applying at age 36: anyone else done it? am I competitive?

Thanks, I hope you do well. I highly recommend taking the free MCAT at emcat.com and paying to do a few others as well. I got essentially the same marks as I did when I did the practice. These are actually old MCAT tests.

Check out the waitlist thread on the Calgary topic and you will see people who were waitlisted with similar scores, so I know I still have my work cut out for me to get in. Autobiographical essays are going to be a challenge (notice the "O" and "P") and interviews are going to be the real test for me. When someone asks a totally off the wall question I shudder to think what innappropriate responses might emerge from my mouth.

Ha ha. You shoud put some of those crazy answers in this thread to get them out of your system. Just don't look for any pointers in the other answers.... (although most of the questions are common interview ones).

mock interview thread

age- 26
education- BSc Biology &
gpa. 3.6
education- LLB (law degree) and called to the bar..
mcat.. 8 10 12 Q
.. locked in a room.. doing due diligence..wanted to literally jump out the window and had an epiphany/awakening and decided to go to medical school.. applied all over ontario and alberta.. only got an interview at u of c.. and got in.

Good for you. You are almost too young to be posting here

Now I am realizing a new problem - I have to play detective and track down all these different contacts, some from 15 years ago. That will probably decide which EC's make it on my list. I've never been one to keep in touch. Thank god for the Google.

[SkyeJ]

So someone who becomes a family doc at 28 has, say, 40 years to practice medicine till he or she is about 68 but someone at 43 will be at retirement 10 years later at 53 .

Money concerns are legitimate for non-trads (and trads as well), I know it is for me as someone hoping to start med school at 34. But I would hardly think of his decision as a waste of time and money. Some of us have worked for decades before med school and paid taxes and will borrow an arm and a leg now to become docs. Not everyone retires at 55.

Unless you plan to relocate to the North upon graduation, don't use that weak argument of underservice to discourage others. There aren't droves of 35/40 year olds taking the spots of deserving 22 year olds and the doctor shortage is of great complexity

Originally Posted by bestknightmare

I dont mean to be such a pest, but you are 36, assuming u apply next year @37, you will finish at 41....u will finish residency at 43..so u can pratice for 10 years and then about time to retire..

would u want to waste the money and time? if assuming u dont have the money to raise your family now, how will u get the money to go into med sch

also..in the view of society, especially canada that is in urgent need of doctors, dont waste a spot for others that can service for another 30-40 years.

[muchdutch]

Originally Posted by SkyeJ

Unless you plan to relocate to the North upon graduation, don't use that weak argument of underservice to discourage others. There aren't droves of 35/40 year olds taking the spots of deserving 22 year olds and the doctor shortage is of great complexity

Yes, it is quite a bit more complex than just years of service/underservice provided as a result of age. I know of a few (okay, two) docs who are starting their young families. As a result they are choosing to not work full-time (whether that's job sharing or just picking their hours, I don't know). So you may get younger docs who want to start their families and spend time with them and enjoy a slower lifestyle, the older docs may be willing to work more because their families are already grown. In that case it would be advantageous to have older, non-trad applicants....

[anatomist]

http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13227

There are some more anecdotes about longer careers in the above thread. I asked for the same reason, counting the years, etc.
Cheers,

Kevin

[drcave]

Just in case anyone out there cares, , I have interviews at UBC and Calgary - the two schools with the best access to caves.

Any of you other geezers get interviews?

[brut33]

It is a little early for me to be thinking of retiring? I don't even have an interview yet!!

Best of luck to everyone. I thinkw e are all better prepared for medicine in so many ways than many of our traditional applciant counterparts. Alas, we are at the mercy of the system and can only count on our credentials to make this happen now.

[paulos]

Hi folks...

Personally, I think it's better starting medicine later.
I began at 20, then decided to drop out and grow.
I've been doing that for 15 years now, and I think I'll go back, if they'll let me (it's a lot more competitive now).
Don't worry about money, there's plenty of ways to finance med school.
And don't do it for the money... it's not a good long-term motivator and you'll only end up in the grumbler pile.
If you do it, know that it's some of the best people you'll ever know, but also some of the most competitive (as yourselves, perhaps).
So keep up with friends, family and life in general, or you'll find you hit a wall when the work is a mountain (believe me, you've never seen this much reading... in second year, after only two months, I had a stack of notes from notetaking over a foot high, not to mention texts).
For those who got interviews, don't sweat it, you've got more than enough life experience, for those who didn't, don't sweat it, there's a plan for you, maybe just keep trying.
See you in the Fall, Lord willing.