Thread: Med School?
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Old 01-22-2005, 12:04 PM   #4 (permalink)
uncle_el
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Location: n hollywood, ca
getting into medical school is not impossible.

you don't have to be a pre-med major, you don't have to be a science major. as soccerchamp76 said, you need those classes. also, you don't have to be right out of college either. the average age of a first year medical student in the u.s. is around 25 years old anyway... many people come in through other walks of life.

in my first year class at emory, we had:
a trained classical pianist
a former physical therapist
a woman in her late 30s who had been in the business world
a guy who didn't start college until he was 25
a few people who pursued master's degrees in public health...

the list could go on and on. suffice it to say, many medical students (50-70%) were science majors; but there are plenty of people who had other majors. a year or two post college won't hurt you at all- there are a few options:
1. take more classes at the college you're at
2. graduate and take post-bacculaureate (often referred to as post-bacc) courses/programs- designed for people who want to go to med school, but need the classes
3. graduate, work for a few years, then do a post-bacc and apply
4. give up now


while i did say that many medical students were science majors in undergrad, it doesn't necessarily prepare them any better for medical school. it's going to be hard work regardless, and pretty much everyone i know in med school regardless of major worked their ass of and studied a lot. if anything, i think non-science majors have an advantage of having more courses where discourse is essential, ideas are exchanged rather than regurgitation of information, and people learn to relate to one another- this becomes key in the 3rd and 4th year of medical school where you're preliminarily in the hospital.


don't be discouraged by your current gpa or the fact that you haven't taken the appropriate courses. what's key is to decide what you want to do, and do what's necessary to get there. provided you do well in your courses, get a good score on the mcat, you then apply to med school. with the application, your essay is essential because it gives you a chance to explain and express why you want to be a doctor and perhaps some of the road of your journey into medicine.


just one medical student's insight and opinions.
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