yokelridesagain

[yokelridesagain]

Strategy depends on your individual circumstances–above all, are you good at taking standardized tests? All of these multiple choice, standardized exams have some core similarities and people who have a knack for taking them have a substantial built-in advantage.

I wouldn’t stress too much about the timing of your physics course. It’s a major error to think that what you need to do to be ready for the MCAT is, for instance, have the details of each prerequisite course down pat. You could go into the MCAT with the knowledge to do well on your chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and biology course finals and do quite poorly. You DO need to know the basics but you will get far less benefit than you might hope from rote memorization of random facts, list of formulas, etc. It would be a mistake to take the MCAT if you’ve never taken the prerequisite material before (i.e., no high school physics course), but you don’t need to spend three months compulsively reviewing every detail of the course content before the test.

I would try out a test preparation question book of your choice and see where you stand on a “practice” exam. If your score is not in the ballpark of where you want it to be, the benefit of waiting is that you have more time to practice.

[yokelridesagain]

In general, taking a spring MCAT for the first attempt is preferable. If one does well, the scores are available to schools early in the application cycle. If things don’t go well, you have another chance later on.

When you take the MCAT really depends on when you want to matriculate (enter) into medical school. If you would want to start med school in fall 2010, you would need to take the MCAT no later than summer of this year. If you want to enter in 2011, waiting for spring 2010 would be reasonable.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

There is no score on the MCAT that one could achieve that would make GPA “not matter”.

You need a GPA of about 3.4 to be a credible candidate. In certain circumstances (difficult academic major at a rigorous institution) the bar might very occasionally go lower. The chances of getting accepted with a GPA of below 3 are extremely low.

Why? An admissions committee looking at a GPA of 2.4 and an MCAT of say, 43, thinks: very talented person, no work ethic. Medical school (the first two years in particular) is primarily dedicated to the rote memorization of a vast quantity of data. Medical school tests measure your knowledge of facts: either you know them or you don’t. The only measures of aptitude that matter are:

A. Ability and
B. Willingness

…to memorize said data. The MCAT is a reasonable measure of the first; GPA is the only reasonable indicator of the latter.

[yokelridesagain]

The usual sequence of events is to take the MCAT in the spring, or in a less than ideal situation, in the fall of the year before one plans to apply. From a timing basis alone, you could certainly apply for admission in fall 2008.

Medical schools in the Caribbean catering to U.S. students who can’t get into U.S. medical schools are usually viewed as the least desirable sources of residents by U.S. residency programs. You are far better off with a D.O. from a U.S. school than a Caribbean M.D.

Things to realize before considering the Caribbean route include:

1. There are several specialties, including dermatology, radiology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, ENT, urology and neurosurgery, that are difficult to get into for US medical students. Obtaining a residency in one of these specialties from a Caribbean medical school would be extraordinarily unusual.

2. Most “prestigious” residency programs will not interview graduates of places like Ross. There are residency programs, mostly in primary care specialties, that routinely accept students from these institutions as there are many more residency slots than US medical graduates. A potential applicant needs to realize, however, that choice of specialty, geographic location, and program will be significantly limited for graduates of these schools.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

The admission requirements of medical schools may vary somewhat in terms of “technical requirements” for admission.

However, in general, the M.D. is a broad, undifferentiated degree and medical schools tend to require that students have adequate motor, sensory, and intellectual skills to participate meaningfully in all laboratory and clinical exercises. The implications of this are that, fairly or not, a potential student who might be able to function in some aspect of medicine (i.e. psychiatry) might be excluded because of functional inability to perform the duties of a physician in other roles.

Someone who is blind or has a cervical cord injury resulting in significant impairment in arm/hand function likely could not be admitted. Paralysis of the legs alone or lack of sense of smell would not be sufficient justification for rejection of an application. Lack of ability to hear may be more of a grey area, but exclusion on grounds of inability to auscultate with a stethoscope is probably justifiable.

As regards mental/intellectual disorders, medical schools are required to make reasonable accomodations (i.e. more time to take tests) for learning disabilities. Clearly, some disorders of intellectual function (i.e., mental retardation) cannot be “reasonably accomodated”. Medical schools cannot legally refuse to admit someone on tbe sole basis of a prior diagnosis of uncomplicated mood disorder, personality disorder, or treated substance abuse/dependence. Active abuse of or dependece on alcohol or other drugs or disorders producing impaired perception of reality (i.e. paranoid schizophrenia with residual symptoms) would likely be barriers to admission.

Once a physician is in practice, the ability to perform the functions required of his or her particular specialty becomes paramount. For instance, loss of dexterity in the hands due to Parkinson’s disease would clearly end a cardiothoracic surgeon’s career but have little impact on the work of a diagnostic radiologist or psychiatrist.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

The “objective” factors that go into medical school admission requirements are: overall GPA, science GPA, and MCAT scores. So, your undergraduate GPA to date will be very helpful for the first of those. Your science GPA is going to be composed primarily of your scores in pre-requisite courses. I would aim for a 3.6 or better.
Achieve that and score in the high 20s or better on the MCAT and you probably get in to medical school.

Post-bacc programs are nice because they have reserved class space for you and close contact with an advisor. You can just take all of the required courses on your own, but you would need to check with the individual institution that you’re interested in to make sure that there’s going to be space available in those classes for a non-degree student.

Bluntly, many pre-meds have little aptitude for chemistry or physics. Medical school, however, primarily requires verbal memory and reading comprehension skills rather than mathematical manipulation. So–if you can do well enough in the courses it basically doesn’t matter whether you’re actually good at it.

I wouldn’t worry so much about your aptitude. If you can excel at an Ivy League institution in coursework required of upperclassmen, you should be able to handle courses that are essentially freshman introductory sequences.

