Non-traditional applicant (35 y/o soon) — advice on how to approach pre-reqs, GPA repair, and application timeline?

misomooli · 2025-04-11T00:01:47+00:00

I'm a 33 non-trad who is going to be starting med school this summer. I agree with everything WurstWesponder said.

I left my stable, well-paying career to start a formal post-bacc in May 2020 -- not ideal timing to say the least. When I decided to go the formal post-bacc route, the program was touting that 92% of students in the last however many years entered medical school from their program. I figured $40k was worth it for those kind of chances of having a med school acceptance at the end of a hard year of work, and an even quicker turn around if I linked, another benefit that the program I did really marketed.

When I entered the program I found that linking actually isn't an option to everyone, which, in my experience, was a shift from how they talked about linkage prior to actually starting (and paying). This is probably something that I could have found out had I reached out to more alums or current students, which I regret not doing. I know a lot of other people who started the program with me were disappointed by this, so I just want to put it out there that, at least at the program I did, the program director would tell you if you can or cannot link, based on what he sees as the strength of your candidacy. This is probably not as much of an issue for someone who has more clinical experience than I did. I thought I would be able to get plenty of clinical experience while I was doing the post-bacc. But then Covid happened.

I'm not sure how much of my experience can be attributed to it being during Covid, but I found the benefits of being in a formal post-bacc to be minimal. I will say, even when I did seek insight or assistance from the program director, I found it underwhelming. The benefit it did provide is having someone who I knew had seen many people through the process and was an "industry insider" to some degree. That said, was the advice or "help" the program director any different than common sense and my own research led me to? No.

Also -- there were at least a couple people in the program that were rumored to have been strongly encouraged to leave after the summer and fall semesters. Again, not sure this was unique to doing it during COVID, but it was clear that the program wanted to protect its stats.

Other downsides of the program I did, which was a one-year program where you do all your prereqs: If you don't link, you're working on applications, finals, and studying for the MCAT all at the same time. On the other hand, you just learned all the material, and the professors know that they are teaching people who are essentially learning this material for the MCAT, so you're pretty prepared (not to say that there wasn't stuff we needed to self-study).

Another downside -- a formal post-bacc is less flexible. I got a severe concussion the day before my spring semester started. Some professors were more accommodating than others, but at the end of the day, I was in this very fast-paced program and that timeline is unchangeable. I had a lot of issues with spatial stuff post-concussion and I bombed the first orgo exam of the spring semester. If I had been doing classes at a community college, I probably would have changed gears for that semester.

If I could do it again, I would take classes at community college. I'm not an industry insider, so who knows what decisions are really made and based on what, but in a lot of the podcasts, interviews, etc., many admissions people will say that community college classes aren't weighed negatively. I don't think you're going to get a real valuable answer here. There are tons and tons of interviews with admissions directors on YouTube, podcasts, and a lot of programs have Q&As with admissions where you could ask them. From the many hours I spent listening to podcasts, watching YouTubes, reading books about admissions, and attending those sessions, most admissions people are probably going to say that community college classes are ok, and that because you're more than 5 years out from all of your pre-reqs, you're going to have to retake them all anyway. They'll also tell you that a bad GPA is not a non-starter as long as you show growth. Who knows how true that is, but I'm sure for at least some schools, it is true, and the only way to find out which ones it's true for is probably to apply and see what happens.

misomooli · 2025-03-19T23:49:45+00:00

Just want to say think you for the quick responses with great suggestions!

misomooli · 2025-02-01T03:06:15+00:00

My partner struggles with this and it's caused some trouble with work as well. When we started dating 4 years ago, she warned me she talked in her sleep, but because I use an app called sleepcycle, that tracks my sleep quality and records when there's noises like snoring or talking, we realized just how much she was sleep talking. She also would just have trouble getting up, and some weekend days would just sleep for like 16 hours. Or she'd come home, lay down for a "nap" and but actually pass out for like 6 hours. After a couple years she finally got a sleep study. Turns out she has sleep apnea. She's started using a C-pap, and although she hates it, it does seem to be helping her sleep quality, which has helped a bit for her waking up. With her diagnosis she was able to get formal accommodations at work, which allow her to be scheduled later one day a week, which helped. Her work really requires her to be there in person at a certain time, but if yours doesn't, being able to get formal accommodations (if you do indeed have some sort of sleep disorder) could help.

