pre-D.O. advice

[Dan Cote']

Hello, I am student returning after 10 years of being out of school. I have a wife and three young kids. My last ten years were spent trying to run my wilderness skills school. In this time I developed a very strong interest in osteopathic medicine and have decided to make a try at it. I am 33 yrs old now and wonder how schools will look at this and how to show them my commitment to medicine. When I was in school before I obtained 103 credits in ecology. (no degree)
Currently I am doing volunteer work for hospice. I am also doing three hours each week of observation at a clinic. They rotate me between three different M.D.s (family practice) One of the doctors has trained with a D.O. and this gives me a chance to see OMTs. I will try to also shadow a D.O. before I apply.
In addition to getting good grades and MCAT scores what else would anyone suggest? I don't know if I have time to do research experience due to family obligations. I also am unclear about what the science g.p.a. includes. Is it just prerequisites ( 1 yr. phy., 2 yr. chem., etc.) or does it include every biology course I've taken? Math?
Thanks in advance for any replies!!!!!!
-Dan

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[DrMom]

DO school should look favorably on your "previous life" experience. They certainly aren't going to accuse you of lacking in your commitment to medicine, so don't worry about that. I imagine that you can come up with examples of things you saw/experienced in your wilderness school that helped you decide that you had an interest in medicine. Use these in your application essays.

Looks like you're doing everything right (volunteering & shadowing)!

The science GPA includes all science (biology, chemistry, physics) and math. As long as the courses were listed as being from a science or math department, they count.

Feel free to PM if you have other questions.

 

[SawBones]

Dan, I'm agree DrMom here. Providing that you maintain good grades, etc., your age and life experience will only INCREASE your chances of admission. If you've seen any of my other posts, I've often commented that I believe that our profession's greater strength is in the selection process for our students. We don't believe in choosing the 200 highest GPAs and MCATs and then interviewing only those individuals. Rather, DO schools tend to look at the entire application in order to find persons like yourself with maturity and sincere dedication to medicine. Basically, the general consensus among DO schools is that older applicants who are willing to give up one career in order to pursue medicine, but truly have a desire to become a physician. As a result, these students are accepted in droves. Some books have medical school entry statistics, and if you look at the average age of accepted applicants you'll see what I'm talking about!

Good luck, Dan.

 

[WishUponAStar]

Dan,

Make sure you take all of you pre-reqs for medschool. 8 credits of biology (bio 1 and 2 with lab), 8 credits of general chemistry (chem 1 and 2 with lab), 8 credits of organic chemistry (orgo 1 and 2 with lab), 8 credits of physics (phys 1 and 2 with lab), and I recommend biochemistry 1 and genetics before the MCAT, but it isn't a must. Cell biology, histology, physiology, or immunology, or molecular biology are all good courses to prepare you for medical school, but aren't neccessarily pre-reqs. They'll just make your life easier in the long run if you learn them well.

I don't know if you mentioned, but you do need to finish your degree. You can graduate with a bachelor's in whatever major you want, but make sure you do graduate. I don't know what your current GPA is, but the higher your cumulative and science GPA are when you apply, the easier time you'll have of getting accepted. My personal recommendation is a 3.3 minimum in each category with a 25+ MCAT. The closer you get to 30 the better.
Those are just my recommendations. There are no hard and fast rules to medical school admissions.

 

[Toejam]

Congratulations on your decision!

I might be able to give you some helpful advice. I'm 41 years old, married with no kids and I'm starting DO school in August. Age is irrelevant to DO schools. MD schools, however, are much more reticent to consider a "non-traditional" student. MD schools tend to be more concerned with raw numbers and less interested with what's more important (like life experience, work experience, etc.). Unless you end up with a stratospheric GPA and MCAT score, I'd focus on DO school.

First, your volunteer work and observation experience will definitely help. Developing some sort of relationship with a DO will further help your cause. Some DO schools require a letter of recommendation from a DO while others simply advise you get one. I didn't have one, but the school I got accepted to didn't require one (Western U in Pomona, CA). You're going to need to get your bachelor's degree. They might say that you only need to have "x" number of credits, but in reality, you'll need to have your degree. As far as I know, the science GPA is only derived from the pre-reqs (1 year of general bio, 1 year of non-calculus or calculus based physics and 2 years of chem - inorganic and organic). They may, however, count all of your science classes. Someone else may be able to clear this up.

If you show a true interest in osteopathic medicine and have meaningful clinical experiences, this will go a long way. They also like someone with other, non-medical experiences, which makes you a well-rounded person.

Don't worry about your age. I'm proof of that. If you're wondering, I have my bachelor's from UCLA in Japanese (3.2) and my MCAT was a paltry 24S. What I did have going for me, though, was that I'm a practicing podiatrist (DPM). That shows that they're not a snobby group like a lot of MD schools and can actually look beyond the numbers.

Good Luck

 

[DrMom]

depends on the school. best thing would be to call the admissions office of the school(s) you are interested in and ask them. I had prereqs that were way more than 3 years old & it was no problem at all, but other schools have a cut-off.

 

[DrMom]

I do think that most schools want pretty recent MCATs. Again, you can always check with them.

Some of them also have variations in what classes are required, so you'll want to check that out, too.

 

[Toejam]

I've never heard of a "statute of limitations" for med school pre-requisites. I've been applying since 1992 and I took most of my pre-reqs in the early '80s. Of course, you should know each school's policies because you never know. And I got accepted for the entering class of 2003.

Generally, the MCAT should be no older than 3 years.

 

[DrMom]

I know there are some allopathic school with a statute of limitations, but I don't know of any osteopathic ones off the top of my head.

 

[looserdude]

I am out of school for 3 years; and what I did is to take the MCAT (try to do 24+), shadowing a DO (good to have at least an excellent recommendation) and show your compassion and dedication through your volunteer activities and others. If you don't have time, don't worry much about research because it's better to focus on doing very well on a few things than doing just ok on everything. "If Yan can cook, so can you"

Good luck and never give up your dream.

 

[jgrieco]

One thing that attracted me to Osteopathic school is there consideration of my past experience and not so much the raw scores. I agree with the posts of everyone on this list.

About the time limit on classes taken; there may be some reservation from the undergrad institution if you have taken some of your pre-requisites many years ago and then try to pick up where you left off to obtain a degree. I don?t think it matters much to the medical school how long ago you took the classes especially if you can show some recent science course work. I took some of my basic science (Bio, Chem) about 7 years ago and the rest in the last 2 years and I was just accepted to an osteopathic medical school.

I hope this helps. Feel free to PM anytime if I can be of any more help.