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Session 18 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan and Rich again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. Today's question is quite interesting as it pertains to busy nontraditional students who may not have time to go to classes and the risk of taking online coursework over the in-campus classes. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Can you use an online degree for medical school? The poster considers doing an online degree as an older nontraditional student. They've email premed consultants and directly to medical schools and thinking about doing a BA online at the University of Florida. Final 30 hours would be online and completing premed coursework at a local campus. Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Some places online courses but most schools do not accept that. MSAR lists which schools will accept or not accept online prerequisites Undergrad institutions providing online courses are putting their name on the course. These schools would argue that their online course is as good as any course that they teach in-campus so in all the transcripts you won't know whether it's an online class or not. Medical schools would like to see whether it's online or not. They may ask a question on your secondary to state if you're taking any online coursework. If you're doing the prerequisites in an actual campus and the rest of the degree online, there still could be some risks to it. It could limit you to what medical schools to apply to It may put you at a competitive disadvantage in the applicant pool Major takeaway from this episode: It is such a time-consuming and expensive process to apply to medical school so you wouldn't want to run such a risk. If taking an online course is a risk worth taking, go for it. Don't rely on one just one medical school to apply to. Do your research. Check out the MSAR or the CIB to arrive at the best decision possible. Links and Other Resources MSAR CIB If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.
Session 15 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Taken directly from the forums over at OldPreMeds.org, Ryan and Rich pick a question and deliver the answers right on to you. For this week, Ryan and Rich discuss about course timing and coursework expiration. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster took coursework 30 years ago and wasn't premed at that time. She retook most of the lower division coursework 7-9 years ago. During the intervening years, she was doing some upper division stuff, studying for the MCAT and taking care of life. Their advisor suggested that the prereqs should be taken within five years of applying to medical school. Is there an expiration for coursework? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: For most school, there is no set expiration for prereqs. In the last couple of years, medical schools would like to see the coursework within 5 years or some evidence of academic achievement during the past 5 years (if you have completed degrees before that) Becoming more complex because the AAMC has changed the MCAT recently adding more content. For prereqs approaching 10 years, consider retaking some of the courses or continue taking the advanced classes. Basic or introductory classes change rapidly. In general, there is no requirement or specific timing on your prereqs. It usually depends on the school you’re applying to. Major takeaway from this episode: Get the definitive answer to go to the medical school that you're interested in applying to and ask them what they think. Links and Other Resources: If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching an MCAT podcast and a medical school-focused podcast so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.
Session 6 Ryan and Rich answer your questions over at the OldPreMeds.orghere on the OldPreMeds Podcast. In today's episode, they will touch on letters of recommendation - what the admissions committee is looking for, how to get strong ones, and when is the best time to get them. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: How do you get a good letters of recommendation? Do you need to take more upper division science course work to get a good letter of recommendation? Does the letter of recommendation need to come from a professor you interacted recently? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Many medical schools require 2 science professors and 1 non-science professor for a letter of recommendation What the admissions committee wants to see from the letter of recommendation: How you're evaluated in a class setting in recent history Ways to get good letters of recommendation: Take another course or two and make an attempt to network and get a letter written. Get a committee letter which takes away the need for specific individual letter requirements and get one overall evaluation from your undergraduate school. Some schools have recommendations for nontraditional students SUNY Upstate Medical School- Students who graduated more than 5 years ago and are currently employed may submit one letter of recommendation from a current supervisor or someone form a science faculty they took a course from a while ago Weill Cornell Medicine (Cornell University)- Supervisor at work or research professor; students working in career fields like nursing or other medical fields can get a letter of recommendation from a supervisor from a physician you work with that may be useful General Note:Students (nontraditional especially) should think about networking when they start going back to medical school because they need to get good letters of recommendation. When is the time to get letters of recommendation? Don't wait until application season to ask for letters of recommendation. You can have your letters sent to Interfolio.com and they will hold on to the letters until you're ready to apply to medical school. If you feel that a person is going to write you a strong letter of recommendation, ask for it even if you're applying next year. Major takeaways from this episode: Make an effort to network and even as you go into medical school, network early because you will need letters of recommendation again when you apply for residency. Schools have different specific requirements for letters of recommendation so check out the MSAR and go through the College Information Book to find out what each school wants for letters. Links and Other Resources If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@oldpremeds.org or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.
Session 3 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan and Rich again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: A U.S. DO school or a Caribbean MD? Which is a better choice? (More job prospects) Cumulative GPA is not above 3.0 unless over 120 hours of classes are taken; Science GPA 3.5+ Here are the insights about GPA from Ryan & Rich: There is an assumption about GPA that it's all a number. The truth is that it's beyond a single number. A cumulative GPA is not the only thing the medical school admissions committee is going to look at. Other things they will look for are: Science vs. non-science Bio, Chem, Phys, and Math (BCPM) vs. others Grade trends Other additional degrees or coursework (post-bacc) -Combined with the rest of your undergrad -Reported as a separate line item Some schools where your post-bacc or graduate program or last year or two of your undergraduate count as your official GPA for admissions purposes - the "32 hour rule" Wayne State University Michigan College of Human Medicine Boston University Medical School Louisiana State University - New Orleans AAMC survey got 127 replies from medical schools for what factors they consider Therefore, don't just look at the number. Instead, look at the overall factors going on. Other considerations in the application MCAT is the most efficient method to show that you can handle the work. Take an MCAT prep course few hours a week for a few months and get a much better score. Put your application together in a more coherent, compelling, and concise manner to really convince the schools. Go through at least two application cycles before considering an offshore medical school Arrogance vs. overconfidence EC's, personal statement, and secondaries Major takeaway from this episode GPA is not the be all and end all when applying to any medical school. The second part about Caribbean medical schools will be tackled in the next episode. Links and Other Resources If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.
In this episode, Ryan introduces the OldPreMeds podcast, which you can find at OPMPodcast.com. Take a listen! Links and Other Resources Full Episode Blog Post dopremedright.com – Buy a t-shirt while there are supplies! OldPreMeds.org Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.
Session 2 In this episode, Ryan and Rich dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: What age is too old for medical school? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Age is not a factor. Here are some facts and figures: About a thousand a year over the age of 30 matriculate every year into an allopath medical school which is about 5% of the total number of students who start the year. From that number, about 200 are of the age of 35. About 350 people a year over the age of 31 start osteopathic school 10-12 people a year over the age of 50 start medical school Success Story: One of our more recent success stories is Laisha Heedman, a nurse/midwife who recently graduated from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine at the age of 57. She has gone onto residency and family practice medicine. Is there any bias that goes on with age? The percentage of applicants is nearly the same as the percentage that you get accepted regardless of age range. Applicants who are above 40 years of age seem to be less represented but there is no bias going on. Factors that may be affecting the demographics are difficulty in preparing, getting the grades, and doing things that need to get done when you are working full time and you have a family. Many people who have been successful in other medical careers such as nurse/midwife, nurse practitioner, nurse, PhD researchers have also been successful at getting into medical school at 40 and above. MD vs DO? The applicant base for MD schools is about 50,000 while for DO schools, it's under 20,000 - large difference. For an applicant per seat basis, it is therefore more competitive to get into an osteopathic school than it is to get into an allopathic school. Do older students have less years of good working time? Different variables to consider: Burnout as one of the common issues of physicians Prior working experience in healthcare as a nurse/midwife or other medical-related What the admissions committee will actually be looking for: Will this person be a good physician that you want to be treated by? Links and Other Resources OldPreMeds.org Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.