Advice on Re-Entering Pre-Med

[epitomed23]

Hi everyone. I’m (URM, 25F) currently in a position where I regret not going after medicine and medical school when I had a better chance. I allowed imposture syndrome and other mental difficulties to hold me back. I’m in a better place mentally now, and I’m succeeding with things I struggled with in the past. 

I graduated undergrad with a degree in Psychology and minors in Public Health, Biology, and Chemistry in 2019 (cGPA: 3.71, sGPA: 3.49) and obtained a Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology in 2021 from Emory University (GPA: 3.9). In undergrad, I had a lot of leadership experience, I shadowed and volunteered, but I didn’t have much clinical volunteer experience. I have a decent amount of research experience from my Master's and my current job as an epidemiologist, including 1 publication. 

I’m concerned about my classes being too old to be used for applying. 

Biology I/ Chem I: Fall 2015 

Biology II/ Chem II/Ochem I: Spring 2016

Phys I/Phys II: Summer 2016

O Chem II: Fall 2016

Biochem: Spring 2017

Any other courses that would be considered BCPM would have been taken during Spring 2018 and before.

I’m worried about being a strong candidate since I’ve been really focusing on my epidemiology career since graduating undergrad. My current job allows me to work with medical records, but that’s most of the extent I have in the clinical world since graduating in 2019. Any advice on how to better boost me as a candidate due to my gap in experiences between 2019 and now/when I apply.

I’m considering either applying to medical schools in 2023 to start in 2024 or applying to SMP or other post-bacc programs that have linkage agreements this year to start in 2023 and then subsequently start med school in 2024. I know some SMP/Masters programs say they want you to have some of the courses I listed done in the past 5 years. Any advice on which I should do is also appreciated.