Non Traditional Medical Student

The admissions office at UMHS brings 46 years of combined experience working with “non-traditional” students and navigating them through the application process, academics, and matching process for residency positions. Interested in learning more? Check out the Carribean Medical School Guide for more information about this alternative path to your dreams.

Why I Recommend Being a Non-Traditional Student in Medical School

Learn from a non-traditional medical student on how and why she decided to change career paths.

“It’s been 8 years since I’ve finished my bachelor’s degree. How will I ever compete with a more traditional medical student?” This is the primary thought I had running through my head as I made the decision to leave a successful career to pursue my life-long dream of medicine. What makes up a non-traditional medical student? A non-traditional medical student often has two or more gap years between their bachelor’s degree and medical school matriculation. It is becoming increasingly common to take a gap year or two in efforts to strengthen your application. During this time students may gain extra clinical or research experiences, shadow or volunteer in medicine, or in my case build an entire career and become better known as a “career-changer.” I must admit, having eight gap years and a stable career and deciding I wanted to pursue medical school was daunting and filled with imposter syndrome. I can say with certainty now that waiting to pursue medical school until later in life truly has made me a better medical student.

In my case, I had always wanted to become a doctor; yes, I was the kid at five years old saying I wanted to be a doctor when I grew up, and if it was in the cards I likely would have applied immediately after my bachelor’s degree. An assortment of life and family obligations as well as the financial cost of applying and attending medical school at the time pushed me into my career as a Nutritionist, and over time I had accepted a few promotions and advanced my career into healthcare management. I can say with confidence that I was successful at what I did, but I was becoming less and less happy in my career, and life is far too short to spend it in a career that doesn’t fill you with purpose and passion. Eight years later, I still knew that I wanted to become a doctor, and as my career took me farther away from patient interactions, the timing was right to take the leap of faith and pursue medical school.

The Benefits of Pursuing Medical School as a Non-Traditional Student

Your “Why” as a Non-traditional Student

I was without a doubt sure of my decision. I knew I had always wanted to become a doctor, and while early on in my career working as a nutritionist and health educator, my days were filled with one-on-one patient interactions. I loved working directly with patients and seeing improvements in their health. As my career progressed into management roles, spending most of my time behind a desk with a team of healthcare staff seeing patients instead of myself, there was no doubt in my mind that I had to get myself out from behind the desk and return to seeing patients. Having this knowledge carries me through the hard times in medical school. When I am having a hard day with an exam coming up or feeling overwhelmed by the workload, it’s the fact that I know I was unhappy in my previous career and not wanting to go back to that that keeps me pushing forward.

Breadth of Experiences as a Non-Traditional Student

As a career-changer with a significant number of gap years, the true benefit of this is having a variety of roles within my career as well as life experiences. Working in direct patient care as well as management exposed me to a range of clinical settings and perspectives. In multiple roles I had served in meetings as part of the interdisciplinary care team, gaining the clinical approach from different members of the health care team. While all members of the healthcare team serve a valuable role, this solidified for me my choice to pursue an MD over PA, Nursing, or other clinical roles. It was learning about myself in management positions that I did enjoy leadership, as well as direct patient interaction, that I wanted to become a leader in a patient’s healthcare.

Develop Relationships as a Non-Traditional Student

One of the most important factors in a medical school application is having strong letters of recommendation. Having spent several years within each position and company allowed me to develop long-term relationships with individuals I reported to, healthcare professionals, a professor who supported me through my master’s thesis, and co-workers. They were able to provide comments on my dedication, work ethic, and commitment over a length of time demonstrating why I did not make the decision to attend medical school lightly, and my capability to set and achieve goals for myself.

Conclusion

Non-traditional students and those taking gap years are becoming increasingly common amongst medical school applicants. This enables students to gain valuable clinical and life experiences that cannot be gained from the classroom or immediately following a bachelor’s degree. The value of additional exposure to the medical field during research, career, or life cannot be understated.

For all the future doctors that have been doubting if they are capable of returning to school after several gap years or a career in an entirely different field, know that those life experiences hold far more value in making you a competitive applicant and the odds are that you have a solid reason behind pursuing this dream and therefore would make an ideal medical student.

Want to read more from Eden. Check out her other blogs.

Traditional vs. Non-Traditional Medical Students: What’s the Difference?

Pursuing a medical degree can be a daunting task, especially if you don’t fit the stereotypical mold of a pre-med student. Whether it’s because of lower grades or test scores, an unaligned educational background, or even an accelerated age, you may feel there are very few opportunities to achieve your dreams as a non-traditional medical student.

It’s important, however, for prospective students to understand what a non-traditional student is and why it shouldn’t hold you back in your career pursuits. But what is a non-traditional student? Can you still go to medical school if you’re considered “non-traditional”? Can you get a residency? Can you be successful? In short, you absolutely can!

What Is a Traditional Medical Student?