If you were failing these courses in high school, that would be a cause for concern. I wouldn’t be concerned if you made “Bs” in chemistry and physics in high school. You’re a better student now than you were then, and you’ll be devoting all of your study time to these courses.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

I don’t have specific experience applying to medical school at Hopkins, but…

In general, chemistry and biology requirements cover any courses in those disciplines that are part of the general curriculum offered by the College of Sciences or the equivalent thereof at your university. Things like “Biology for Nursing” or “Chemistry for Business Majors” usually don’t count. Cell biology and physical chemistry do.

As to the second question–I don’t think there’s anything in the admission requirements prescribing a particular mode of grading. Now, as to whether it will negatively impact your application–is this a standard grading practice at your institution? Would other medical school applicants from McGill likely have taken humanities courses on a pass/fail basis? If the admissions committee thinks that you took courses pass/fail to avoid receiving low marks, thereby artificially inflating your GPA, they will likely view that as a negative.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

Given the information you’ve provided, it seems that you haven’t yet taken all of the pre-requisite undergraduate courses required for admisssion to medical school. (You need two semesters of intro chemistry with lab and two semesters of organic with lab, for instance). Enrolling in a formal post-baccalaureate program wouldn’t change those requirements–in fact, many of the programs specifically designed for med school hopefuls require that you’ve completed all necessary pre-requisites.

Your undergraduate overall and science GPA isn’t clear from your post. How competitive you are depends to some extent on whether those numbers are closer to 3.3 or 3.7–although a clear pattern of improvement does help.

Step one is to complete all of the medical school pre-reqs, then take the MCAT. If you have a 3.5 overall and science GPA and a 30+ MCAT, you may be able to get in without investing the time and money in a formal post-bacc program.

These programs are, in my opinion, most beneficial for students with mediocre undergraduate grades and good MCAT scores. The most impressive programs are those that enroll you in medical school courses and have you compete against medical students for grades, i.e. Georgetown.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

Call your local military recruiter for whichever branch of the service you would like to be commissioned for–I suggest the Navy–stay on the boat!

All kidding aside, if the local recruiter doesn’t know they will sure know how to get in touch with someone who does.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

Again–

Undergraduate nursing programs are designed to prepare people for nursing careers. They are professional training programs–a medical school admission committee would wonder why someone chose to pursue a particular training program and then abandoned that track after several years of training.

Many nursing degree programs have classes like “biology for nursing”, “chemistry for nursing”, etc., and these courses will not satisfy medical school pre-requisites. It will look very strange for a student to simultaneously take these courses alongside their more rigorous eqiuvalents.

I agree that one can major in any academic field and go to medical school. Pre-professional programs are another matter. You might as well ask, “Should I major in biology or go to law school to prepare for medical school?”

Being a nurse (or a lawyer) doesn’t mean that you can’t go to medical school–trying to BECOME a nurse (or a lawyer) to get INTO medical school is nuts.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

Offshore medical schools in the Caribbean have lenient admission policies because:

1. They would like you to go to their school and give them money.

2. None of the students who can get one of the 11,000 medical school slots in the US will go there; most students with good grades and test scores get those slots. If they had the same requirements as US medical schools, they would admit very few people–creating a problem with the getting of money.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

No one in their right mind would expect someone in your situation to get meaningful letters of recommendation from undergrad science professors six years after the fact.

My medical school letters of recommendation came from two history professors (my major) and a psychology professor. I was offered interviews at all of the six schools to which I applied.

Getting letters from your public health professors seems like a fine idea.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

To address the questions above–

1. With the exception of certain physician-scientist training programs, math beyond one semester of calculus is not typically required for med school admission. More advanced calculus training will not required or used in medical school classes.

2. I’m not aware of any US MD or DO programs that don’t require any mathematics courses, although a number of schools have begun accepting statistics in lieu of calculus (a fundamental knowledge of statistics is far more useful in medicine than an understanding of entry level calculus, so this makes sense). There may be some school that I’m not aware of that has no math requirement, but you will severely limit the number of places that you can apply to if you don’t complete a calculus or statistics course.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

A bachelor’s degree in nursing or pre-nursing is designed to prepare one for a career as an RN, not an MD. Medical school admission requirements frequently state that classes designed for nursing students are not acceptable for satisfaction of standard pre-admission pre-requisites.

Physician-resident

[yokelridesagain]

If your school went to the extent of withholding your diploma and you “had to attend AA for six months”, I’m guessing that we’re talking about something more than a minor in possession or DUI citation.

How this will affect your chances of admission depends a great deal on how you present it. If you intend to continuing using alcohol (or other drugs of abuse) despite your well documented history of problems, I anticipate that medical schools would view you as an active substance abuser; you can probably guess what that will do for your chances of admission.

On the other hand, if you present yourself as an “addict” in recovery, you do have certain legal protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act. A school or employer may be able to require you to submit to frequent random drug and alcohol screens and actively participate in a recovery program, but they probably can’t legally exclude you on the basis of a prior problem with substance abuse alone.

Now, medical schools are allowed to discriminate on the basis of certain disabilities that impair one’s ability to practice medicine (i.e., the admission requirements of most schools mandate that one have functional use of the senses of sight and hearing). You may not have the same degree of protection under ADA that you would if applying for a different job.

Whether or not you can put this behind you without getting “labelled” as having a documented diagnosis of substance abuse/dependence is difficult to know. An attorney with experience in dealing with disability litigation might be your best resource.

I would emphasize that at an absolute minimum you are going to have to be willing to stop using alcohol and other drugs of abuse and be willing to demonstrate this commitment.

Physician-resident

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