Session 100 The military, like the any job, can get in the way of you achieving your goal of becoming a physician. Our question today revolves around what to do to make it work. I take questions directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums and answer them here on this podcast. But soon OldPreMeds will be moving to its new home site MedicalSchoolHQ.net, which is also home to all our other podcasts including The Premed Years Podcast. If you have any questions, register for an account at the OldPreMeds.org forum and ask away! [02:06] OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Sanity Check Needed "Looking for sanity check because I’ve almost convinced myself to take the plunge and start attending school again full-time. I’m 30 years old and been in the Marine Corps for about eight years and I’m currently a Captain. I graduated in 2009 with a Degree in Criminology from a state college with a 2.7 cumulative undergrad GPA. I only took a few science and math courses. But that GPA is 3.65. I did the math and if I get all A's in my prereq courses, it will be a 3.89. I also have a negative trend GPA during my undergrad years with my freshman, sophomore years being my best. Grades were not a priority for me at that time and I did not have any aspirations of doing any postgraduate work. I knew I was going to join the Marine Corps after my junior year. I always was going to join the military. So my senior year grades went out the window. Fast-forward eight years from my undergrad and I just finished the Master's Program at Marshall University where I got an MA in Leadership Studies. Some credits from a year-long military school where I applied to the program but I took six classes and finished the program with a 4.0 GPA. I realized that this program does not carry much weight. I have also taken some prereqs at a local community college and I've received A's in Gen. Bio 1 and 2 and Gen. Chem 1. I definitely had the ability to earn these grades the first time around but lacked the motivation and passion. My end goal is to get accepted into the Uniformed Services University or receive an HPSP scholarship. I would like to retire from the military. I can discuss why I'm interested in switching careers in another post, if anyone's interested. But had a very inspirational medical situation that happened to me a few years ago that completely changed my life. From here, I see a few paths that I could take and would appreciate some honest feedback: The first one is whether I should take the plunge and get out of the Marine Corps to start attending school full-time. I'm applying to postbac programs in my area but think it is a long shot because my GPA is under the recommended minimums. If I got into a postbac program, I would definitely leap at the opportunity. The second one that I am a little more hesitant on is whether or not to go back to school full-time and earn a second Bachelor's Degree, likely major in Biology. The good thing is that the GI bill pays for both of these options. Path three is to stay in the military and continue taking prereq courses at a local community college. I am coming up on a PCS (Permanent Change in Station) next summer. So I need to either get out Summer 2018 or I'll be transferring to a new area. the problems I see with community college are that they aren't looked at as competitively as four-year schools. But they are truly my only option at this point in my career with work. I have to take classes on the weekends because of work. And I'm worried about information retention for the MCAT and actually being able to finish in a reasonable amount of time. I already had to drop a semester in Summer of 2017 due to exercises and training. I know that I need to go to school full-time to really make this happen but my wife thinks that I'm not being realistic about my actual chances of getting into the Uniformed Services University or getting and HPSP scholarship or even getting into medical school. As a side note, she's supportive and can f