To post-bacc or not to post-bacc

[40sarethenew20s]

Greetings! I am a non-trad with a 20 year dream to accomplish. I completed all pre-med reqs in early-mid 2000's along with all coursework for a master's in cell/molecular bio. The research/thesis part of MS was cut short when PI took a position at another university and left me high-n-dry, so rather than take any more loans I dropped out. My heart wasn't in it anyways - I new I wanted to work in clinical medicine. My undergrad GPA is 3.8 with a science GPA of 3.67 - not sure how grad GPA figures into med school req's but it is mediocre (maybe 3.52?) Since fleeing academia I have worked in clinical medicine roles for almost 10 years. Roles including OB/GYN medical scribe (I actually attended over 60 births and 20 surgeries, 3 years), Patient rep in ENT, Surgical Coordinator in General Surgery, Neuromonitoring technician (in the OR, for complex spinal surgery), and most recently I work as a Clinical Researcher in Oncology - 2 years.
My question is this - do I really need to re-take courses to apply to medical school? I am extremely self-disciplined and study well on my own and feel I can give the MCAT a go (I took it previously in dark ages of 2010). I have excellent recommendations from an OB, a Surgical Oncologist, and a Clinical Research Manager.
I am 46 and don't have a ton of financial resource to pay for re-taking courses that I did well in previously (all As, maybe one or two Bs at most) I would rather put my funds into MCAT study resources. There are SO MANY sites out there and so much more information than the last time I did this. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to start -- content review planner tools? Best videos/texts/calendar planners? Any and all information is helpful and appreciated. Unless you are going to tell met that I am too old ... which I am not. I just ran my first 100k last week! Thanks!

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[Goro]

It's school dependent, but med schools do have an expiration date on pre-reqs.

Here's an example from Albany:
An applicant who has been away from formal academic coursework for three or more years is advised to complete traditional college level courses before applying for admission to Albany Medical College.

 

[nadeeyah]

Greetings! I am a non-trad with a 20 year dream to accomplish. I completed all pre-med reqs in early-mid 2000's along with all coursework for a master's in cell/molecular bio. The research/thesis part of MS was cut short when PI took a position at another university and left me high-n-dry, so rather than take any more loans I dropped out. My heart wasn't in it anyways - I new I wanted to work in clinical medicine. My undergrad GPA is 3.8 with a science GPA of 3.67 - not sure how grad GPA figures into med school req's but it is mediocre (maybe 3.52?) Since fleeing academia I have worked in clinical medicine roles for almost 10 years. Roles including OB/GYN medical scribe (I actually attended over 60 births and 20 surgeries, 3 years), Patient rep in ENT, Surgical Coordinator in General Surgery, Neuromonitoring technician (in the OR, for complex spinal surgery), and most recently I work as a Clinical Researcher in Oncology - 2 years.
My question is this - do I really need to re-take courses to apply to medical school? I am extremely self-disciplined and study well on my own and feel I can give the MCAT a go (I took it previously in dark ages of 2010). I have excellent recommendations from an OB, a Surgical Oncologist, and a Clinical Research Manager.
I am 46 and don't have a ton of financial resource to pay for re-taking courses that I did well in previously (all As, maybe one or two Bs at most) I would rather put my funds into MCAT study resources. There are SO MANY sites out there and so much more information than the last time I did this. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to start -- content review planner tools? Best videos/texts/calendar planners? Any and all information is helpful and appreciated. Unless you are going to tell met that I am too old ... which I am not. I just ran my first 100k last week! Thanks!

I'm in a similar boat as you, 38 with 15 years of clinical experience (I have a doctorate in Acupuncture and work at a multi-disciplinary practice) and I was advised to complete a post-bacc program due to the length of time that has passed since taking any science course. I also don't want to pay ridiculous amounts of money for courses I have already taken so I am applying to state and city colleges for cheaper tuition. I hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[D-dimer500]

Greetings! I am a non-trad with a 20 year dream to accomplish. I completed all pre-med reqs in early-mid 2000's along with all coursework for a master's in cell/molecular bio. The research/thesis part of MS was cut short when PI took a position at another university and left me high-n-dry, so rather than take any more loans I dropped out. My heart wasn't in it anyways - I new I wanted to work in clinical medicine. My undergrad GPA is 3.8 with a science GPA of 3.67 - not sure how grad GPA figures into med school req's but it is mediocre (maybe 3.52?) Since fleeing academia I have worked in clinical medicine roles for almost 10 years. Roles including OB/GYN medical scribe (I actually attended over 60 births and 20 surgeries, 3 years), Patient rep in ENT, Surgical Coordinator in General Surgery, Neuromonitoring technician (in the OR, for complex spinal surgery), and most recently I work as a Clinical Researcher in Oncology - 2 years.
My question is this - do I really need to re-take courses to apply to medical school? I am extremely self-disciplined and study well on my own and feel I can give the MCAT a go (I took it previously in dark ages of 2010). I have excellent recommendations from an OB, a Surgical Oncologist, and a Clinical Research Manager.
I am 46 and don't have a ton of financial resource to pay for re-taking courses that I did well in previously (all As, maybe one or two Bs at most) I would rather put my funds into MCAT study resources. There are SO MANY sites out there and so much more information than the last time I did this. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to start -- content review planner tools? Best videos/texts/calendar planners? Any and all information is helpful and appreciated. Unless you are going to tell met that I am too old ... which I am not. I just ran my first 100k last week! Thanks!

