What is a Nontradition Medical Student?
I get asked this question so much! Before, I have to admit, it will be pretty embarrassing to have to explain this to someone because no matter how much I would jazz it up, it always comes down to, I’m taking more classes.
In short, a Nontraditional Medical (or PreMed) Student is an applicant who did not go from completing four years of Undergraduate courses directly to Medical School. Most times, this path, like mine, includes Gap Years. Gap years are considered years in the Medical Journey where an applicant does other things outside of pursuing medical school directly (classes).
My first Gap Year was after my Junior Year at LSU. I sat out a year to gain in state tuition and obtain Residency in the state of Louisiana. It made sense in regards to not wanting to use a lot of my student loans up and pay out of state fees. In that time, I worked two jobs (mistakenly, Non-Health related) and had an Internship in Sports Administration until it was time to re-enroll back into school.
My second Gap Year was after I graduated from LSU and decided to move back to Atlanta after enrolling in a Graduate program and taking my first two rounds of Post-Baccalaureate courses. I was very frustrated and down and out about where I was academically. I decided not to pursue my Masters any further and moved back home to Atlanta to figure what my plans were and if I even wanted to pursue medicine even further. I sort of felt like I was driving fast and going absolutely no where. In the year that I spent in a Graduate program, I worked in a Nonprofit Health Clinic as a Health Advocate, engulfing myself in Public Healthcare. Ironically, this is where I found my passion again — helping the underserved.
After returning home and taking time off from the Journey, I had to really come to terms if this was something I wanted to pursue. The time I spent in the clinic really made a difference. Being in the environment of medicine and helping patients who truly needed it felt amazing.
I had a degree and was only short one semester of obtaining a Masters Degree. My graduate GPA was alright but it eventually reflected my thoughts about the entire program even after I tried to finish it a couple of semester later that it wasn’t for me. I had also realized that there was nothing that I wanted more than to become a Physician and no amount of jobs would measure up to that desire. With that realization, I enrolled in a smaller school closer to home and started all of my Pre- Reqs over.
Now, you’re probably wondering, why in the heck did you do that? And, I’ll tell you. I knew that I didn’t not have a strong foundation in Core Sciences. Although a Post-Bacc PreMed program would’ve looked better on paper, I needed the basics. I wanted the basics. After finishing my basic requirements, I started preparing for the MCAT. Long story short, I struggled because the MCAT is more than the basics. You need upper level sciences that aren’t necessarily required to apply to medical school. So, now, Spring 2021, I’ve enrolled in my courses (see previous post) to get a better grasp of biology.
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