of sense. Why don’t we admit more Americans on the basis that they will take those primary care jobs? Why don’t we make medical school more affordable so people can better understand the community they serve?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a retired US academic physician who worked at a top medical school, I have a few reflections:

At UVa 50 years ago, 500 future premeds huddled into the chemistry lecture hall to hear about the process of becoming a doctor. Over the next four years we studied hard and played hard. But many were lost along the way. At the time of my graduation in 1979, there were only about 50 (10%) students who were directly accepted into an allopathic medical school, mostly UVa or MCV. At that time the national acceptance rate was about 45%. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK217679/table/ttt00015/?report=objectonly.
At UVa, I don't know how many reapplied and subsequently accepted. The core requirement classes in biology, chemistry, physics, math, etc., were very challenging. It was very difficult to get an A, much less a B. Grade inflation, at least at UVa, was nonexistent, as it is today. Many had some type of clinical exposure or worked in labs, but it was difficult to find opportunities. Very few had research publications. Gap years were unheard off. For those who wern't directly accepted, some took additional courses or pursued a master's before reapplying. In the late 1970s there were only 3 offshore Caribbean medical schools. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_medical_school I don't know how many chose a DO route. Finally, relative to the present, with loans the financial burden of medical school was feasible for a middle class family.

Just a few comments on the current international medical graduate (IMG) situation. A few years ago I worked with foreign-trained medical students and doctors trying to get into a US residency. For those who had excellent grades, scores and letters, pleasant personalities, and spoke English, they were successful in matching into a residency. In the past couple of years, however, the IMG situation has dramatically changed due to politics. With the stringent VISA requirements, particularly with respect to the H1B, many residency programs are not accepting IMG applicants. This could make the physician shortage worse, particularly in primary care. Just take a look at the posts on this Reddit site for FMGs: https://www.reddit.com/r/IMGreddit/.

2025 Match Data
93.5% of U.S. MD seniors matched
92.6% of U.S. DO seniors matched
67.8% of U.S. citizen international medical graduates (IMGs) matched
58% of non-U.S. citizen IMGs matched,a
https://www.nrmp.org/about/news/2025/05/nrmp-releases-2025-main-residency-match-results-and-data-report-providing-in-depth-insight-into-the-largest-residency-match-in-history/#:~:text=Among%20all%20active%20U.S.%20DO,the%20Match%20and%20SOAP%20overall.

Your "reflections" on medical school admittance are about a half a century old. Not remotely applicable here.

That poster is someone who would know vastly, vastly more about what med schools are looking for in incoming students to than overbearing mom helicoptering their adult children’s professional school paths for bragging rights.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have 3 years of heavily focused undergrad followed by a year of a related medical experience (paid internship) and then med school.

And they need to let more kids into med school. We need more American-educated doctors.

Sigh. This was addressed above. It's not as simple as simply admitting more students. Could you pack more into the lecture halls? Sure (especially now that lots of students don't go to lecture, it's recorded and many watch it ... or plan to anyway ... later). But there simply are not enough rotation sites or residency sites.

This is not true. There are 6000 more residency spots than US MD/DO grads per year.

And American grads do not want those spots. You realize that not all programs/residencies are the same, right? That not all are created equal? And that rotation sites are not residency spots? I had an M4 complaining bitterly to me just last week about lack of rotation spots.

Anonymous wrote: