advice on path to take

[penne3]

first of all "hello" everyone, this is my first posting.

my story- 27 year old returning to college in pursuit of career in anesthesiology , after high school i attended a 2 year "trade school" and dabbled around in that industry until now, however it no longer intrest me and ive realized i long lost intrest in it. i started back in school last year basically started fresh from scratch, basics and all that. so far ive done all basics such as english,history,psychology,math etc. now as i am about to enter other courses im wondering what exactlly is the best route to take? i know im interested in biology so that will most likely be my major. i guess im basically asking what is the best route for me to take to get into med school and reach my goal as in what classes to take? advice on groups to join? all around info. also as far as GPA goes, for the most part i make A's i struggled in classes such as english and history just for the fact of the lack of intrest and was not committed to them, but as far as math and science course which intrest me im always in the A's.. thanks for any help!!

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[Mobius1985]

Chose a major you will enjoy, as you are most likely to get excellent grades. You can take the usual prerequisites regardless of your major: 1 year Biology with labs, 1 year General Chemistry with labs, 1 year Organic Chemistry with lab, one year Physics with lab, Calculus or Statistics (varies with school), 1 year English. You may not like English, but to do well on the MCAT (required test to attend med school) verbal section and written sections, you need to excel in writing and comprehension. As your writing is not standard, I'd put an extra effort into taking writing-intensive English classes. Excellent grades in every class are essential as the average person accepted to med school has a GPA of 3.6.

Besides excelling in academic work, and getting a good score on the MCAT after finishing the prerequisites, get involved in volunteering (maybe 200 hours over two years, or so) where you have exposure to patients. Humanitarian volunteering is good too. Also think ahead to getting a research experience for 1-2 or more semesters. As you meet doctors while volunteering, set up some shadowing experiences where you follow doctors of various specialties around for 10-40 hours. You will also need to demonstrate leadership in some way.

 

[DrJosephKim]

start studying for the MCAT as early as possible.

 

[penne3]

thanks for the advice, i have already picked up the usual MCAT book and have been going over it. do you think its to early to join any groups being that I am barely in my first biology courses?

 

[Mobius1985]

It's not too early to join a group that you are really interested in and has activities you will enjoy. Any group you join now gives you the potential of eventually holding a leadership position. Getting good grades is your first priority though. Don't stretch yourself too thin.

 

[NTF]

I'd look into the CRNA path as well. If you already know that anesthesiology is your thing, it may be a better fit for you depending on your interests and what you're looking to get out of it.