Guest zipzappy Posted February 14, 2006 Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 Hello Folks, I would appreciate your opinion on the following situation: I have a degree in business and have currently been working in business for the past 2 years. I now would like to change careers to Medicine. I have applied to McMaster the past 2 years and have been rejected flat out without an interview both times. I realize that this could be because of my GPA which is a humble 3.56. I feel like it’s time to broaden my horizons and apply to other schools as well (Canadian and US). This would require me to go back to school for 2-3 years to take a full course load each semester, boost my grades and write the MCAT. I understand that some schools require me to be studying towards a certain degree, which means that I would need to declare a major. I would like a health-related degree that would prove a suitable backup and also good learning considering that it may take me multiple tries to get into Meds. I am thinking Nursing … I find the field interesting and feel like it will be good learning prior to Medicine. Any thoughts on this? My concern is that this move from Business to BScN to Meds might appear rather ‘odd’ to the Med Com, but I understand that it is about communicating rationale at each step clearly. Any viewpoints would be appreciated. Thanks…. - Zp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest siobhansiobhan Posted February 14, 2006 Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 Hi Zippy - Seems the right direction - nursing to med, and business background is not entirely incompatible - many docs end up in hospital admin, or need to figure out the books for practices.... speaking from my experience, sounds like you don't have science courses. Maybe you did them in highschool. I didn't and I went back to a toronto board of ed school for adults, and got calc and chem in three months. Here's the advice: make sure you are really up to speed with sciences by the time you go into uni. Take the summer studying ahead, with a tutor, especially if you haven't taken sciences before, or you haven't done them in a while, or you are easing into the science course way of studying which is regularly and lots (unlike arts, perhaps business...it's closer to a language course than any other course I had taken, in terms of study style needed). I'm giving you this advice so that you don't see your modest gpa drop even farther, with a science gpa that's miserable due to 'ramp-up time' as I call it. We're the ones who are not working with a ramp-up time of four years of highschool that have only recently gone by. *****I'm editing to add this: I looked into nursing, and there may be some difficulty in regards to getting the prerequisites you'll need in a timely way - i seem to remember the courses being a little bit different, and being spread out over the four year programme that nursing now is in ontario.....i eventually went back to my undergrad university in the capacity of a bsc in biology, but I take what I want, and I likely won't graduate with a bsc. the advantage of having gone back to my undergrad university is that they have given me all the credits for everything outside of the ten courses for a biol degree, . Check out what courses each med school wants, and see when the nursing programmes you are interesteed in would actually have you complete those courses.**************** Siobhan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest OhB1 Posted February 14, 2006 Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 ZZ, First off, congrats on taking the first step. Deciding that you might be in the wrong field and then doing something about it is a courageous move! I think we are in similar boats. I was working in finance for the past 4 years or so and am now pursuing a career in dentistry (I applied for next sept). Because of the dental prerequisites I have had to go back to school full time for this year, and will probably need to take a few spring courses as well. One thing you should note is that because you already have a degree you can now enroll in a university as a "visiting" or "undeclared" student. Translation...you can take pretty much whatever you want and you are not working towards a specific degree. For me this worked out well...but if you actually want another degree, well thats a different story. I never took any science courses in my undergrad so its all been very new to me..... I know its expensive, but to minimize your time out of the workforce, it may make more sense to take the initial hit, and apply to as many schools as possible in one cycle. This will maximize your shot of getting in, and not having to wait another year...but I'm speaking with regards to my own scenario...yours may differ. In any case best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mimicat65 Posted February 15, 2006 Report Share Posted February 15, 2006 Hi ZZ, Although I understand the "practicality" of applying to nursing, I think if you don't intend to practice in nursing as a profession, it would be just one more thing to have to "explain" to the medschool adcomms to convince them of your TRUE desire to study medicine. If I were on the adcomm, I would just wonder how many other career turns you were going to take... you know what I mean? Most medschools only require a degree (which you already have) and some prereq courses. I also have a background in business, and I just went back to an undergrad school for 2 years and took a variety of science courses. I don't remember if I was actually enrolled in a BSc program, or just an undeclared student... but if I was in the BSc, it didn't really matter b/c I had no intention of finishing it. If you did two solid years of a BSc program, you could help bring your overall gpa up, as well as fulfill your prereq requirements. Just my opinion though, and good luck in whatever you pursue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nbmom Posted February 15, 2006 Report Share Posted February 15, 2006 in my opinion nursing isn't a great idea unless you actually plan on being a nurse at some point. Nursing programs are largely made up of all nursing courses with little room to take electives which would make it difficult to fit in your prereqs, I took Kinesiology and I couldn't fit everything in to my schedule and it was a pain in the butt. Also like mimcat mentioned I don't think that it would look good to enroll in a nursing program and never practice nursing, essentially you would be taking that spot from someone who actually wants to be a nurse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest moo Posted February 15, 2006 Report Share Posted February 15, 2006 Nusring is a professional program that you should not undertake if you do not intend to go into nursing. You have a degree. Go back and take the prereq courses. That's all you need to get into med school in North America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest zipzappy Posted February 15, 2006 Report Share Posted February 15, 2006 Thanks guys! I am grateful for your taking the time to share your views. What's incredible about this forum is that it also acts as a 'support system', seeing people with similar backgrounds sharing views with others. - Zp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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