All Med schools require degree?

[carl414]

As I mentioned in another post, I attended junior college for 2 years over 12 years ago. I'm now going back this fall to finish what I started - only this time preparing for acceptance to a med school.

I have 47 units that transferred over (2.87 overall GPA unfortunately, but Fortunately, no science GPA at all)- and only 6 will count towards any degree. Could I just take the necessary pre-reqs of chem, bio, physics, etc. and be done in 2 years, or must I go through another 4 to get a degree before applying to med school?

Personally I have no interest in a degree unless it directly influences my ability to get into m. school and practice one day. Could I just do the pre-reqs first, and apply if degree isn't required - and then if not accepted finish the degree and apply again once complete?

Thoughts?

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[Dr.Millisevert]

As I mentioned in another post, I attended junior college for 2 years over 12 years ago. I'm now going back this fall to finish what I started - only this time preparing for acceptance to a med school.

I have 47 units that transferred over (2.87 overall GPA unfortunately, but Fortunately, no science GPA at all)- and only 6 will count towards any degree. Could I just take the necessary pre-reqs of chem, bio, physics, etc. and be done in 2 years, or must I go through another 4 to get a degree before applying to med school?

Personally I have no interest in a degree unless it directly influences my ability to get into m. school and practice one day. Could I just do the pre-reqs first, and apply if degree isn't required - and then if not accepted finish the degree and apply again once complete?

Thoughts?

There are quite a few medical schools that don't require a degree. However, the problem I see in your situation is that most will stipulate that you must have 90s semester hours completed including all of your pre-reqs and that those must be within 5 years of applying.

 

[Law2Doc]

There are quite a few medical schools that don't require a degree. However, the problem I see in your situation is that most will stipulate that you must have 90s semester hours completed including all of your pre-reqs and that those must be within 5 years of applying.

Even the schools that don't per se require a degree probably have nobody in attendance who doesn't have a degree. So yeah, I would say you need one. I think the above poster is saying the prereqs need to be relatively current (not that you need to have 90 semester hours within 5 years). Most schools don't have a hard and fast rule for how old the prereqs may be, and the couple that do tend to allow longer terms than 5 years, but it's simply a good idea to retake anything older than that. All med schools are going to want to see current success in the sciences. So OP, I would say that between the age of your credentials and your GPA, and the fact that you don't have a degree yet, you are looking at a number of years of undergrad before you can contemplate medicine. You can make it, but it's going to take a long time. No real way around that.

 

[QofQuimica]

As I mentioned in another post, I attended junior college for 2 years over 12 years ago. I'm now going back this fall to finish what I started - only this time preparing for acceptance to a med school.

I have 47 units that transferred over (2.87 overall GPA unfortunately, but Fortunately, no science GPA at all)- and only 6 will count towards any degree. Could I just take the necessary pre-reqs of chem, bio, physics, etc. and be done in 2 years, or must I go through another 4 to get a degree before applying to med school?

Personally I have no interest in a degree unless it directly influences my ability to get into m. school and practice one day. Could I just do the pre-reqs first, and apply if degree isn't required - and then if not accepted finish the degree and apply again once complete?

Thoughts?

I would get the degree, especially since you have a past poor GPA to overcome. There is currently no one at my medical school who does not have a BS or BA, even though a degree is technically not required. If six classes count toward your degree, that should be, what, 18 credits? In that case, you can probably be done with your BS or BA in three years if you go to school during the summers and take a full load the whole time. to you.

 

[NonTradMed]

The reason many med schools do not absolutely require a degree is because they may have a combined program with their undergraduate program which allows students to go directly into medical school from college. This is also a way for adcoms to allow exceptional applicants, who for whatever reason, did not get their medical degree.

But a glance at MSAR indicates that the vast, vast majority of schools accept only candidates with a college degree. Unless you are an absolutely stellar applicant with excellent scores and GPA, you will need to finish college in order to be on par with other qualified candidates. For med school admissions, you can't settle for the minimal standards.