Session 42 Ryan takes another question over at the OldPreMeds.org forum and delivers the answer right here on to you. If you haven't already, sign up a at the OldPreMeds.org and feel free to drop in any questions or issues you might have or join a collaborative community of nontraditioonal premedical and medical students. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Poster is a 50-year old addiction specialist, with a great high school GPA, good undergrad GPA with a good trend in last years as an undergrad. She's interested in going to DO schools because of the "holistic" philosophy. She has extensive medical experience working as CNA and volunteering in the Emergency Room at a Children's Hospital. She realized she didn't want to go down the nursing path and enjoyed working with addicts and alcoholics and has been doing this now. Her questions are as follows: Is medicine as option for me at this point in my life or should I just quit while I'm ahead and go for the clinical psych degree? Postbac courses vs. community college courses vs. university courses? (Their alma mater doesn't allow students to take classes as non-degree seeking students add you need to declare a second bachelor's) Can you combine community college courses and university courses? Will it be necessary to update the medical experiences? Here are the insights from Ryan: If you want to be a physician no matter what your age, move forward and try to be a physician. Otherwise, when you take the psych degree and only to realize that you really should have gone for your medical degree, imagine spending money and spending five years when you did that only because maybe you were too old to get your medical degree Don't look at this from an age standpoint. If you're thinking you're too old to do it, you're wrong. If you think you don't have the experiences to do it, you're wrong. (You have to get them of course but just because you don't have them yet doesn't mean you're not moving forward) Therefore, the option is always YES to apply to medical school. Postbac programs: If you're dedicated enough to do everything on your own and do all the necessary stuff (study for MCAT, volunteering, clinical experience), then you don't need a formal postbac program. Postbac program pro: They will help you with everything along the way to ensure you're prepared to apply to medical school. Postbac program con: They are usually expensive; oftentimes, worth it if you need that structure, but expensive. Community college courses vs. university courses The gold standard for this are the four-year universities But you can still take community college courses if that's what you need to do based on : Budget Schedule Location So which is better? There is no right or wrong answer because everyone's situation is different. Combination of community college courses and university courses Yes, you can mix and match courses. Caveat: If you're taking community college courses because you can't handle the university courses, then that can be a red flag. So be ready to answer questions like why you took such course at a community college, whether thinking it's going to be easier or just to get the A. Ryan's best advice: Pick one or the other instead of switching back and forth or combining them. Updating medical experience If you've done it so long ago, reintroduce yourself to some experiences; although working as an addiction specialist working with patients is good patient care and valuable. But it doesn't hurt to go and get a more updated experience like shadowing one-on-one with a physician just to understand what life is like as a physician. Links and Other Resources: The PreMed Years Podcast Session 74: Listen to Ryan's interview with Carrie and her experience applying to medical school coming from a community college www.mededmedia.com