I'm curious if anyone on this forum would know anything about Med School. A good friend of mine is an engineer. We studied Electrical Eng & Computer Science together, but that doesn't involve any premed courses (except for physics & intro chemistry). Off late, he's become quite determined to goto med-school. He's a motivated lad though, and has managed to self-learn some of the premed literature by himself so far.
- Given this information, what's his best course of action?
- Do you think he needs to redo undergrad?
- Are there any programs that allow young people (he's only 23) to take just the premed necessities?
PS: I know this is a finance forum, but i'm just fishing for ideas here. Looks like people here have varied backgrounds, so hopefully someone'll know.
What Do You Need to Get into Medical School?
While most med school mentions on this forum talk about the leaving the medical path/field for finance, the varied backgrounds of our forum users means that almost any question posted here will get a response.
For someone who wants to go to med school, but has an unrelated major and/or work experience, here are the criteria:
- Pre-requisite courses in biology, chemistry, etc.
- Good score on the MCAT
WSO forum users recommend the following options:
- Post-bac programs to complete pre-req courses
- Complete pre-reqs at a community college
- Extend undergrad by a year to complete pre-reqs
- Check out Student Doctor Network for more advice
Recommended Reading
http://www.gs.columbia.edu/postbac/
But I don't see the advantage of the program over just taking the courses at the local state/community college. Bio 101 is the same wherever you go.
forums.studentdoctor.net is an excellent source of information.
He will need to take the required prereqs (1 year of bio, 1 year of chemistry, 1 year of ochem, 1 year of physics, there is more but I can't remember) + additional classes that would help in MCAT prep (physiology, micro, etc).
I believe he can do this informally via taking classes at the local college and register as a post bac or officially enroll in a post back program. Some are catered to the likes of your friend (career changers, involves all the prereqs and preps for MCAT) while others are geared towards students who have finished with a degree in science but may want to boost their GPA. Anyways, as I said the site above is a wonderful source of info.
Good luck,
PS. I believe they are changing the MCAT format within the next few years.
Why not just get a BO role as like a nurse and then try to network into a more FO doctor role?
it's been done. my hs chum: 2 years MM IBD from a regional target, off to top 15 medical school and now an orthopedic surgeon. not uncommon story.
There are several post-bac's he can do to fulfill the requirements and local college classes work as well to my knowledge. To mimic what others have said, it's not uncommon to do.
I had some friends that did this, community college is the way to go as the classes are super cheap. Maybe transition to a more prestigious program such as the Columbia after a year or so but should do the first year if not all at a CC. Prices are to low to choose otherwise.
Give him a gun, tell him to shoot him self in the foot, and he can go to a hospital.
One of my friends did it recently. Was EE like me, during MS program decided to go for medical. Stayed back and took all the premed courses and applied, got in. You can also do post bac, but doing the undergrad level courses are probably more important. Even though community college might sound like the easy way out, you don't only need good grades, but also good MCAT (like 30+ for almost all schools). For that, it's better to be in some somewhat competitive undergrad level courses rather than easy CC or postbac classes.
One of my coworkers husband went from working for medical devices company to medicine. She says he went out of country (Europe) because US schools were judgmental about someone suddenly wanting to become a doctor vs someone always planning it. Now doing residency in US. So that's something to consider too.
postbac programs. Im actually going to med school next year, and on the interview trail, I have seen all sorts of people from banking/consulting to engineers interviewing with me. your friend might have to take the new mcat though, which seems like it'd be much harder
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