Clinic Laboratory Science/ Medical Technology

[c12H22O11]

I have looked around on SDN for any MLS applicants who are also pre-med, but a lot of the topics were a several years old and was wondering if there were other MLS student out there.

My story: I am a daca student ( which means I was provided with a work permit that allowed me to work in the US, but it does not allow for any federal or state financial aid). I attend college fulltime and unfortunately, I am being charged out of state tuition fees at a community college. I am hoping to resolve my citizenship issue soon, according to my lawyer everything will be solved around October 2020-early 2021. I currently work as Patient care tech in an ICU at my local hospital and it has provided me with a steady income to be able to afford school and living on my own. Barely though with lots of overtime and working 2 other jobs.

I was looking at my state university and they have a Medical Technology program that has the same pre-medical requirements for medical school besides Physics ( which I could take on top of the required classes ). By doing this program, I could graduate as an MLS the Spring of 2019. I think this program will be useful because it could provide me with a higher paying job ( which I could use to help my younger sister who will be attending college soon ) and higher clinical understanding of the medical field. and I love the field of Microbiology by the way. By looking at the curriculum of the program, classes such as Clinical Biochem, Clinical Microbiology, Immunology, etc, sound very exciting to me!

I was wondering if this is something you would recommend vs getting another bachelor. ex. Biology, Chemistry, Nursing

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[normoblast]

I'm an MLS and will be starting med school next fall. It is definitely a practical degree and a good career if med school doesn't pan out or you need to take extra gap years. I've gotten the impression from some on SDN that technical degrees aren't valued as highly as traditional science fields. I didn't see much of that at my interviews, but it is definitely something to consider.

I would make sure that the science classes you take are the pre-med ones. The organic and biochemistry course required for my MLS major was much less in-depth than the ones for biology majors. I took the biology major chemistry courses instead. They substituted just fine in for MLS, while the required course would be insufficient for most medical schools.

If you are 100% set on medical school, a less intense major may be better, but it is a fascinating field. I can't say if it makes you any better of a medical student, but it will give you a different perspective, especially if you work in a hospital lab for a while.

 

[c12H22O11]

How long did you practice as an MLS before medical school?

 

[normoblast]

It will be almost three years.

 

[swivelj]

Starting medschool this year too, MLS for almost 5 years.

The problem with being an MLS is you are pretty much committing yourself to a gap year... If not several gap years like myself.

At least at my school the MLS program requires you take all bio, chem, math etc. in their respective departments. They didn't have "chem for allied health" or anything like that. Even so, the volume of material at my school was pretty tough; enough so, that prepping for The MCAT or doing anything pre-med related was essentially impossible. I took 48 hrs in 10 months and did 6 months of clinical rotations + 6 graduate hrs. after the preclinical curriculum. Put it this way, we always have 2-3 (out of 20 very smart people) quit.

Also, something I had to deal with was AMCAS and TMDSAS. They will not count your MLS courses when calculating your sGPA, and don't get me started on this...so make sure you crush your pre reqs for medschool, because... ya clinical immuno evidently isn't science.

In the end, if you need to make money to finance your medschool application, being an MLS is a great option. The only problem I had was my first job was in a reference lab. This is a huge time commitment, and a tough learning curve. It would have been crazy for me to go into that job expecting to take the other classes I needed (physics) and start prepping for the MCAT, right of the bat. I'd say it took me ~2 years to become confident in what I was doing. Also, you will find that once you start to make money and help your family ( I had the same responsibility) your job will absolutely take priority over volunteering, classes, MCAT etc.... And to be honest it should, patients/family are counting on you and you can't be sleep deprived, or have your mind elsewhere.

So my advice is to understand that you will probably have some amount of regret if you don't go straight through this process. However, if you feel like I did-- like medschool was a long shot to begin with, then MLS is a great back up plan. Most don't work the bench for their entire career. They go into sales, mgmt, or teach etc.

I currently am teaching clinical immunology as an adjunct for my old school and I have two PhD's in my class ( one earned in immunology lol) what I'm trying to say is-- if you want to do micro in a clinical setting you need an MLS degree or a MLT cert. There are some weird back doors into the field, but it is job specific, and is tough to negotiate from my understanding.

Anyways, think hard about your financial situation and the lost years of salary as an attending physician vs. an MLS, because I figure I've costed myself well over 500k.

 

[c12H22O11]

It will be almost three years.

Well, I wish you the best of luck! thank you for your input! I value it a lot!!!!!!!!!

 

[c12H22O11]

Starting medschool this year too, MLS for almost 5 years.

The problem with being an MLS is you are pretty much committing yourself to a gap year... If not several gap years like myself.

At least at my school the MLS program requires you take all bio, chem, math etc. in their respective departments. They didn't have "chem for allied health" or anything like that. Even so, the volume of material at my school was pretty tough; enough so, that prepping for The MCAT or doing anything pre-med related was essentially impossible. I took 48 hrs in 10 months and did 6 months of clinical rotations + 6 graduate hrs. after the preclinical curriculum. Put it this way, we always have 2-3 (out of 20 very smart people) quit.

Also, something I had to deal with was AMCAS and TMDSAS. They will not count your MLS courses when calculating your sGPA, and don't get me started on this...so make sure you crush your pre reqs for medschool, because... ya clinical immuno evidently isn't science.

In the end, if you need to make money to finance your medschool application, being an MLS is a great option. The only problem I had was my first job was in a reference lab. This is a huge time commitment, and a tough learning curve. It would have been crazy for me to go into that job expecting to take the other classes I needed (physics) and start prepping for the MCAT, right of the bat. I'd say it took me ~2 years to become confident in what I was doing. Also, you will find that once you start to make money and help your family ( I had the same responsibility) your job will absolutely take priority over volunteering, classes, MCAT etc.... And to be honest it should, patients/family are counting on you and you can't be sleep deprived, or have your mind elsewhere.

So my advice is to understand that you will probably have some amount of regret if you don't go straight through this process. However, if you feel like I did-- like medschool was a long shot to begin with, then MLS is a great back up plan. Most don't work the bench for their entire career. They go into sales, mgmt, or teach etc.

I currently am teaching clinical immunology as an adjunct for my old school and I have two PhD's in my class ( one earned in immunology lol) what I'm trying to say is-- if you want to do micro in a clinical setting you need an MLS degree or a MLT cert. There are some weird back doors into the field, but it is job specific, and is tough to negotiate from my understanding.

Anyways, think hard about your financial situation and the lost years of salary as an attending physician vs. an MLS, because I figure I've costed myself well over 500k.

The program I am looking at is the LSUHSC program and they make you take all the pre-requisites at another university and application into the program is completely separate. By the way the deadlines are set out and the timing of the application, I would have at least 2 semester of taking upper level biology and while also reviewing for the MCAT and I would have all pre-reqs done before starting the program. My current GPA is a 3.85, good mix of volunteering hours and shadowing hours in healthcare fairs in the local community and volunteering in the hospital I work in, and also having work ICU as a PCT for the past two years fulltime.
The program I am looking at is 4 semesters starting with the spring, summer, fall and graduating at the end of the spring ( last semester is clinicals ).
I was looking to work as a MLS for approximately a year or two. I do not know if it is a good idea in completing the program or to simply go straight through the process and then if I still have more time I guess Masters program? I am just doing some research currently. Thank you for your input though! I appreciate it greatly!