Session 61

Our question this week comes directly from OldPreMeds forums. Our poster wants to know how adcoms will view his or her application as a 50-year-old.

OldPreMeds Question of the Week:

"I am 50+ years old and I have a deep desire to apply to medical school. Although I majored in biology and acquired a Master's in biology over 20 years ago, I have done so to pursue clinical research and biotechnology. However, I recently completed a Master's in Health Technology and the new medical initiatives in reform of Medical Care through the ACA has really sparked my interest to serve as a physician, making healthcare accessible to all. Is it practical for one over 50 to apply to medical school? How favorable does the admissions committee look at older medical applicants?"

Here are my insights: [01:45] Health Care Access to All

Making healthcare accessible to all is a great desire but a physician has a small part in that. It's good for a policy maker like getting involved through an MPH in making policy and figuring out how to better help the community access healthcare.

A physician, however, has a very small role in making healthcare accessible to all. You can actually make it accessible to a small percentage of patients you see. While you may be serving those underserved, it is still a small portion of the total population.

Think about your desires and what it is that you truly want to do.Figure out if it really is being a physician that will make that difference. Being a physician, you only get to take care of one patient at a time so making health care "accessible to all" doesn't really fit into that. If you truly want to be a physician then great but I would question your motives to be a physician if your desire is to make healthcare accessible to all. Think through that.

[03:22] Health Care Reform

This post was posted on December 2016 after Donald Trump had won the election before he had taken the oath and became President and had signed the Executive Orders to start dismantling the Affordable Care Act. If you're interested in medicine because of what the ACA has done, realize that it's going to look totally different by the time you become a doctor.

I have to warn you based on your current ideas and thoughts because if you're applying because you love the ACA and you want to make healthcare accessible to all, medicine is going to look completely different by the time you apply to medical school as well as by the time you get out and start practicing and go through residency and so on.

You really have to do this for the right reason, which is usually to take care of patients one at a time regardless of how the healthcare system looks.

[04:50] Question on Age

Your age is going to raise some yellow flags, which means people are going to question your desires because they want to make sure you're doing this for the right reasons. Some medical schools will be biased and would not want to accept you due to your age. Why give a spot to a 50 years old when they can give it to a 20+ years old that's going to have 30 years more work than you may have? So there will be this kind of thoughts out there. But every year, we hear stories of 50-year-old's or even 60-year-old's starting medical school. So it is possible.

Go back and listen to The Premed Years Podcast Session 11, where I interviewed Kate, a 56-year-old third year medical student so she started medical school at 53.

[06:15] My Final Thoughts

I encourage you to continue on exploring why you want to go through this and if this is what you really want then push full steam ahead. Some school might frown upon it, other schools are going to look highly upon it. But it only takes one school to say yes. So keep digging and keep pushing forward if that is what you're really interested in.

[07:07] MCAT Prep Help

If you need help with MCAT prep, I highly recommend Next Step Test Prep. They are known for their one-on-one tutoring, which is what I would have gone through for MCAT prep if I had to do it all over again. With basically the same price as an in-person Kaplan or Princeton review, Next Step can give you a one-on-one tutor to help you figure out how to take the MCAT. Use the code MSHQ to save some money on their tutoring, full-length practice tests, and their new online course. Plus you get live office hours with the people that wrote that test.

Links:

OldPreMeds Next Step Test Prep (Use the code MSHQ to save money)

The Premed Years Podcast Session 11: Interview with a 56-Year-Old Medical Student

Affordable Care Act

The Premed Years Podcast

The MCAT Podcast

Specialty Stories Podcast

MedEd Media Network

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