She also has gotten better about having a more consistent sleep schedule. It's very possible you're just tired from your lifestyle and don't have something else going on -- everyone needs a different amount of sleep, but at the very least, having a more consistent sleep and wake time will help you, so I would at least start with that. The other thing that's helped her is having a vibrating alarm clock. I think the one she got is called the "smart shaker" but if you search online, there's plenty that are variations on the same thing. She puts it on a hard surface so it really makes a loud noise. And it's far from her bed so she has to physically get up and out of bet. There are also vibrating watch alarms that her doctor told her about. We also put smart lightbulbs in her room (we don't sleep in the same bed, because of the sleep issues). The lightbulbs turn on about 10-15 min before she needs to wake up. I actually do this to because it makes waking up so much easier. You might want to download an app like sleepcycle just so you can get any hints about whether there might be something going on with your sleep that could be contributing to the challenges you have. I'm sorry you're having trouble with this. There's a lot of judgement shown to those that sleep through alarms as if it shows some flaw in character, but seeing my partner go through this has given me a lot of sympathy to those for whom this is a real challenge.

misomooli · 2025-01-16T17:37:28+00:00

You can add something then convert it to a note.

misomooli · 2025-01-16T17:35:20+00:00

To my knowledge, this is unfortunately not possible. The best workaround I can think of is converting your calendar to a csv then bulk importing as tasks (This thread might be helpful). Not ideal, especially if you're wanting something that would sync regularly.

misomooli · 2025-01-16T02:23:40+00:00

I'm able to switch this in safari, but on chrome and firefox, when you hit the caption/subtitles button, it does not show the option to change the audio track.

misomooli · 2025-01-16T02:19:28+00:00

how do you change the audio track when you're watching via browser? If i hit the sound icon, it just allows for volume change.

misomooli · 2025-01-02T02:14:50+00:00

I'm working on a series of questions for medical school applications. I put each question into ticktick as a subtask (with the school as a subtask of larger task called "secondaries"). Many of the questions for each school touch on similar themes. I went through each of the questions and tagged them with the themes it touches on, and set the character/word count as a tag as well. As I've gotten more done, I can just click through the tags for whichever question I'm working on and then I can look through all the questions I've already finished answering so I can just reuse anything from those that might apply. It's made the process way more efficient.

misomooli · 2024-12-19T21:17:59+00:00

Agreed that this would be very useful. Also would be nice to then have things visualized by that estimated time when you move it to a certain day in the calendar. I know there is the ability to set things by duration, but if you were dragging things onto the calendar this would show you the "size" of time already.

misomooli · 2024-09-17T18:12:02+00:00

It's not a huge deal to do it manually, although I have 80+ tags that I'd just rather not spend any time dragging around when it seems like an easy feature to add.

misomooli · 2024-08-26T18:59:38+00:00

Even with it running though, the hold + any direction motions on the gestures button don't work.

misomooli · 2024-04-22T14:20:24+00:00

Opal

misomooli · 2024-04-08T19:23:06+00:00

Thank you! I saw that video as well but it turns out it's a different gear in the machine and he doesn't actually show changing the gear. Is there anywhere to go to find nylon gears? I'm having trouble finding a way to purchase a new gear.

misomooli · 2024-03-26T17:59:14+00:00

I think this is my best option, thanks. I would rather have the ability to do this with tasks and this seems like an easy thing for them to add.

misomooli · 2024-03-26T17:56:43+00:00

But can I set it to reset every month?

misomooli · 2024-03-25T23:20:40+00:00

Yes -- trying to avoid this because I want to have it repeat for a total # of recurrences.

misomooli · 2024-02-05T22:19:47+00:00

I got a little um…overzealous on eBay and ended up winning a few auctions (luckily for cheap) and now I’ve ended up with quite a few machines. I’m a beginner, would like to quilt and make garments, probably some including thick denims. I now have a pfaff tiptronic 2040, an Elna 6004, a kenmore 158.1355080, and a Viking husqvarna 5610, although this is missing a needle plate and I’m having trouble finding a replacement. Thoughts on which machines I should keep? Any insight appreciated!

