A non-traditional applicant?

Although I haven’t been religiously following the forum, I’ve been going through a lot of the posts on SDN (Student Doctor Network) since I’ve finally decided that the MD was my ultimate goal in life (next to being the sexiest nerd ever, but I digress). Researching medical schools, comparing credentials, and MCAT studying has been daunting to say the least, so it’s nice to know that this is a struggle shared by many.

Grouping things allows me to better understand things better. I’ve been reading through the pre-med and non-trad forums (obv. I’d be reading the MCAT forum) and again it’s so comforting to know that I’m not the only one struggling. However the two striking differences I see from the pre-med and non-trad forums is that the pre-meds consist of current college students while the non-trad consists of those that have already made a name for themselves but are returning to go back to school. So where do I stand?

Obviously both are pre-meds because they are in the process of taking out that “pre” prefix. Ha, word play. Part of me is the non-traditional applicant because I didn’t begin the pre-application process until after I’ve graduated from college. Although it has only been “the real world” in 3-4 months, I’ve still experienced things I wouldn’t have had I been in school. I have a year or two to do whatever I want (within reason of course) before I give my life to medicine. But my college prep has been in the sciences, more specifically biology, so I can definitely group myself as pre-med. I was pre-health going into school until I realized how much I loved being the lab rat sophomore year, thus initiating my tug-of-war between research and medicine.

I hate not being able to answer my own question. But the introspection is necessary in order to figure out what the hell your next step should be.

My next step? Go to bed. Then study genetics in the morning.