Think of a pre-med student. You might be envisioning a straight A’s student in their early twenties with a degree in biology or chemistry. While in school they’re involved in research work and bulk up their resume and application with volunteer community service. They’ve established their pre-med track with a college advisor who recommends next steps and institutions that best fit their interests. They apply, get in, and move on to a successful career relatively early in life.

According to Marie McGillycuddy, Vice President of Admissions at UMHS, “this is what the world tags as ‘traditional.’”

What Is a Non-Traditional Medical Student?

Everyone else, outside of this framework, is considered “non-traditional.” Looking at the requirements of traditional students it comes as no surprise that a large majority of individuals wanting to pursue a career in medicine are considered non-traditional.

This can be comforting if you’re unsure of your chances to succeed in the highly competitive field of medicine. Just because you’re classified as non-traditional doesn’t mean you can’t succeed. In fact, McGillycuddy goes as far as saying “‘non-traditional’ is now the ‘traditional.’”

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The Key Differences

Even though traditional and non-traditional students pursuing a medical career can achieve the same success, there are some stark differences between the two. It’s important to be aware of these differences so you can better understand how to leverage your “unconventional path” when applying for residencies and jobs.

1. Background

One of the biggest differences between traditional and non-traditional medical students is their background. Non-traditional applicants often come from more diverse backgrounds that may have contributed to the need for an alternative path.

For example, prospective students who speak a foriegn language and learn English much later in life aren’t usually able to attend medical school at the “traditional,” young age. These students need a few additional years to properly acclimate before entering the rigorous environment of medical school.

Some students who have an easier time breaking through the barriers that exist around medical school—because of family legacy or academic success—might struggle when it comes to finding a residency though. Patrick McCormick, Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs, explains that “your story automatically is more unique than a traditional story . . . The perspective at the residency level is different from the perspective of the admissions level when it comes to who is traditionally afforded a privilege to travel this path . . . They’re looking for your story.” In the end, these life experiences set you apart from other applicants and could lead to more success outside of medical school.

2. Experience

Unlike the traditional path to medical school, many prospective medical students don’t apply right after their undergraduate degree. In fact, some don’t even work in the medical field, pursuing careers like finance, accounting, and more. At first glance this might seem like a major disadvantage when pursuing a medical career, but McCormick says otherwise. “Those types of candidates have many more attributes that they can present to the next level. Then it can actually set them apart and strengthen their application rather than with traditional students.”

Not only that, career changers are often viewed as courageous and admirable. McCormick goes further on to say, “if you have the courage at 28, 30, whatever, to then change course and go all the way back and say, ‘this is what I’ve done, and this is what I want to do.’ Isn’t that a more impressive, courageous decision than to stick with whatever you got?”

3. Age

Many non-traditional students are considered “older” compared to traditional students. Most fall in the 30s to 40s age range, but there are instances where students even older than that try to pursue their dreams of practicing medicine.

To many older students thinking about applying to medical school, the age difference is intimidating. You might feel that it’s either too late, or you have fallen too far behind. The admissions staff at UMHS could not disagree more. “People who seek medicine, having recognized what they were doing isn’t what they want now. Wouldn’t you trust people with that motivation over a 21 year old, who’s always been destined to go into medicine because of family or expectations?”

Instead of seeing old age as a setback, it’s important to see the major advantages you have over younger, less experienced applicants—especially in the interview process for residencies. “Who do you think has an advantage in that situation? A 22 year old who’s never been interview[ed] or a 30 year old who . . . understands how to be a professional?” McCormick urges students of accelerated ages to remember that if you’re invited to interview for a residency, that hospital or facility has already said “yes” to your experience—including your age.

It’s All About Authenticity

In any competitive field it’s important to make yourself stand out from other applicants. To UMHS, it comes down to one question: What’s your story? Whether you’re 30 years old, started another career outside of the medical field, or have a background outside of the stereotypical doctor, think about how you can use your experiences to your advantage!

The admissions office at UMHS brings 46 years of combined experience working with “non-traditional” students and navigating them through the application process, academics, and matching process for residency positions. Interested in learning more? Check out the Carribean Medical School Guide for more information about this alternative path to your dreams.

You can also watch UMHS’s live stream discussion on “Non-Traditional Students” to get a better sense of how non-traditional applicants can have an advantage in today’s changing healthcare landscape.

With the right tools, you can be successful. As McCormick explains, “we’ve had so many stories where students have been able to convert this moment into success through one thing: authenticity.”

About UMHS:

Built in the tradition of the best U.S. universities, the University of Medicine and Health Sciences focuses on individual student attention, maintaining small class sizes and recruiting high-quality faculty. We call this unique approach, “personalized medical education,” and it’s what has led to our unprecedented 96% student retention rate, and outstanding residency placements across the USA and Canada.

Ryan is the Director of Marketing at UMHS. He holds a Masters in Public Health from the University of Southern California and a BA in Marketing from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also a musician an avid outdoorsman.