Applying to Medical School as a Non-Traditional Student

Applying to medical school as a non-traditional student can be filled with uncertainty. Will I get accepted? Will I be the only one my age or with children? Will I be able to keep up with my peers? The process lends itself to feeling a great amount of imposter syndrome. As a non-traditional student with 8 gap years, I can tell you a lot of these fears are unfounded. I’m surrounded by colleagues who are in their 30s and 40s, changing careers, or have degrees in completely unrelated fields. If you are applying this current cycle, or newly accepted into medical school, here’s a couple reassurances as you begin your journey. 

Your “stats” aren’t everything.

There are so many well qualified medical school applicants, and that creates a lot of pressure to feel like you need a 4.0 GPA and perfect MCAT score, but having those two things alone will not make you a great medical student or doctor. A strong academic foundation is an asset, but becoming a doctor requires a great amount of resilience, empathy, and humanism. What you’ve accomplished in your life experiences during gap years or in fields outside of healthcare can lend itself to becoming a true asset in your care for patients.

Focus on what makes you stand out.

You may have had a career and family before deciding to attend medical school. Or perhaps traveled the world. While it may feel like all these things are working against you, there are several aspects of medicine that are not easily taught in the classroom. Say you are currently working a full-time job with two kids at home and are worried that you lack the clinical and research experiences of your peers. It sounds like you’ve developed time-management, leadership, and several other qualities that make for an excellent doctor.

Your "why" medicine is likely to carry you through.

Medical school will inevitably become difficult at one point or another, or several times. When the going gets tough, your “why” is what is going to keep you motivated. By pursuing medicine later in life and changing careers, there is usually a deep sense of purpose in becoming a physician as it is inevitably more difficult to walk away from the career that you’ve built to start again. Whatever that reason is means you are called to this and are exactly where you are supposed to be in medicine.

Being a non-traditional student is becoming a little more traditional than you might think. And oftentimes, the things that make you a non-traditional student are the same factors that make you the best medical student and future doctor! The biggest factor stopping you from achieving your goals is your own mindset and the beliefs and fears that you’ll never be able to accomplish something in comparison to your peers. The fear of failure. Don’t let the fact that you’ve decided to change careers, have a family, or have had “too many” gap years stop you from chasing your dreams. All of those factors bring a valuable skillset to your future career in medicine and there is a place for you here.