Is it possible to start medical school at 30

Page 1 of 1 [ 9 posts ] 

pawelk1986
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Apr 2010
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,899
Location: Wroclaw, Poland

22 Oct 2012, 2:05 pm

I am 26 years studying library science, but medicine has always interested me,

In school, I was never good at math, other subjects went good for me.

I want be a doctor to help others, I wonder if I'm not too old for that:-)



cathylynn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Aug 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 13,045
Location: northeast US

22 Oct 2012, 2:58 pm

there were older folks in my med school class. i'd be more worried about your math skills. you have to do well in calculus and statistics as part of pre-med.

24/7 social interaction can be draining for an aspie. it was for me and eventually ended my medical career. if you make it thru the math, i'd recommend pathology or radiology, where social skills are less of an issue.

librarians help people quite a lot and is a good field for humanitarians.



DoodleDoo
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 31 Oct 2011
Age: 60
Gender: Male
Posts: 347
Location: SoCal/Los Angeles

22 Oct 2012, 3:02 pm

Do it! Don't wait.
Remember you have the whole world as far as schools go.
I knew a guy who did his pre-med stuff in the Philippines
You could do that in India or Granada too.
There are a lot of options that can save cost and make your life more interesting!



nebrets
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Feb 2012
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 842
Location: Texas

22 Oct 2012, 5:14 pm

It is very possible to start med school at 30 or even older. When I was in med school almost half of my class were "non-traditional" meaning they had not just graduated college and were not in their early to mid 20s. One of my friends was 35 his first year of medical school. I also had many classmates who came from educational backgrounds that were not "pre-med" or even in the sciences, one was a music major. Do not let your background or age be the deciding factor on whether or not you should consider medicine as a career.

I have two warnings for you. One, the required pace of learning is beyond what you can imagine as well as the time spent studying, any masters or PhD program is much easier than medical school if you look at how much material you must learn and how quickly you must learn it. You will also have classes that are required that have very little to do with learning medicine that will also take up much of your time. Medical school also does not have or easily offer many accommodations for learning differences that would be available to you at other programs (I do not know if you would need them).

Two, liking medicine and diseases and wanting to help people is very different than working as a doctor. Working with patients requires you to act compassionate always, to always smile, to be ultra empathetic, highly social, very careful of not being rude and blunt etc and this can be extraordinarily difficult for someone with AS. this is the reason I left medical school. I was much happier in a research position in epidemiology as I felt I was helping people and I was working with medicine and diseases.

Please do not take my warnings to mean you ought not go to medical school. Just examine if it will work for you. I did not know I had AS when I went to med school, and it was through the problems I had coping with it that I was diagnosed. If you feel that pursuing medicine is for you, do not let your age be a hindrance, go for it with gusto. Even if you did not need accommodations previously in school, ask the medical school what accommodations and support they offer, this will help you succeed. Shadow doctors in a variety of specialties (call them up say you are wanting to go to medical school and ask if you can shadow them, most will say yes, besides you need to do this for most medical schools to consider you as an applicant). Do not get caught up in the medicine they practice (like I did, saying "Oh, this is so cool"), but pay attention to how the doctor interacts with the patient and ask yourself if you can see yourself doing that.

Good luck no matter what you do.


_________________
__ /(. . )


OliveOilMom
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Nov 2011
Age: 60
Gender: Female
Posts: 11,447
Location: About 50 miles past the middle of nowhere

22 Oct 2012, 8:06 pm

Talk to some of the people in the advisors office first. I say this because my Midwife's husband taught at the medical school at the university where we used to live. He had been teaching there for several years. He was in his mid 30's I'd guess. He applied to the medical school because he decided he wanted to do more than teach and they wouldn't let him because he was too old.

So, I'd say the sooner the better. Talk to someone at the medical school first. In the admissions office. I wouldn't think 30 is too late, but I'd be worried about trying much later than that.


_________________
I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA. ;-)

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com


Dantac
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jan 2008
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,672
Location: Florida

22 Oct 2012, 10:12 pm

pawelk1986 wrote:
I am 26 years studying library science, but medicine has always interested me,

In school, I was never good at math, other subjects went good for me.

I want be a doctor to help others, I wonder if I'm not too old for that:-)


Its never too old to do anything. The question you need to ask yourself is if you can pull it off.

Med school is 7 years full time for all purposes. After that you have to spend like 2 years or so as an intern just to get an 'entry level' job as a doctor. Specialization takes another 5 to 6 years of study.

and its insanely expensive.



Stargazer43
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Nov 2011
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,604

22 Oct 2012, 11:02 pm

It's possible, but it's an extremely long and difficult road. Long and brutally competitive admissions process and pretty grueling hours required once you get in...not for the faint of heart.



littlelily613
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Feb 2011
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,608
Location: Canada

27 Oct 2012, 12:18 am

30 is still quite young! Some people go to medical school as their second career choice once they've already worked a long time and raised families. If that is what you are interested in; go for it! I bet you definitely won't be the oldest in your class!


_________________
Diagnosed with classic Autism
AQ score= 48
PDD assessment score= 170 (severe PDD)
EQ=8 SQ=93 (Extreme Systemizer)
Alexithymia Quiz=164/185 (high)


WantToHaveALife
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Sep 2012
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,018
Location: California, United States

21 Apr 2015, 12:24 pm

i'm 27 and i hope it would not be too late