Hi @40sarethenew20s we're in similar situations regarding the prereq gap and the experience, but I did horribly in college 2.8 UG GPA/3.0 Science GPA, so I absolutely have to do a post-bac. I studied Biochem and completed all my prereq's over 15 years ago, I was a clinical researcher for my local SOM for over 7+ years, I've been a nurse for over 10 years, and for 6 of those I've been a CVICU nurse. I've found that most medical schools have expiration dates for prereq's, so by not retaking prereq's again you may be cutting the list of schools you can apply to quite short. As a nontraditional applicant myself, that really freaks me out because I want to be able to apply to as many schools as I can for a better shot. I applied to both academic enhancer and career changer post-bac's, but am definitely leaning towards the career changer program to retake all my prereq's again, and will be taking some upper division basic science courses like immunology and neurosciences to further enhance my GPA and show an uptrend. I (stupidly) retook the MCAT on 9/2022 and did ok but not great, 508 (~71 percentile), and that's with 8 months of intense relearning not reviewing (because I'd forgotten mostly everything). Studying for the MCAT was like a second full-time job for me; I know that if I would have taken it after completing a post-bac where I retook all the prereqs again, I would've scored much, much higher. Reading through countless posts I've found that the consensus is that the best thing to do for someone who has such a huge gap between their prereq's and applying to med schools is to retake all prereqs, especially if you have not taken the MCAT or took it over 10+ years ago. As a side note, and for comparison, I first took the MCAT in 2010 and got a 37, which translates to about a 521 (98th percentile) on the new MCAT. Classes were still fresh in my brain and studying was exponentially easier than it was this time around. I felt that the MCAT this time around was much more intense/difficult than back then, but that's just me. If I were you, I would retake the prereqs and then make sure I'd get an amazing score on the MCAT. If money is an issue, you could do a DIY post-bac and retake prereq classes at a community college, or a state school instead of enrolling in a formal post-bac, and then take some upper-division courses.

Best of luck to you, I wish you the best on your journey.

Also, you are definitely not old. I will be 40 next week, and feel more energetic and focused than I've ever felt in my life. So to us, I say onwards and upwards! See you on the flip side!

 

[FarmGirl2]

Greetings! I am a non-trad with a 20 year dream to accomplish. I completed all pre-med reqs in early-mid 2000's along with all coursework for a master's in cell/molecular bio. The research/thesis part of MS was cut short when PI took a position at another university and left me high-n-dry, so rather than take any more loans I dropped out. My heart wasn't in it anyways - I new I wanted to work in clinical medicine. My undergrad GPA is 3.8 with a science GPA of 3.67 - not sure how grad GPA figures into med school req's but it is mediocre (maybe 3.52?) Since fleeing academia I have worked in clinical medicine roles for almost 10 years. Roles including OB/GYN medical scribe (I actually attended over 60 births and 20 surgeries, 3 years), Patient rep in ENT, Surgical Coordinator in General Surgery, Neuromonitoring technician (in the OR, for complex spinal surgery), and most recently I work as a Clinical Researcher in Oncology - 2 years.
My question is this - do I really need to re-take courses to apply to medical school? I am extremely self-disciplined and study well on my own and feel I can give the MCAT a go (I took it previously in dark ages of 2010). I have excellent recommendations from an OB, a Surgical Oncologist, and a Clinical Research Manager.
I am 46 and don't have a ton of financial resource to pay for re-taking courses that I did well in previously (all As, maybe one or two Bs at most) I would rather put my funds into MCAT study resources. There are SO MANY sites out there and so much more information than the last time I did this. Does anyone have a suggestion of where to start -- content review planner tools? Best videos/texts/calendar planners? Any and all information is helpful and appreciated. Unless you are going to tell met that I am too old ... which I am not. I just ran my first 100k last week! Thanks!

Congrats on your decision. I recommend calling the schools that you are interested in and checking if their prerequisites expire. I just finished my 1st year of vet school at 56 years old. I graduated from med school in 1996. I did retake some prerequisites (such as cell bio) because the information has changed since the last time I took the class.

Good luck!!