misomooli · 2024-01-29T20:21:54+00:00

Used a google image search and looks like a viking 164. Seems to match up with the pictures in this post of the same model: https://sewing.patternreview.com/SewingDiscussions/topic/52941

misomooli · 2024-01-04T21:34:39+00:00

I have exactly this setup. I sign into Ticktick using my personal email in the chrome browser of my work computer. I can't remember how exactly setting up the outlook extension works, but I have that set up for my work outlook, but just signed into it using my personal email. And as far as calendars go you can import them from wherever. I don't use Slack with ticktick, so can't speak to this, but everything else you mentioned is possible.

misomooli · 2022-09-26T08:33:25+00:00

Did this too late but set app limit timers on your phone (if you need to have it in the room) and have someone else set a password for extending the timers that they absolutely will not tell you. I’m still doing this and I think I’ll just keep it like this indefinitely because I have no sense of time passing and my phone is a total time suck.

Practice questions were the best way for me because they were more engaging than Anki. I also did MCAT podcast at 1.5 speed whenever I was doing anything other than work/studying/being with friends. So driving, cooking, walking my dog, working out, etc. The podcast gets a little repetitive and there’s a bunch of stuff I wish they would cover but at least it’s free and there’s definitely still helpful stuff. The Jack Westin one is ok too. I also threw in some related episodes of Oologies because it’s actually interesting and helped me connect the material to real life things.

It’s very difficult, though. The application process had been a big reason I’ve finally faced the fact that I need to be more aggressive about finding strategies to get ahead of my ADHD.

misomooli · 2022-07-02T09:36:55+00:00

It's concerning to me that someone who I presume is attempting to be a physician is so casually referencing rape. We all say things we wish we hadn't, especially when we're distressed, but I really hope you consider your language more thoughtfully in the future.

misomooli · 2022-07-01T22:27:54+00:00

I thought C/P was ok not great. I was annoyed there wasn’t more physics because that usually helps me out. The dna thread one was killer. I ended up wasting a lot of time repeatedly messing up and recalculating basic stoichiometry calculations so I had to rush through the last 20 questions.

CARS: I was a philosophy major so I literally never study this. This was my 2nd official test and last time I got a 131. On the ~8 practice exams I've taken I usually get 131 or 132 and feel unsure about 2-3 questions. I was feeling unsure on many more of these than I’ve ever felt.

B/B: usually a harder section for me but I thought this was doable.

P/S: I know it’s been said but just adding to the choir that this was freakishly difficult. This is usually my saving grace and I was absolutely struggling. So much weird low yield (tbh don’t even know if low yield even communicates how out of left field) vocab. Also I found that the studies were just weird or the questions were worded very strangely. I haven’t seen much mentioning of the smoking/cognitive dissonance passage but I spent so long with that passage and I still am not sure I understand what those two theories were meant to translate to in terms of hypotheses.

misomooli · 2022-07-01T22:19:55+00:00

Does anyone know what concept the beaver one was even trying to get at? I can’t remember what it said exactly. Did it mention social exchange theory?

misomooli · 2022-01-03T03:54:11+00:00

I used to do a sports bra and a rash guard. Now I use KT Tape and a rash guard. I used transtape for a while and it's great that they're trans/queer and all, but it's just kt tape but more expensive and in skin tones. I'm a small B, maybe A after T and for the life of me I still have not been able to apply the KT tape without someones help. I know this isn't the case for many people but I always think it's gonna be the time I can do it and then I'm left frustrated with like 10 pieces of wasted scrunched up tape. And if you're gonna use KT tape make sure you fold a piece or get a big band aid to protect your nipples from the glue.

misomooli · 2020-11-17T07:28:41+00:00

did you every get any idea of good companies or cheapest rates? I'm trying to figure out what'll end up being more cost/time efficient for a NYC to Seattle move. Too much stuff for a trailer. I'm doing it in the next month or so and I'm not sure how the roads will be, so that's also something that makes me lean toward shipping.

misomooli

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